Psychiatric Bulletin (2003) 27: 470-471. doi: 10.1192/pb.27.12.470
© 2003 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatric Bulletin (2003) 27: 470-471
© 2003 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Lord Bragg
(Introduced by Professor Cornelius Katona)
Melvyn Bragg was born in 1939 in Wigton, Cumbria. He won a scholarship to
Wadham College, Oxford, where he read history. He joined the BBC as a general
trainee in 1961. Three years later, he was appointed editor of BBC2’s
first arts programme, First Release. Since then, he has become the pre-eminent
figure in arts broadcasting.
As editor and presenter of The South Bank Show and as Controller of Arts
for London Weekend Television, Melvyn Bragg is well known for his promotion of
literature and the creative and performing arts. He is equally respected for
his contribution to the public awareness of basic and social sciences and of
philosophy. He has chaired The Darwin Debate on BBC2, which looked at the
significance of evolution theory for human society and the Radio 4 series on
the history of science, On Giants’ Shoulders. He has also presented a
20-part history of Christianity on ITV. His recent radio series ‘The
Routes of English’ and current ‘In Our Time’ project are
likewise testimony to his range.
Melvyn Bragg has also achieved both popular and critical success as a
writer, again with a surprising breadth of output. As well as several
screenplays, he has written 17 novels, one of the most recent of which, The
Soldier’s Return, won the W. H. Smith Literary Award for 2000.
He has also written a biography of Richard Burton. His new novel, Crossing the
Lines was published last month. The Adventure of English 500 AD-2000
AD, a revised account of his widely acclaimed ITV series about the
English language, is forthcoming this October.
He has been President of the National Campaign for the Arts since 1986, and
a Governor of the London School of Economics since 1997. He has honorary
degrees from the Universities of Wales, Liverpool, Lancaster, Leeds, South
Bank, St Andrews, Northumbria, Brunel, Northumbria, UMIST and the Open
University. He was made a Life Peer in 1998, becoming Lord Bragg of Wigton in
the County of Cumbria. He was elected Chancellor of Leeds University in
1999.
It is not only for these extraordinary achievements that we are honouring
Lord Bragg. He has, as we psychiatrists put it, a long history of commitment
to the cause of mental health, stemming back to his own experience of mental
illness in his teenage years, which he has discussed publicly with exemplary
bravery. In his own words, ‘The experiences were terrifying. I could
literally feel a part of me leaving and hovering above my body’. As a
result, he has become one of the country’s most powerful advocates for
people with a mental illness. He has been involved with MIND in Carlisle for
16 years, and became President of MIND in 2001. As he puts it: ‘I saw
people with mental distress being outcast and stigmatised and
misunderstood’.
Lord Bragg is one of that very select band of intellectuals who can lay
claim to the Renaissance ideal of the ‘uomo universale’. For this
and for his commitment to the cause of mental health, it is both a privilege
and a personal pleasure for me to present him for the College’s highest
honour, the Honorary Fellowship.
