Hi, it's Nicola Cocklin.

Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them.

My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right.

In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people

who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world.

Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille

and Lady Jane Grey, history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin. Listen on BBC Sounds.

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the barrister Michael Mansfield.

One of Britain's leading QCs, he describes himself as a radical lawyer. The Birmingham 6,

the Martianess disaster, the Stephen Lawrence trial, and the killing of Jean-Charles

Jimenezes are only a handful of the high-profile cases he's been involved in. Born into a

conventional military church-going family, his formative link with the law was made as a boy,

when his mother challenged the police after being wrongly accused of parking too close to a pedestrian crossing.

She won. He says, I do feel that reputation, standing up for principle, is one of the few ways

in which a difference can be made. Michael Mansfield, I think it's the case with young lawyers,

that you're told you've got to be impartial

and that will enable you to do your job best.

Were you told that as a young lawyer, and have you followed it?

Yes, you'll definitely tell that.

It's regarded as a professional distance, in a a sense that you stand off, a bit like

...