Emma Barnett Instagram – Today this interview I conducted with Simon Boas, the aid worker who, after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, touched many people with his writing on living, was named Interview of the Year on @bbcradio4
This was decided by the most important people I always think of when I am on air: our listeners.
It turned out to be Simon’s last broadcast interview.
And I will be forever grateful he spared the precious time and energy to talk to me and our @bbctodayprogramme listeners. I had wanted him to come on the programme ever since I started reading his columns about how to live a meaningful life penned in his local paper, the Jersey Evening Post @jepnews .
And I was thrilled when he said yes. His words about life moved me and many, many others. I shall remember and treasure our conversation for the rest of my days.
When his book, A Beginner’s Guide To Dying, was published posthumously a few months later, I had the pleasure of speaking to Simon’s devoted wife, best friend and by this point, widow, Aurelie. Equally as inspiring but still in the throes of grief, it was also a very special and humane exchange.
This week she was informed that @bbcradio4 listeners had voted for this interview to be the network’s interview of the year and was very pleased about it. She had also told me a few months ago, how happy Simon had been to be able to manage to talk to me and our listeners.
Wherever you are Simon , thank you 🙏 and for also reminding me of this quote: “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Thank you to my diligent and caring producer @catrin_manel 🙏
And thank you to @bbcradio4 listeners for this very lovely #boxingday surprise – which comes at the end of my first six months hosting the @bbctodayprogramme 🙏. It’s been quite the start….
#simonboas #wisdom #life #dying #perspective #gratitude #cancer #death #health #journalism #interview #broadcast | Posted on 27/Dec/2024 01:57:05
