native Doreen Edwards), The Reluctant Dragon and The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship for Cosgrove Hall Films. As well as being an acclaimed musician and comedian, he wrote The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac, a humorous A to Z book; two collections of anecdotes, jokes and songs entitled The Unluckiest Man in the World and The 14½ Pound Budgie; and a comedy/thriller/fantasy, Killer Budgies. His other books include a series covering aspects of his interest in British folklore and history – The Little Book of the Green Man, The Little Book of Stained Glass, The Little Book of Gargoyles, and The Little Book of Misericords; and the loosely factual autobiography, You Can See the Angel's Bum, Miss Worswick! He has also read two of his short stories for Afternoon Story on BBC Radio 4. In 1986, Harding wrote the foreword to Barry Pilton's book, One Man and His Bog. He more recently made a series of fourteen short films on minority religions in England for the BBC's Heaven and Earth show. Harding has presented the annual BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and from 1997 to 2012 he presented the weekly BBC Radio 2 flagship folk and roots programme, The Mike Harding Show. His last show was on 26 December 2012. According to Mark Radcliffe, who took over Radio 2's Folk Show, Harding had left reluctantly, claiming that the BBC had "sold the folk world down the river". Four days later, on 30 December 2012, Harding launched his own internet radio show, called The Mike Harding Folk Show broadcast at 5pm every Sunday and available as a podcast and on iTunes afterwards. The show went on a very short break during November and December 2017, after 252 regular weekly episodes, with a Christmas episode #253 published in December 2017 and the next episode (#254) published on 24 February 2018. Thereafter, commencing on 18 March 2018, Harding was back with a regular monthly slot. On 4 October 2022, after 309 shows, Mike Harding announced that #309 was his final show. Harding is a dedicated hillwalker and a former president, and now life vice president of the Ramblers' Association. He wrote, until a new format was sought for the magazine in 2008, a regular column for hiking magazine The Great Outdoors and campaigned for 'Right to Roam' legislation in the United Kingdom. He is one of the patrons of the Wensleydale Railway,