 Self is contributor to the BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View, to which he contributes radio essays delivered in his familiar "lugubrious tones".In 2013, Self was in talks to become the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Writer-in-Residence, but later backed out of the talks.Self was born at Charing Cross Hospital in London and brought up in north London, between the suburbs of East Finchley and Hampstead Garden Suburb.