Pevsner: the BBC years : listening to the visual arts

A full account of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner's engagement with the BBC at a time when both were the dominant institutions in their own fields - Pevsner as the most persuasive figure in architecture and art history, and the BBC as the country's sole broadcaster.

As a German emigré, Pevsner was not at first trusted to speak on air, and was only invited to appear at the very end of the war, in spite of his growing eminence.

With the arrival of the BBC's 'Third Programme' in 1946, however, he quickly became a broadcasting celebrity, and one whom senior BBC figures regarded as essential and novel listening.

This book looks at the sudden rise in his standing at the BBC, at what he was admired for, and at the circumstances surrounding his being commissioned, in the mid-1950s, to give the first series of Reith Lectures on an arts subject.