Curated playlist
Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
- Benjamin BrittenAfter fire destroyed his concert hall in 1969, Benjamin Britten had it rebuilt within a year.
- James ChadwickJames Chadwick signed up for physics by mistake. He meant to study mathematics, then found the neutron.
- Elton JohnElton John sang "Candle in the Wind 1997" live only once, at Princess Diana's funeral. He wrote it days before.
- Ian McKellenIan McKellen came out as gay on BBC radio in 1988, while Parliament weighed Section 28.
- Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by hiding on freight trains. It made him famous.
- John GielgudJohn Gielgud was arrested months after being knighted. Backstage in Liverpool, he feared he could not face an audience.
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
- Salman RushdieA fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie's execution was broadcast on Radio Tehran on Valentine's Day 1989.
- Clement AttleeClement Attlee told the King, "I've won the election," and the King replied that he already knew.
- Judi DenchJudi Dench won an Oscar for a role that lasted about eight minutes. She played Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
- Friedrich HayekThree days before the 1929 Wall Street crash, Friedrich Hayek wrote that no sudden collapse was expected.
- Alec GuinnessAlec Guinness privately called Star Wars "fairy-tale rubbish" in letters to friends.
- Stephen HawkingDoctors gave Stephen Hawking two years to live at age 21, but he died at 76.
- David AttenboroughAt 11, David Attenborough sold newts to a university for three pence each.
- John BuchanJohn Buchan, the Scottish novelist, ended his life as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada. In Montreal in 1937 he stood with a typed speech that reporters already held. By hand, he added the words "and to Canada's King" to a line…
- Eric HobsbawmMI5 blocked Eric Hobsbawm from a BBC job in 1945 over his communism. He later became a celebrated historian.
- Philip LarkinPhilip Larkin turned down the job of Poet Laureate in 1984. He felt he had long since stopped being a poet.
- Eric WilliamsEric Williams turned a public park into a university. In 1955 he began lecturing in Woodford Square.
- A. L. RowseA china clay worker's son from Cornwall claimed to name Shakespeare's Dark Lady.
- Richard Hamilton (artist)Richard Hamilton defined pop art in a 1957 letter to two architects. He called it expendable, witty and Big Business.