Podcasts by The Essay
Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.
Further podcasts by BBC Radio 3
Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
All episodes
4. Crossing from 2023-11-23T22:45
"Each remembered moment is a keyhole. Time doesn't 'flow like a river', doesn't exist in Odesa at all; the numbers of years, 1986 or 1989 or 2006 are like signs hanging about the corner grocery ...
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The Beaver from 2023-11-23T14:05
Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.
There’s plenty of...
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The Wallabies from 2023-11-23T14:03
Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.
Kenneth Steven explore...
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The Sea Eagle from 2023-11-23T14:00
Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals back into the Highlands of Scotland and the impact on rural life, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.
At one time sea e...
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The Reindeer from 2023-11-23T13:57
Kenneth Steven considers the introduction of wild animals into the Highlands of Scotland, reflecting in poetry at the end of each Essay.
A consignment of eight reindeer landed at Clydebank...
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The Flat-Pack Cello from 2023-11-23T13:13
Writer and musician Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the physical, social...
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The Shipwrecked Cello from 2023-11-23T13:11
Writer and musician Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the physical, social...
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The Auschwitz Cello from 2023-11-23T13:08
Writer and musician Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the physical, social...
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The Bee Cello from 2023-11-23T13:04
Writer and musician Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the physical, social...
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The Soul of Music from 2023-11-23T13:00
Writer, musician and broadcaster Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the phy...
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3. Watching from 2023-11-22T22:45
"Each remembered moment is a keyhole. Time doesn't 'flow like a river', doesn't exist in Odesa at all; the numbers of years, 1986 or 1989 or 2006 are like signs hanging about the corner grocery ...
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2. Departure from 2023-11-21T22:45
"Each remembered moment is a keyhole. Time doesn't 'flow like a river', doesn't exist in Odesa at all; the numbers of years, 1986 or 1989 or 2006 are like signs hanging about the corner grocery ...
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Frida Kahlo's Broken Column from 2023-09-29T21:45
In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, under-appreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.
Art ...
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Field of Dreams from 2023-09-28T21:45
Essays on the underappreciated aspects of well known pieces of culture. Writer Sarfraz Manzoor describes a moment from the film Field of Dreams and what it means to him.
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The Tiger Who Came to Tea from 2023-09-27T21:45
It’s in the minutiae of masterpieces that we feel their thrill and power.
In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, under...
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Joan Williams from 2023-06-30T21:45
Michael Goldfarb looks at five authors and their books on the receiving end of cancel culture in liberal America of the 1960s. Each author and the work being discussed was the subject of a contr...
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Philip Roth from 2023-06-29T21:45
Michael Goldfarb looks at five authors and their books on the receiving end of cancel culture in liberal America of the 1960s. Each author and the work being discussed was the subject of a contr...
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Norman Mailer from 2023-06-28T21:45
Michael Goldfarb looks at five authors and their books on the receiving end of cancel culture in liberal America of the 1960s. Each author and the work being discussed was the subject of a contr...
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Amiri Baraka from 2023-06-27T21:45
Michael Goldfarb looks at five authors and their books on the receiving end of cancel culture in liberal America of the 1960s. Each author and the work being discussed was the subject of a contr...
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William Styron from 2023-06-26T21:45
The 1960s are celebrated for the paradigm shift in American society. This shift was reflected in art and culture as well as politics. But these great changes were not accomplished without contr...
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Roy McFarlane on Bilston from 2023-06-16T21:45
Writers choose a Black Country scene to reveal something of this strangely hidden region. Roy McFarlane is revealing secrets about the area of Bilston in the Black Country. His focus is on Big L...
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R.M. Francis on Wren’s Nest, Dudley from 2023-06-15T21:45
Writers choose a Black Country scene to reveal something of this strangely hidden region.
R.M. Francis is sharing the secret world of Wren’s Nest in Dudley. Once a site of intense mining, ...
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Brendan Hawthorne on Toll End Road, Tipton from 2023-06-14T21:45
Writers choose a Black Country scene to reveal something of this strangely hidden region.
Brendan Hawthorne is revealing his hidden childhood world of Tipton. Think cooling towers, high-ri...
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Emma Purshouse on St Bart’s Church, Wednesbury. from 2023-06-13T21:45
Writers choose a Black Country scene to reveal something of this strangely hidden region. Emma Purshouse is introducing a new visitor to St Barts Church which stands on the hill in Wednesbury. T...
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Liz Berry on Gorge Road, Sedgley from 2023-06-12T21:45
Writers choose a Black Country scene to reveal something of this strangely hidden region. Poet Liz Berry is taking a nighttime drive to the top of a hill in the Black Country to visit the ghosts...
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Geoff Dyer on DH Lawrence from 2023-06-09T22:00
Five writers go on five reflective, restorative and often playful journeys in search of the final resting places of their literary heroes.
In this final essay of the series, Geoff Dyer ret...
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Brandon Taylor on Langston Hughes from 2023-06-08T22:00
Five writers go on five reflective, restorative and often playful journeys in search of the final resting places of their literary heroes.
Today, Brandon Taylor travels uptown through a ra...
