I very much enjoyed listening to Norman Foster talk about his life on This Cultural Life. Some of it I knew: his time in Yale, travelling round the States with Richard Rogers; the projects beginning with the Sainsbury Centre, which he chooses as one of his two favourites; the influence of Buckminster Fuller. But I don’t think I had appreciated the Samuel Smiles aspects of his upbringing – leaving school after O levels, working in the town hall and then studying at the Manchester School of Architecture for a diploma because he didn’t have A levels. It’s impressive.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 