The Modern Mann

What would you do if your phone rang and someone told you they'd kidnapped a member of your family? Scott Walker knows. As one of Britain's most experienced hostage negotiators, he spent years helping families through...

Olivia hardly knew her father. Her parents divorced when she was two, and she was brought up by her Mum. Sent to boarding school at the age of eight, she was estranged from her Dad for a decade. ———————————— Struggling...

Tom Price and Stuart Goldsmith return to compare parenting notes with Olly, their sons now having reached the age of 10½. Up for discussion: how to make friends with your kids’ parents, the dangers of ‘backdoor’ YouTube...

Andrew Ramroop OBE made his first pair of trousers whilst he was still in school shorts. At 17, he headed away from his home nation of Trinidad, gravitating towards London’s world-famous Savile Row. In this interview...

When Tad Tomlinson set out to learn leatherworking, he stumbled into one of Britain's most secretive subcultures.From handcrafted gimp masks and bespoke straitjackets to dungeon installations and novelty jockstraps, Tad...

Pathology technician Carla Valentine always knew she wanted to work with corpses. In childhood, she conducted funerals for roadkill. These days, she is curator of the Barts Pathology Museum, and a passionate advocate...

What does it mean to give a pet a “good death”? Dr Caroline Flicker was Britain’s first vet to specialise in at-home palliative and end-of-life care. After three decades of home visits - caring for thousands of dying...

Teaching English in Beijing seemed like a great opportunity for Welsh graduate Glen Williams, who had previously spent time studying in China. He could brush up on his Mandarin, work with kids… and earn up to £3k per...

Cheryl Bennett doesn’t follow politics. But when her colleague said he was standing in local elections, she agreed to help deliver leaflets. Within days, doorbell video footage was circulating online, in which Cheryl...

The amazing true story behind James McAvoy's directorial debut feature: Olly Mann sits down with Gavin Bain, one half of Silibil 'n' Brains⁠, the Californian rap group that never was. "Sometimes you have to be other...

When Karina Graham’s children were removed from her care, social services did not step in with support. Instead, she was left to recover from her alcohol addiction alone. To form functional relationships with her sons’...

Professional dancer Raquel Meseguer had back surgery at the age of thirty, to treat chronic neuropathic pain. But, it didn’t alleviate her symptoms. In this insightful interview with Olly, she explains how this...

An earthquake of 6.9 magnitude rocked Morocco’s Atlas Mountains in September 2023, causing around 3,000 fatalities. For six hours, British tourist Robbie Greatrex was trapped in the rubble; unable to feel his legs...

There are more billionaires than ever. Rockstars. Oil tycoons. Internet entrepreneurs. And all of them - all of them - employ private staff. The age of Jeeves and Wooster may be over, but the demand for a dependable...

Alok Sama was a high-flying CFO who fraternized with the world’s richest men. But he wasn’t immune from intimidation. Anonymous letters sent to his boss, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, accused him of corruption. Suddenly...