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Helen Mort on Sylvia Plath from 2023-06-07T22:00
Five more writers go on five reflective, restorative and often playful journeys in search of the final resting places of their literary heroes.
Today Helen Mort ventures up a Yorkshire hil...
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Tracy Chevalier on Thomas Hardy from 2023-06-06T22:00
Five more writers go on five reflective, restorative and often playful journeys in search of the final resting places of their literary heroes.
Today Tracy Chevalier strolls to Stinsford, ...
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Naomi Alderman on Mary Wollstonecraft from 2023-06-05T22:00
Five more writers go on five reflective, restorative and often playful journeys in search of the final resting places of their literary heroes.
Today in the first essay of a new series, Na...
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Emilia Lanyer from 2023-05-05T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Mohammed al-Annuri from 2023-05-04T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Roderigo Lopez from 2023-05-03T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Mary Fillis from 2023-05-02T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Chinano 'the Turk' from 2023-05-01T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Aura Soltana from 2023-04-27T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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John Cabot from 2023-04-26T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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John Blanke from 2023-04-25T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Lucy Baynham from 2023-04-24T21:45
Jerry Brotton listens for the voices and tells the stories of the ‘other Tudors’: ten men and women from across the world that lived, worked, worshipped and died in Tudor England.
The popu...
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Professor Dame Marina Warner on Othello from 2023-04-21T22:00
400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it me...
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Sir David Hare on Macbeth from 2023-04-20T22:00
400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it me...
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Professor Islam Issa on Julius Caesar from 2023-04-19T22:00
400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it me...
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Michelle Terry on As You Like It from 2023-04-19T22:00
400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it me...
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Sir Richard Eyre on King Lear from 2023-04-17T22:00
400 years after the publication of William Shakespeare's First Folio, five writers are each asked to pick a speech from one of the Folio's plays, tell it what they think it means, and what it me...
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Children of the Waters from 2023-04-11T19:00
An ancient Japanese Buddhist ritual which involves a red baby bib, a small statue and water, has been taken up by women wanting to have some way of marking a miscarriage and the life not lived. ...
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Fugitive slaves, Victorian justice from 2023-04-06T17:00
The trial of sisters begging on the streets of South London led to donations sent in by Victorian newspaper readers and an investigation by the Mendicity Society. New Generation Thinker Oskar Je...
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A family of witches from 2023-04-05T19:00
An 8 year old who condemns his own mother to execution in 1582: New Generation Thinker Emma Whipday, who researches Renaissance literature at Newcastle University, has been reading witch trial r...
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Fighting the colour bar from 2023-04-05T17:32
Len Johnson, barred from fighting title bouts, had his career stopped short by a ‘colour bar’, but went onto fight against racism outside the ring. A campaign in Manchester is seeking to erect ...
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Stupid Victorians from 2023-04-05T17:24
From "dull" to "feeble-minded" - the qualities associated with stupidity altered during the Victorian period alongside changes to schooling and education policies. Dr Louise Creechan, from Durha...
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The Swing Bridge from 2022-03-22T22:45
An immersive audio experience from Radio 3's After Dark festival at Sage Gateshead.Five different podcasts are being recorded by award-winning composer and sound artist Rob Mackay at five locations...
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In the Dark from 2022-03-21T22:45
An immersive audio experience from Radio 3's After Dark festival at Sage Gateshead. Five different podcasts are being recorded by award-winning composer and sound artist Rob Mackay at five locatio...
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Susan Calman on Victoria Wood from 2022-03-18T23:00
Susan Calman first saw An Audience with Victoria Wood at the age of 14. It was almost by accident, but by the end of the show she had come to realise what she was destined to be. Yet Susan’s care...
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Adrian Edmondson on the pursuit of laughter from 2022-03-17T23:00
In this essay Adrian Edmondson describes his pursuit of a certain type of laugh, a desperate, untamed, visceral laugh, and in doing so remembers one of the acts from those early days of the Comedy ...
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Peace at Last from 2022-03-16T23:00
Sound is a vital communication tool for many animals, but even more so for marine life. Life under the water has evolved over thousands of years to rely almost entirely on sound for survival cues. ...
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Sounds from an Armenian Childhood from 2022-03-15T23:00
Olivia Melkonian invites you into the 42nd house of her grandmother to explore the sounds from an Armenian childhood. As a child, this space always felt magical to Olivia. Now as an adult, she's di...
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Boy with a Pearl Earring from 2022-03-07T13:22
"Delight in disorder" was celebrated in a poem by Robert Herrick (1591-1674) and the long hair, flamboyant dress and embrace of earrings that made up Cavalier style has continued to exert influence...
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Uniforms - An Alternative History from 2022-03-07T13:18
From school to work to the military – uniforms can signal authority and belonging. But what happens when uniforms are worn by those whom institutions normally exclude? Or when they’re used out of c...
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Drama, Dressing-up and Droopy&Browns from 2022-03-07T13:14
Fashion from the 1990s to the 1790s and back again: Jade Halbert traces the history of Droopy&Browns, a fashion business renowned for the flamboyant and elegant work of its designer, Angela Holmes....
