Sofka Zinovieff, writer

Sofka Zinovieff, writer

Like many writers, Sofka Zinovieff draws on her own history in her books – and her family tree offers plenty of inspiration. Her paternal grandmother was born into Russian high society, fled to England after the 1917 revolution and became a Communist. Sofka wrote her biography. Her maternal grandmother married the eccentric aristocrat Robert Heber-Percy, and for a time shared a house with his lover, the artist and composer Lord Berners. Sofka has also charted her story. Her father Peter was a composer and co-founder of Britain's first synthesiser manufacturer, making instruments used by the likes of Pink Floyd and David Bowie. He banned his many children from attending his funeral – a decision which inspired her most recent book, a novel called Stealing Dad. Sofka's music includes Bach, Monteverdi, Theodorakis and Mozart.

Simon Barnes, journalist

The writer Simon Barnes has two very public passions - sport and the natural world. He wrote about both for The Times for 30 years, covering seven Olympic Games and six World Cup finals, while also delivering columns on short-eared owls, mountain hares and “the organ-pipe contact call of lions." His books include reflections on the meaning and the soul of sport, and numerous titles about birds, including the best-selling How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, in which he says: ‘Birdwatching is a state of being, not an activity. It is not a matter of organic trainspotting. It is about life and it is about living.’ This way of seeing also informs his most recent book How to Fly – which examines not only birds, but butterflies, bees, bats and the deep human fascination with flight. Simon's musical choices include Beethoven, Scarlatti, Monteverdi and Messiaen.

Margaret Busby, publisher and editor

Margaret Busby is a publisher and editor who's helped change our literary landscape. She's been lauded by the writer Zadie Smith as the cheerleader, instigator, organiser, defender and celebrator of black arts, something she's done for nearly 60 years. She started young - she was just 23 years old when she co-founded the publishers Allison and Busby with Clive Allison in 1967. Free from the usual industry rules and with little money or experience, they began with five shilling poetry paperbacks and went on to champion new work as well as established writers from all backgrounds. Margaret's drive to showcase often overlooked or neglected talent led to two groundbreaking anthologies of women writers, Daughters of Africa and New Daughters of Africa. Margaret's music includes Bach and Chevalier de Saint-Georges, along with jazz greats Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Radio 3 is celebrating the centenary of Miles Davis' birth in the coming week across numerous programmes including Composer of the Week, Round Midnight and The Essay.

Michael Wood, historian

The historian Michael Wood has shared his enthusiasms and expertise with television viewers and readers around the world for almost five decades. He’s brought us complex individuals such as Alexander the Great, pivotal conflicts such as the Trojan War, and national histories, including the Story of India, the Story of China and a people’s history of Britain. And here on Radio 3, he’s one of the distinguished historians joining Gillian Moore for Key Changes, a year-long series charting one thousand years of musical history, on air on Saturdays and on BBC Sounds. Michael's musical choices include Monteverdi, Bach, Messiaen and Chopin.

James Aldred, cameraman and writer

James Aldred is an Emmy award-winning documentary wildlife cameraman and filmmaker who has collaborated with David Attenborough on projects such Planet Earth, The Life of Mammals and Our Planet. He often finds himself suspended from ropes or on platforms high up in the rainforest canopy, capturing shots of rarely-seen animals and birds, including orangutans, gibbons and eagles. He recalled some of his treetop adventures - and the many dangers he’s faced - in his first book, The Man Who Climbs Trees. His second, Goshawk Summer, detailed his experience of filming a family of goshawks in the New Forest during lockdown. It went on to win the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing. His most recent book, A Wagon in the Woods, returns to the New Forest and is about his painstaking restoration of an old horse-drawn wagon he once played in as a child. James picks music by Borodin, Wagner, Mahler, Bach and John Barry.