You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the

podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC.

It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world.

What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism

and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.

And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject

you might not even have thought you were interested in.

Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment,

you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.

Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear.

In a small French village in 1812, a young boy of about 3 was playing in his father's

workshop one day.

His father was a saddler and there were sharp tools there.

Called away, he left his little son unattended for a few moments.

The little boy had a terrible accident. He poked himself in the eye with a sharp

instrument, perforating his eyeball and causing catastrophic damage. This was in the time of the Napoleonic Wars and there was limited medical

help available for civilians. His wound was treated with herbs and bandaged, but infection

set in, quickly spread to the other eye, and he became

became completely blind. The little boy's name was Louis Braille and my

guess this week is the right honourable David Blunkett.

David, you're blind, you've been Education Secretary, Home Secretary, Work and Pension Secretary,

you've been a leading figure in local government in Sheffield, you could have chosen luminaries

...