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In a Handbag from 2022-03-07T13:10
Oscar Wilde's famous line from The Importance of Being Earnest focuses on what we might not expect to find - Shahidha Bari's essay considers the range of objects we do carry around with us and why ...
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Body Armour from 2022-03-07T13:03
"My lady's corselet" was developed by a pioneer of free verse on the frontlines of feminism, the poet Mina Loy. Celebrated in the 1910s as the quintessential New Woman, her love of freedom was sha...
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Nuala O'Connor on Penelope from 2022-02-04T23:15
Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. This Fe...
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Mary Costello on Ithaca from 2022-02-03T23:15
Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. This Fe...
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Colm Tóibín on Sirens from 2022-02-02T23:15
Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. This Fe...
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John Patrick McHugh on Calypso from 2022-02-01T23:15
Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. This Fe...
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Anne Enright on Telemachus from 2022-01-31T23:15
Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. Februar...
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The Binoculars of Jah from 2022-01-14T23:00
The writer Colin Grant weaves autobiography with history and research to allow us to look at cannabis use and abuse from an original perspective. He explores how tendrils of marijuana smoke drift t...
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The Fall of the House of Crosskill from 2022-01-13T23:00
Writer Colin Grant guides us through a nuanced story of cannabis use... and abuse.
As he states at the beginning of the series, Colin carries ‘no lawyer’s brief for marijuana’. In previou...
Leaf of Life from 2022-01-12T23:00
The writer Colin Grant says he carries ‘no lawyer’s brief for marijuana’. Rather, in a landscape in which almost all discussion is polarised, he seeks to explore a range of more nuanced aspects of ...
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Burkina Faso's Incorruptible People and the Drum from 2022-01-11T23:00
Writer Colin Grant examines the implications of evolving attitudes to cannabis use in the 21st century. Recalling a trip to Burkina Faso some years ago, Colin explores the relationship between cann...
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Marijuana Made Me from 2022-01-10T23:00
The world of cannabis is changing. The 21st century is witnessing decriminalisation of recreational use and increasing pressure for wider medical application. There are global cultural and social i...
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Donna Huddleston’s Witch Dance from 2022-01-07T22:45
Jennifer Higgie reflects upon how alternative ways of understanding the world are inspiring today’s artists.
“More and more contemporary artists and curators are exploring the spiritual re...
Ithell Colquhoun’s Scylla from 2022-01-06T22:45
Jennifer Higgie celebrates the artist who championed automatism, feminism and the value of other realms.
Ithell Colquhoun was one of the female surrealists whose work belatedly forced Andr...
Estella Canziani's The Piper of Dreams from 2022-01-05T22:45
Jennifer Higgie continues her re-appraisal of the spirit world’s influence on western art. How did fairy fever contribute to artists’ responses to World War I?
An elf-like child, leaning a...
Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition V from 2022-01-04T22:45
Jennifer Higgie highlights the role of spiritualism and women artists at the beginning of western abstraction.
As a teenage art student, Higgie was in thrall to the work of Wassily Kandins...
Hilma af Klint’s The Ten Largest from 2022-01-03T22:45
Jennifer Higgie traces the impact of the spirit world on modernism, through a female artist whose work predates what is commonly hailed as the beginning of abstraction in western art.
In 2...
The Colour of Your Mind from 2021-12-16T23:00
London poet Will Harris examines the sense of unreality and distance that thinking about “nature” provokes in him and asks how dreams and poems can teach us to look at the world differently, in all...
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When The Birds Sing We Are Safe from 2021-12-15T23:00
Are we a part of nature’s orchestra? Cardiff writer and poet Hanan Issa takes us into the world of acoustic niche hypothesis, cynghanedd poetry and birdsong, and wonders if the harmony of sound tha...
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Meditation on Landscape, Bodies and Writing from 2021-12-14T23:00
Canadian-born poet Alycia Pirmohamed, based in Scotland, explores ecological poetry in the context of brown women’s bodies – bodies that, in the western world, are often perceived as not belonging ...
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Bird Song and Resonance from 2021-12-13T23:00
Five writers living in towns and cities across the UK explore their relationship with the natural world and with the canon of British nature writing. In this first essay, London-born poet Raymond A...
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Chalk on the Wall from 2021-12-09T22:45
Since its creation a century ago, perceptions of Northern Ireland have often been dominated by stories of conflict and political unrest. But as anyone who lives there or who has visited knows, it’...
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The Art of Staying from 2021-12-08T22:45
Since its creation a century ago, perceptions of Northern Ireland have often been dominated by stories of conflict and political unrest. But as anyone who lives there or who has visited knows, it’s...
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Searching with Shorelines from 2021-12-07T22:45
Since its creation a century ago, perceptions of Northern Ireland have often been dominated by stories of conflict and political unrest. But as anyone who lives there or who has visited knows, it’...
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Enough About the War, Dad from 2021-12-03T22:45
7 December 2021 marks the eightieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with it America's entry into World War II.
Americans' war experience was substantially different ...
