Mark Radcliffe is perhaps best-known as a radio presenter with an encyclopedic knowledge of music from the past half-century.

For several years, he presented shows on Radio 1 alongside Marc ‘Lard’ Riley and has since had numerous shows on Radio 2. He can currently be heard on BBC 6Music with Stuart Maconie.

Now Mark has channelled his lifelong love of music into his new book, Reelin’ In The Years, charting one song, significant to him, since the year of his birth in 1958.

He will be talking about Reelin’ In The Years, his fourth book, at this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival. How does he find the solitary act of writing, compared with talking to the nation as a broadcaster?

“I never have trouble thinking of things to write, but sitting down and forcing yourself to write is always hard, a bit like doing your homework,” says Bolton-born Mark.

“There’s always that feeling that you could be reading the paper, walking the dog or having a pint. When I was writing it, I was only doing two days a week on the radio, but now I’m doing six shows a week, so whether I’ll find time for another I don’t know.”

Did he put a lot of planning into the book?

“Once I’d got the format – one song from every year I’ve been alive – it was easier. I certainly didn’t really plan everything before I started,” he says.

“I had a big notepad with a double page for each year; I wrote all the songs I liked down one side and all the bits of news that might be useful down the other. I went back to that at the end and saw how it could all go together. Some of it dropped into place easily, others not so much.”

Mark says he finds that the older he gets, the less formative listening to music has become.

“Recent stuff was harder to write. Big events in popular culture, the Moon landing, Woodstock and things, it’s easier to remember the details about,” he says.

“Some nice details cropped up, though, like I found out Ernie Wise made the first-ever mobile phone call in the UK. Why Ernie Wise was chosen I don’t know “I wasn’t trying to write a history of popular culture, though. It’s a lot more personal than that. I hope readers find it quirky and that it makes them smile.”

The father-of-two admits to becoming more nostalgic with age.

“You see your parents get older or die, which changes things, but when you’re younger, you just live for the day, don’t you?” he says. “There’s a bit in the book where I talk about turning 43, and having a blue mood because it dawned on me that I was probably nearer the grave than I was to birth. You couldn’t write this book and not wallow in nostalgia a bit, but it’s more of a preoccupation now I’m getting on.”

Nostalgia may be a booming industry right now, but Mark doesn’t want to go down the ‘music ain’t what it used to be’ road.

“If you don’t think it’s as good now, it’s because you’re not young anymore,” he says.

“If you’re 14, you’re not thinking, ‘I don’t like Lady Gaga, I wish it was The Clash that were big’. You pick from what’s around now.

“I’m not looking back and saying things aren’t as good. Particularly Manchester – things are much nicer now. We might have had The Smiths and Joy Division, but that was because the city was a dark, foreboding place.

“If Joy Division hadn’t invented their music, it’s what you would’ve heard in your head while walking around Macclesfield in the early 1980s; a dark and gloomy clanking of machinery.”

In the book Mark writes about meeting his heroes. He says there are only a few left to interview.

“There are two or three people – Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen, mainly. I’d like to meet them, but it’s not a burning thing,” he says.

“I’ve seen pretty much everybody perform too, barring The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

“I met or interviewed most people whose music has mattered to me, or influenced me in some way. I don’t get a thrill about the fame, more the personal importance.

“In my last book, I wrote about sitting with Paul McCartney while he played Blackbird on the guitar for me. You can’t take moments like that lightly.”

While Mark has ideas for more books, he doesn’t know whether he’ll get round to writing them.

“My first book was in 1998, then a gap of four years, then another four years and now two in two years. It’s down to how much I work on the radio,” he says. “Plus, I’m 53 this year. It must be time to start slowing down, right?”

Mark Radcliffe is at King’s Hall, Ilkley, on October 15. The Ilkley Literature Festival runs from September 30 to October 16. Tickets go on sale on August 30 on (01943) 816714. Reelin’ In The Years is published by Simon & Schuster, priced £12.99.