David Hendy

David Hendy is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in modern cultural history. He’s also an Emeritus Professor of the University of Sussex, where he taught media history between 2013 and 2021. Before that, he taught at the University of Westminster in London and held visiting Fellowships at the universities of Cambridge, Yale and Indiana-Bloomington.

He's the author of five books, including Life on Air: A History of Radio Four (Oxford University Press), which won the Longmans-History today Book of the Year Award, and Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening (Profile Books), which accompanied his BBC radio series. David’s most recent book is The BBC: A People's History (Profile Books) – published in the USA as The BBC: A Century on Air (Public Affairs) – a widely-reviewed ‘authorised’ biography which appeared in 2022 to coincide with the Corporation's Centenary. 

David spent seven years in the 1980s and 1990s working at the BBC as a current affairs reporter and producer on programmes including The World Tonight (BBC Radio 4). In recent years he's returned to broadcasting, writing and presenting a number of series for both BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. These include Noise: A Human History, a much-lauded thirty-part series broadcast on Radio 4 in 2013, as well as several editions of The Essay for Radio 3. In 2016, he wrote and presented Langston Hughes at the Third, a 45-minute Sunday Feature which explored the BBC work of the Harlem poet Langston Hughes. In 2011, he also co-wrote (with Ade Bean) a full-length Sunday drama for BBC Radio 3 called Between Two Worlds, which dramatised the life of the Victorian physicist and spiritualist, Oliver Lodge.

He currently lives in Lewes, Sussex, and is working on his next book, an account of the secret wartime origins of fake news, which will be published by Profile Books in 2026.

Praise for David’s recent books:

The BBC: A People’s History:

 ‘A masterpiece’ – David Kynaston

‘Extraordinary’ – Guardian

‘Gripping … a fascinating and informative account of the BBC’s first 100 years’ – Sunday Telegraph

‘Hendy combines a historian’s sense of sweep with the eye for colour of the TV producer … His account of the corporation also makes for an incisive history of Britain’s twentieth century’ - The Economist

‘A treasure trove’ – Irish Times

‘Entertaining, informative, lucid, kaleidoscopic’ – Sydney Morning Herald

‘Thorough and engaging’ – New York Times

‘a nonfiction thriller’ – Air Mail

‘Much of this history has been told before but never in such well-researched depth and sparkling detail’ – Kirkus Reviews

Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening:

‘Terrific.*****’ – Daily Telegraph

‘Radiant and lyrical … a thoroughly exhilarating encounter’ – Bernie Krause

‘A highly enjoyable and thought-provoking book … takes us to some wonderful and terrifying places’ – Irish Times

‘Studded with gem-like facts… endlessly enlightening… as social history it’s hard to beat’ – Independent

‘Brilliant and thought-provoking’ – Nigel Warburton

‘A smorgasbord of sound’ – Nature

‘Utterly engrossing’ – Bookseller

Life on Air: A History of Radio 4:

‘Eminently readable, utterly reliable, on occasions painfully frank, it is a joy to read and a masterly lesson in how to translate bare fact into compelling narrative’ – Daily Telegraph

‘Filled with riveting detail and anecdote, constantly illuminating… endlessly engrossing’ – Guardian

‘A magnificent chronicle’ – Times Higher

‘An unalloyed treat … If Radio 4 is a great four-funnelled liner, radiating serene intelligence and self-control, this is the ship’s secret logbook. Life on Air is a gem.’ – The Times

‘Marvellously rich’ – History Today

‘Fine, meticulous history’ – Financial Times

‘Eminently readable’ – Daily Mail

‘A nugget of surprising and entertaining fact on every page’ – Time Out