The Worst Possible War from 2021-12-02T22:45
7 December 2021 marks the eightieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with it America's entry into World War II.
Americans' war experience was substantially different ...
Conscientious Objector from 2021-12-01T22:45
7 December 2021 marks the eightieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with it America's entry into World War II.
Americans' war experience was substantially different ...
Obligations from 2021-11-30T22:45
7 December 2021 marks the eightieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with it America's entry into World War II.
Americans' war experience was substantially different ...
A Death in My Family from 2021-11-29T22:45
7 December 2021 marks the eightieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with it America's entry into World War II.
Americans' war experience was substantially different ...
Above the Night from 2021-11-19T23:00
From the dawn of time, the night sky has captivated human imagination. Over five essays, astronomer Dr Stuart Clark gives his personal perspective on how we draw meaning from the stars.
Ou...
Touching the Night from 2021-11-18T23:00
From the dawn of time, the night sky has captivated human imagination. Over five essays, astronomer Dr Stuart Clark gives his personal perspective on how we draw meaning from the stars.
Ou...
Cosmic Revelations from 2021-11-17T23:00
From the dawn of time, the night sky has captivated human imagination. Over five essays, astronomer Dr Stuart Clark gives his personal perspective on how we draw meaning from the stars.
Ou...
Omens in the Heavens from 2021-11-16T23:00
From the dawn of time, the night sky has captivated human imagination. Over five essays, astronomer Dr Stuart Clark gives his personal perspective on how we draw meaning from the stars.
Ou...
The Great Sky Above from 2021-11-15T23:00
From the dawn of time, the night sky has captivated human imagination. Over five essays, astronomer Dr Stuart Clark gives his personal perspective on how we draw meaning from the stars.
Ou...
Journey to the Centre of the Earth from 2021-11-05T23:00
For many of us, isolation is disconcerting and challenging, but for wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, it is something he actively seeks, so he can fully immerse himself in a place and capture ...
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Voices in the Dark from 2021-11-04T23:00
For many of us, isolation is disconcerting and challenging, but for wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, it is something he actively seeks, so he can fully immerse himself in a place and capture ...
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Island Isolation from 2021-11-02T23:00
For many of us, isolation is disconcerting and challenging, but for wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, it is something he actively seeks, so he can fully immerse himself in a place and capture ...
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The Great White Silence from 2021-11-01T23:00
For many of us, isolation is disconcerting and challenging, but for wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, it is something he actively seeks, so he can fully immerse himself in a place and capture ...
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A Day at the Beach, by Emilienne Malfatto from 2021-10-22T22:00
Little Amal is a 3.5m high puppet who has been walking nearly 9000 kilometres across Europe this summer in recognition of the journey made by thousands of child refugees every year in search of fam...
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A Piece of Cake, by Nicolas Ancion from 2021-10-21T22:00
Little Amal is a 3.5m high puppet who has been walking nearly 9000 kilometres across Europe this summer in recognition of the journey made by thousands of child refugees every year in search of fam...
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Hide and Seek, by Lorenza Pieri from 2021-10-20T22:00
Little Amal is a 3.5m high puppet who has been walking nearly 9000 kilometres across Europe this summer in recognition of the journey made by thousands of child refugees every year in search of fam...
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Of Girls and Gulls, by Auguste Corteau from 2021-10-19T21:45
Little Amal is a 3.5m high puppet who has been walking nearly 9000 kilometres across Europe this summer in recognition of the journey made by thousands of child refugees every year in search of fam...
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Milk of the World, by Sema Kaygusuz from 2021-10-18T21:45
Little Amal is a 3.5m high puppet who has been walking nearly 9000 kilometres across Europe this summer in recognition of the journey made by thousands of child refugees every year in search of fam...
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Himiko: Shaman Queen from 2021-07-30T21:50
The early powerful ruler who summoned spirits as well as armies. Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from Japan's past to answer the question, "Who are the Japanese"...
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Murasaki Shikibu: Imperial Insider from 2021-07-29T21:50
The 11th-century courtier who wrote what is thought to be the world's first novel. Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from Japan's past to answer the question, "Who...
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Oda Nobunaga: Warlord from 2021-07-28T21:50
The terrifying warlord who brought much of Japan under his control. Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from Japan's past to answer the question, "Who are the Japane...
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Tezuka Osamu: Godfather of Manga from 2021-07-27T21:50
The creator of Atom Boy who brought Japanese cartoons to the world. Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from Japan's past to answer the question, "Who are the Japane...
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Daimatsu 'The Demon' Hirobumi from 2021-07-26T21:50
The brutal coach who achieved a gold medal for Japan's women's volleyball team in the 1964 Olympics. Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from Japan's history to answ...
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King Zog - And Time to Leave from 2021-07-12T12:33
It's the mid-1990s. Joanna Robertson lives in tumultuous Albania, where she's moved to be a journalist. King Leka Zogu returns from exile in a quest to regain his throne. Joanna meets the king as h...
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North and South from 2021-07-12T11:54
It's the mid-90s and Joanna Robertson explores Albania's traditional north, where she finds lives are still led according to ancient rules codified in the 'Kanun'. It's a place where innocent young...
