I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,

Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the

Desert Island Discs Archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1998, but he might never have made it. Born into a London

slum he spent part of his childhood in an orphanage and despite his natural talent and intelligence

drifted in and out of crime. As an adult he turned his hand to poetry, playwriting and printing,

but it wasn't until he was in his mid-forties that the big break came. An old friend asked him to

become the editor of a magazine designed to be sold on the streets by an army of workers who could

pocket the profits to lift themselves out of poverty. Today, it's one of this country's most

successful publications. My castaway has been awarded the title Editor's Editor and made an

MBE.

He is the editor-in-chief now of the big issue, John Bird.

It was, as it turned out absolutely the right job for you, John, the editorship.

Did you have any idea when it was offered to you that this was a job that was going to change your life?

Not really. Gordon Roddick, who was the guy who came up with the idea, who started the

body shop with his wife, Anita, had been in New York and bought a copy of Street News.

I thought it was a great idea and was going to try and run it over in the UK.

...