There is no end to boastfulness this week, I'm afraid (see The best sort of Beard). Not only was I touched to be made a Freeman Honoris Causa by the 650-year-old Vintners' Company in the City of London on Tuesday (the 27th ever and only the fourth woman, Baroness Thatcher having been the third) but I am also extremely honoured to be the sole subject of the 30-minute classic BBC Radio 4 Food Programme at 12.30 pm this Sunday 12 May (repeated at 3.30 pm Monday 13 May).
The award-winning Food Programme has been a staple of the BBC R4 schedule for years and has championed all sorts of worthwhile food- and drink-related issues as well as doling out annual awards to worthy producers and retailers of food.
But earlier this year they devoted a whole programme to Sir Paul McCartney and his (vegetarian) food interests. This made the producers realise that one person could fill a programme and they accordingly followed this up with a programme about the great Indian food writer (and much else besides) Madhur Jaffrey, a star of last weekend's Ballymaloe Food and Drink Literary Festival.
I was extremely surprised, then thrilled, to be invited to be the subject of their third single-person profile and recorded a long interview a week last Tuesday. I hope that if you do listen to it, you enjoy it.
Presumably A Life through Wine: Jancis Robinson will be available virtually for ever on the BBC iPlayer.