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Setting Off from 2021-07-12T11:28
It's the mid-1990s, Albania is in turmoil after decades of communist isolation. Drawn by the mystery of a country she knows little about, Joanna Robertson sets off to go and live there. In a used ...
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A Boy Named Sue from 2021-07-09T21:45
“No-one knows what to call me. Even me. People say ‘Do we call you Ade or Adrian?’ And I usually say, ‘Whatever you can manage’”.
At various stages in his life, Adrian Edmondson has attemp...
It's One Rule for Them from 2021-07-08T21:45
“It became a game really, to see how quickly we could break them... If the rules hadn’t been there, we might have been better behaved.”
Adrian Edmondson has always struggled with rules be ...
Fegato Per Due from 2021-07-07T21:45
“I’m working at The Comic Strip. ‘Evening Vernon, Evening Ray!’ I shout. ‘Evening Nigel,’ they shout back. Well, perhaps they don’t know me as well as I think they do, but at least they think they ...
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Smoked Out from 2021-07-06T21:45
“We struggle through power cuts, algebra and the three-day week and the only constant is cigarettes. We sit in Jasper’s Folly, a café at the end of Market Place, thinking up new words for ennui and...
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Sugar Sugar from 2021-07-05T21:45
“So, it’s the end of the 60s, and while the rest of the world is flailing around in an orgy of free love, self-expression and hallucinogenic drugs, I’m trapped in a small prison learning to repress...
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Colin Grant on VS Naipaul from 2021-07-02T22:00
Nobel laureate Naipaul began his career working in radio for the BBC, and it is also where writer Colin Grant met him towards the end of his life half a century later. How had the giant of Trinidad...
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Jen McDerra on Gladys Lindo from 2021-07-01T22:00
During his time as a producer on the BBC's landmark radio programme, Henry Swanzy was credited with showcasing some of the 20th century's biggest Caribbean literary voices. His collaborator Gladys ...
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Kei Miller on Louise Bennett from 2021-06-30T22:00
The poet, folklorist and performer ‘Miss Lou’ made waves on air on both sides of the Atlantic. Coming to study at Rada in London shortly after WWII, her dialect verse was picked up and celebrated o...
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Paul Mendez on Andrew Salkey from 2021-06-29T22:00
Arriving in Britain as part of the Windrush Generation, Andrew Salkey made vital contributions to the BBC's Caribbean Voices programme as a presenter, writer and reader of others work. But author o...
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Sara Collins on Una Marson from 2021-06-28T22:00
Trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson is rightly celebrated for being the BBC's first black producer and founding an innovative radio programme. But why has her own poetry been neglected? Au...
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Magdalene Odundo from 2021-05-28T22:00
Edmund reflects on a phone call with fellow ceramicist Magdalene Odundo and what it means to be a person who make pots.
Produced by Ned Carter Miles
A Just Radio Production.
The Fonthill Vase from 2021-05-27T22:00
Edmund connects the rising and falling fortunes of a very well-travelled piece of porcelain to those of his own family.
Produced by Ned Carter Miles
A Just Radio Production
The Schindler House from 2021-05-26T22:00
Edmund considers the Schindler House in California as a symbol of migration, freedom and artistic self-determination.
Produced by Ned Carter Miles
A Just Radio Production
Hans Coper from 2021-05-24T22:00
Edmund explores how the journey of German Jewish ceramicist and migrant Hans Coper has inspired his own creative practice.
Produced by Ned Carter Miles
A Just Radio Production.
Robert McFerrin from 2021-05-13T22:01
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite shares his passion for five very different singers whose voices, artistry and lives inspire and move him, and whose stories he needs to tell. If you're asked to think...
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Eric Bentley from 2021-05-12T22:01
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite shares his passion for five very different singers whose voices, artistry and lives inspire and move him, and whose stories he needs to tell. Tonight we take an unex...
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Leontyne Price from 2021-05-11T22:01
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite shares his passion for five very different singers whose voices, artistry and lives inspire and move him, and whose stories he needs to tell. Soprano Leontyne Price ...
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Marian Anderson from 2021-05-10T22:01
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite shares his passion for five very different singers whose voices, artistry and lives inspire and move him, and whose stories he needs to tell. ‘A voice like yours is ...
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Destruction from 2021-05-06T22:00
The Paris Commune lasted less than 100 days, yet this populist movement had extraordinary impact and offers a fascinating comparison to populist turbulence in 2021. Having survived the horrors of t...
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The People from 2021-05-03T22:00
The Paris Commune lasted less than 100 days, yet this populist movement had extraordinary impact and offers a fascinating comparison to populist turbulence in 2021. Having survived the horrors of t...
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In Praise of Flatness from 2021-04-30T22:00
Why are mountains linked with uplifting feelings? Noreen Masud's Essay conjures the vast skies of Norfolk and the fantasy of hope felt by Kazuo Ishiguro's characters in his novel Never Let Me Go, t...
