Curated playlist
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
- Ian MacDonaldIan MacDonald, the English music critic, was born Ian MacCormick and wrote under a name that was not quite his own. Behind the pseudonym stood a man who studied at Cambridge, edited for a music weekly, wrote song lyrics, and even played…
- Salman RushdieA fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie's execution was broadcast on Radio Tehran on Valentine's Day 1989.
- Rana MitterRana Mitter's book on China's war with Japan has different British and American titles.
- Henry Stephens SaltHenry Salt's essay on vegetarianism, found in a London restaurant, changed why Gandhi ate as he did.
- Alan TuringAlan Turing once chained his tea mug to a radiator pipe at Bletchley Park so it could not be stolen.
- Oliver Hart (economist)Economist Oliver Hart was called as a government expert witness in two tax cases.
- George SteevensGeorge Steevens edited Shakespeare and also faked a tombstone. He carved an invented Anglo-Saxon inscription for a king.
- Geoffrey HintonGeoffrey Hinton left Google in May 2023 to warn the world about AI. He had helped build the field for decades.
- Richard MarquandRichard Marquand got the Return of the Jedi job after George Lucas admired Eye of the Needle.
- Eric HobsbawmMI5 blocked Eric Hobsbawm from a BBC job in 1945 over his communism. He later became a celebrated historian.
- John Maynard KeynesAt Bretton Woods in 1944, Keynes proposed a world currency called the bancor, and the United States rejected it.
- Peter TrudgillLinguist Peter Trudgill found the Beatles pronounced fewer r sounds over the 1960s.