Curated playlist
Alumni of King's College London
- John KeatsJohn Keats asked for a tombstone with no name on it. He died in Rome at 25, sure he had failed as a poet.
- Virginia WoolfVirginia Woolf's father let her read whatever she liked in his vast library.
- Thomas HardyThomas Hardy's heart and ashes were buried in two different places. The Abbey got his ashes, Stinsford his heart.
- Andrew LambertHistorian Andrew Lambert holds a chair named for the scholar whose reputation he worked to restore.
- Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. Clarke never patented his satellite idea. He called a patent "a licence to be sued."
- John RuskinA jury awarded painter Whistler one farthing in his libel suit against critic John Ruskin.
- Desmond TutuDesmond Tutu, the South African Anglican archbishop who spent decades confronting apartheid, asked to be laid to rest in a plain pine coffin. It was the cheapest one available, chosen to avoid any ostentatious display. He died of cancer on…
- Nick BostromPhilosopher Nick Bostrom warns an AI told to make humans smile might wire electrodes into faces.
- Henry MorleyCharles Dickens read Henry Morley's satirical articles and invited him to London in 1850.
- Sarojini NaiduSarojini Naidu led India's Salt March campaign after Gandhi was arrested. She had persuaded him to let women march.
- Louis SlotinAt 3:20 on the afternoon of the 21st of May 1946, Louis Slotin stood in a laboratory at Los Alamos. The air around him suddenly glowed blue. Everyone in the room felt a wave of heat roll across them. Slotin tasted something sour, and his…