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A Norwegian Morality Tale from 2021-04-29T15:00
Eight churches were set on fire, and a taste for occult rituals and satanic imagery spiralled into suicide and murder in the Norwegian Black metal scene of the 1990s. Lucy Weir looks at the lessons...
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Beyond the Betting Shop from 2021-04-28T21:45
Darragh McGee takes the long view of the risk-based games we have played throughout history. He explores the experiences of their losers and the moral censure that their losses have attracted; from...
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Colonial Papers from 2021-04-27T13:00
The First Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris 1956 staged debates about colonial history which are still playing out in the protests of the Gilets Noirs. New Generation Thinker Alexandra...
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Battlefield Finds from 2021-04-26T21:45
Gold fob seals, Sheffield silver, Mesolithic stone tools - these were some of the discoveries detailed in the 28 papers, books and pamphlets published by a soldier turned archaeologist who began lo...
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The Inscrutable Writing of Sui Sin Far from 2021-04-25T15:33
Chinatown, New York, in 1890 was described by photo-journalist Jacob Riis as "disappointing." He focused only on images of opium dens and gambling and complained about the people living there bein...
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Hoarding or Collecting? from 2021-04-23T22:00
Vivian Maier left over 150,000 negatives when she died in 2009. Her boxes and boxes of unprinted street photographs were stacked alongside shoulder-high piles of newspapers in her Chicago home. Th...
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A Social History of Soup from 2021-04-21T21:45
The potato famine saw a Dublin barracks turned into place where starving people were given six minutes to eat their soup in silence. Tom Scott-Smith researches humanitarian relief and his Essay tak...
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New Generation Thinkers Jean Rhys's Dress from 2021-04-20T21:45
Blousy chrysanthemums pattern the cotton dress, designed for wearing indoors, that a pregnant Sophie Oliver found herself owning. It helped her come to terms with motherhood. In this Essay, the New...
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New Generation Thinkers: The Feurtado's Fire from 2021-04-19T22:00
Claude Mackay the Haarlem poet wrote about his experiences of an earthquake in Kingston in 1907. Twenty years earlier the city was putting itself back together following a devastating fire set off ...
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At Home with Nancy Kerr from 2021-04-16T22:00
Verity Sharp hosts a series of conversations and performances recorded by songwriters at home. Tonight she calls composer, singer and teacher Nancy Kerr.
After a year of restricted moveme...
At Home with Julie Fowlis from 2021-04-15T22:00
Verity Sharp hosts a series of conversations and performances recorded by songwriters at home. For this edition she calls Scottish singer Julie Fowlis at her home in the Highlands.
After a...
At Home with Germa Adan from 2021-04-14T22:00
Verity Sharp hosts a series of conversations and performances recorded by songwriters at home. In this episode she dials up Haitian-born and Birmingham-based musician Germa Adan.
After a ...
At Home with Stick in the Wheel from 2021-04-13T22:00
Verity Sharp hosts a series of conversations and performances recorded by songwriters at home. For this edition she dials up Nicola Kearey and Ian Carter of Stick in the Wheel.
After a yea...
At Home with Sam Lee from 2021-04-13T00:00
Verity Sharp hosts a series of conversations and performances recorded by songwriters at home. For this episode she dials up singer and environmental activist Sam Lee.
After a year of rest...
St Barnabas Jericho, Oxford from 2021-04-10T00:00
During lockdown, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch’s ‘churchcrawls’, defined as “like a pub crawl, only with churches”, retreated to one single place that he knows well. In his final essay, the histor...
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Inglesham, Wiltshire from 2021-04-09T00:00
For Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch ‘churchcrawling’, defined as “like a pub crawl, only with churches” has been a constant hobby over seven decades of his life. In this essay, the historian explain...
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Dunwich, Suffolk from 2021-04-08T00:00
For Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch ‘churchcrawling’, defined by him as the relentless pursuit of churches of all shapes and sizes just for the fun of it, “like a pub crawl, only with churches”, has ...
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Wetherden, Suffolk from 2021-04-07T00:00
For the historian, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, ‘churchcrawling’, which he defines as the relentless pursuit of churches of all shapes and sizes just for the fun and profit of visiting them, has ...
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Illington, Norfolk from 2021-04-06T00:00
At the end of the first lockdown in September 2020 the Oxford Professor of History, Diarmaid MacCulloch, sought sanctuary in his favourite hobby 'churchcrawling', which he defines as the relentless...
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Sex and Death from 2021-04-02T00:00
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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Forging the Renaissance from 2021-04-01T00:00
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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Golden Years from 2021-03-31T00:00
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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Crime and Punishment from 2021-03-30T00:00
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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The Scorpion from 2021-03-27T00:15
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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Death in Florence from 2021-03-26T00:15
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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Storming the Capitol from 2021-03-25T00:00
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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A Portrait of the Artist from 2021-03-23T00:00
Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and ar...
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Books to Make Space For on the Bookshelf: There's No Story There from 2021-03-19T22:45
The dangerous world of an explosives factory is the setting of Inez Holden’s 1944 novel There’s No Story There. A bohemian figure who went on to write film scripts for J Arthur Rank, to report on t...
