Carpenter's biographies were various, reflecting his wide interests. The most measured, and in a way his best book, was The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3. This was a subject which he knew intimately, and the book reflects his knowledge and his passion.

Everybody remembers or has heard of the international reputation that the BBC had during World War II for news, but not many remember the extraordinarily high standards it maintained where the arts, education and entertainment were concerned. The third programme was at the forefront of this revolution, at a time when it was recognised that the high arts had an important role in defining cultural identity and that society had a responsibility to promulgate an understanding and appreciation of high culture.

"On my first night in the Third Programme, I had to leave a full minute of silence between one programme and the next. The idea was to discourage people from casual listening. They were expected to look at their Radio Times, choose what they want, listen to it, and then go away and do all the other interesting things that their lives were full of". Cormack Rigby.

"He who prides himself on giving what he thinks the public wants is often creating a fictitious demand for low standards which he will then satisfy". Lord Reith.

"It was the combination of public service motive, sense of moral obligation, assured finance and the brute force of monopoly which enabled the BBC to make of broadcasting what no other country in the world has made of it". Lord Reith.

This book is full of stories and personalities about artists of intense integrity and creativity, a conviction in the value of high culture and the educability of the masses.