Malcolm Gladwell
Kirsty Young talks to writer Malcolm Gladwell.
Desert Island Discs · BBC Radio 4
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Show Notes
The writer Malcolm Gladwell is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.
Always concise, frequently counterintuitive and unexpectedly beguiling, his work orders the world in a way that gives fresh insights into human behaviour.
He believes that a knowledge of people's backgrounds is necessary to understanding their success; his own achievements may presumably then be attributed, not just to his keen mind and polished prose, but also to his parents - an English mathematician and a Jamaican psychotherapist.
He says, "I am the bird attached to the top of a very large beast, pecking away and eating the gnats.... I am someone who draws inspiration from the brilliance of others and repackages it ... I am a populariser, a simplifier and a synthesizer."
Producer: Sarah Taylor.