Charles Allen was not only an accomplished writer on British India and the empire more widely, but also a highly skilled broadcaster. Indeed, much of his writing arose from extensive interviews he recorded and collected for a succession of pioneering radio projects, many produced by my BBC colleague, that imaginative entrepreneur of “total audio”, and creator of The Long March of Everyman, Michael Mason.
Encouraged by Michael’s impeccable professionalism, Charles was responsible for not only Plain Tales from the Raj but also the innovative Tales from the South China Seas (the British in south-east Asia) and a series, Maharaj, about the Indian princes, partly in their own words, as well as for radio projects under other producers on, for example, memories of colonial life in Africa, and people born abroad who chose to settle in Britain.
The occasional one-offs included my favourite (produced by Mason) in which Charles, calling upon the voices of Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing among others, investigated the rise, decline and obstinate survival of that supposed denizen of the Himalayas the Abominable Snowman.
