In the first part of this month’s Faber podcast I talk to biographer and historian Tim Jeal about Explorers of the Nile, his account of the extraordinary quest by a small band of Victorian explorers who underwent almost unimaginable privations in order to be the first Westerner to reach the source of the White Nile. To listen to the interview, click here.

And you can listen to Tim reading extracts from the book by clicking below:

Reading 1: Dr Livingstone’s 1866 expedition to seek the source of the Nile

Reading 2: John Hanning Speke’s journey in July 1858 through a “waterless wilderness of thorn and forest” in search of the”Great Nyanza”, the great body of water that gave birth to the Nile

In part two of the October podcast, Nicholas Rankin tells me about his new book, Ian Fleming’s Commandos, a gripping account of 30 Assault Unit, which was set up by the future author of James Bond when he worked in naval intelligence during world war two. This hush-hush band of never more than 300 men amounted to a private army that was never quite approved of by the top brass. In the interview Nicholas talks about how they came to be formed, what their brief was and discusses some of their greatest successes. To listen, click here.

And Nicholas Rankin reads an extract from his book in which Ian Fleming is recruited to naval intelligence here.