Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. 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 Krista 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 2009.

My castaway this week is Pears Morgan.

A Fleet Street editor before he was 30,

he spent more than a decade at the helm of first the news of the world and then the mirror.

He pioneered a style of journalism that fed off the day-to-day lives of celebrities and won a fistful of awards for his scoops that exposed their extramarital affairs.

By his own admission, he relished the feuds he fought.

So when the fall from Grace came, there were plenty of people rubbing their hands with glee.

First were allegations of dodgy dealing.

Buying shares in a firm his own newspaper was about to tip.

Then he published false pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Since then, he's written a very well-received memoir, forged a successful career as an interviewer,

and latterly has become something of a television celebrity both here

and in America. He is, according to one friend, the ultimate proof that self-confidence and

self-belief can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You were just 28 years old then when Rupert

Merdoch handed you the reins of the news of the world. What do you remember of that moment?

Was it a formal interview?

No, funny enough, I have very vivid memories because I was back in Miami for the first time since I got given the job only two weeks ago.

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