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Books to Make Space For On The Bookshelf: Closer from 2021-03-18T23:00
Drugs, sex, violence and thinking about death are at the core of the George Miles cycle of five novels. New Generation Thinker Diarmuid Hester draws the links between the author Dennis Cooper and t...
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Books to Make Space For on the Bookshelf: Sindhubala from 2021-03-17T22:45
The rights of tribal people, the lives of ordinary workers and the depiction of female desire were amongst the themes explored by the writer Mahasweta Devi. Born in Dhaka in 1926, she attended the ...
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John Halifax, Gentleman from 2021-03-16T18:19
Dinah Mulock Craik achieved fame and fortune as the author of the 1856 bestselling novel John Halifax, Gentleman. New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore reads this rags-to-riches tale of an orpha...
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The Black Lizard from 2021-03-15T22:45
Edogawa Rampo's stories give us a Japanese version of Sherlock Holmes. New Generation Thinker Christopher Harding traces the way detective fiction chimed with the modernising of Japan, when the ab...
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Madame E Toussaint Welcome from 2021-03-12T23:45
Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell tells the story of five brilliant women, all the siblings of renowned achievers in the arts and science, whose own success was overlooked – either by thei...
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Katharine Wright from 2021-03-11T23:45
Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell tells the story of five brilliant women, all the siblings of renowned achievers in the arts and science, whose own success was overlooked – either by thei...
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Fanny Dickens from 2021-03-10T23:45
Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell tells the story of five brilliant women, all the siblings of renowned achievers in the arts and science, whose own success was overlooked – either by thei...
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Sarah Fielding from 2021-03-09T23:45
Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell tells the story of five brilliant women, all the siblings of renowned achievers in the arts and science, whose own success was overlooked – either by thei...
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Maria Anna Mozart from 2021-03-08T23:45
Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell tells the story of five brilliant women, all the siblings of renowned achievers in the arts and science, whose own success was overlooked – either by thei...
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England and the Touch of Rain from 2021-03-05T23:00
If there's a subject in which England has every right to claim knowledge through experience, it is the subject of rain. Poets, politicians, or labourers, we've lived a literally and metaphorically ...
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Paris and the Look of Rain from 2021-03-04T23:00
Writer and scholar Lauren Elkin describes the very particular grey of a rainy Paris in the time of year that the French revolutionary government called Pluviôse, the month of rain. She talks about ...
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Australia and the Smell of Rain from 2021-03-03T23:00
In the third of her curated series of essays about the way rain is experienced across the globe, Nandini Das introduces the Australian poet and environmentalist Mark O'Connor. Mark explores the uni...
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Japan and the Taste of Rain from 2021-03-02T23:00
When the rains of the fifth month, samidare, arrive in Japan it seems they'll never stop. In the second of Nandini Das's curated series of essays on rain and the way it's experienced across the glo...
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India and the Sound of Rain from 2021-03-01T23:00
Nandini Das, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Oxford, brings us stories and personal experiences of rain and the way it informs and combines with different cultures across the gl...
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Ned Beauman from 2021-02-26T23:45
In our world of dissolving distinctions, five contemporary writers imagine life as an animal of their choice and investigate the boundaries between animal and human - each with the help from differ...
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Sarah Kosar from 2021-02-24T23:45
In our world of dissolving distinctions, five contemporary writers imagine life as an animal of their choice and investigate the boundaries between animal and human - each with the help from differ...
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Belinda Zhawi from 2021-02-23T23:45
In our world of dissolving distinctions, five contemporary writers imagine life as an animal of their choice and investigate the boundaries between animal and human - each with the help from differ...
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Isabel Galleymore from 2021-02-22T23:45
In our world of dissolving distinctions, five contemporary writers imagine life as an animal of their choice and investigate the boundaries between animal and human - each with the help from differ...
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Impression from 2021-02-10T23:00
Legendary broadcaster James Burke reveals unexpected connections between his twin passions of science and classical music. Today’s essay includes Italian electricity, a German baron and his séance...
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The acting coach from 2021-02-05T23:00
Geoffrey Colman invites us to join him on a walk through a day as an acting coach. Geoffrey is an acting coach, educator, broadcaster and former professor of acting at the Royal Central School of ...
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How reality TV has changed acting from 2021-02-04T23:00
Geoffrey Colman describes the ways in which reality TV has changed acting. Geoffrey is an acting coach, educator, broadcaster and former professor of acting at the Royal Central School of Speech o...
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On stage and on screen from 2021-02-03T23:00
Geoffrey Colman explores the differences between acting on stage and on screen. Geoffrey is an acting coach, educator, broadcaster and former professor of acting at the Royal Central School of Spe...
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How to become an actor? from 2021-02-02T23:00
Geoffrey Colman asks what students learn in drama schools, as he continues his series of Essays on acting. Geoffrey is an acting coach, educator, broadcaster and former professor of acting at the ...
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What is good acting? from 2021-02-01T23:00
Geoffrey Colman considers the art of acting, and in this first of a new set of Essays asks: what makes a great actor? Geoffrey is an acting coach, educator, broadcaster and former professor of act...
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Cocker Spaniels from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Essay Five: Cocker Spaniels A new series of essays by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning ...
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Dachshunds from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Essay Four: Dachshunds A new series of essays by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Tr...
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Old English Sheepdogs from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Essay Two: Old English Sheepdogs A new series of essays by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Me...
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Newfoundlands from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Essay One: Newfoundlands A new series of essays by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of ...
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Afua Hirsch on 'Wide Sargasso Sea' from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Journalist and writer Afua Hirsch discusses "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys, the story of the forgotten first wife of Mr Rochester in Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre. Encountering Rhys's novel ...
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Paul Morley from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paul Morley would be happy to sign up to the notion that music is a civilising force were it not for the fact that everywhere he finds it co-opted for purposes that have precious little to do with ...
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Jameela Siddiqi from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jameela Siddiqi remembers her own relatively late discovery of the power of Indian classical music in the hands of the Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. A successful TV news producer with a stable...
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Professor Kofi Agawu from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Professor Kofi Agawu of Princeton University provides the third in The Essay series running in parallel to the BBC TV series Civilisations. Once again he is responding to the question of whether or...
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Professor Alice Roberts from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Professor Alice Roberts chooses to look thousands of years back in human and pre-human history for signs and signals that music was not so much a civilising as a humanising force. Her exploration t...
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Sir Roger Scruton from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In the first of five essay's responding to the BBC's TV series Civilisations, Sir Roger Scruton explores the notion that music might be a civilising force. His response draws on his own boyhood exp...
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What Do You Do If You Are a Manically Depressed Robot? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
New Generation Thinker Simon Beard, from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, looks at AI and what the writing of Douglas Adams tells us about questions of morality and who should be in co...
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Kids With Guns from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
New Generation Thinker Emma Butcher looks at what we learn about war from the writing of child soldiers in The Battle of Trafalgar and the childhood writings of the Bronte family who were avid read...
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Speaking Truth to Power in the Past and Present from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
From Monarchs to Presidents. Joanne Paul on satire, flattery and document leaks in the C16 and C17 centuries and the relevance of strategies for telling truth to those who hold power over us now. F...
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When Shakespeare Travelled with Me from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
April 1916. By the Nile, the foremost poets of the Middle East are arguing about Shakespeare. In 2004, Egyptian singer Essam Karika released his urban song Oh Romeo. Reflecting on his travels and...
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A War of Words from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A fashion show in Buenos Aires was put on for propaganda but football fixtures were deemed too risky. New Generation Thinker Dr Christopher Bannister, from the University of Manchester, looks at at...
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Doing Nothing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Alistair Fraser talks about teenagers, street life and filling time. Doing nothing has become the mantra of twenty-first century life. In an accelerated world, we yearn for a space where minds are ...
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Educating Ida from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Gilbert and Sullivan gave university-educated women the English comic operetta treatment in their eighth collaboration, Princess Ida (1884) but why did the most famous musical duo of their day choo...
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Does Trusting People Need a Leap of Faith? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tom Simpson looks at a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village and the lessons it has for community relations and social tribes now. Edward Banfield's book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Soci...
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Art for Health's Sake from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
An apple a day is said to keep the doctor away but could a poem, painting or play have the same effect? Daisy Fancourt is a Wellcome Research Fellow at University College London. In her Essay, reco...
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Welling Up: Women and Water in the Middle Ages from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Hetta Howes looks at male fears and why Margery Kempe was criticised for crying and bleeding Medieval mystic Margery Kempe's excessive, noisy crying made her travelling companions so irritated t...
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The Last Wolf from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
With the title from an essential work by A.R.B. Haldane, 'New Ways Through the Glens' is Kenneth Steven's personal reflection on the changes brought to the people and landscape of the Scottish High...
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The Great Glen from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
With the title from an essential work by A.R.B. Haldane, 'New Ways Through the Glens' is Kenneth Steven's personal reflection on the changes brought to the people and landscape of the Scottish High...
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The Moss Lairds from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
With the title from an essential work by A.R.B. Haldane, 'New Ways Through the Glens' is Kenneth Steven's personal reflection on the changes brought to the people and landscape of the Scottish High...
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The Dark Years from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
With its title drawn from an essential work by ARB Haldane, 'New Ways through the Glens' is Kenneth Steven's personal reflection on the changes brought to the people and landscape of the Scottish H...
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Louise Welsh from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Writer Louise Welsh reflects on the theme of the Uncanny in the writing of Muriel Spark through her story "The House of the Famous Poet." Muriel Spark was a Scot, an exile, a poet, a codebreaker,...
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The Essex Way from 2021-01-29T23:00
In the last programme in a series celebrating the joys of Essex, surely the most maligned of counties, writer Gillian Darley explores the unsung delights of Mid Essex, with a trip along the Essex W...
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Brightening from the East from 2021-01-28T23:00
In the next in a series celebrating the joys of Essex, surely the most maligned of counties, writer and social historian Ken Worpole explores Essex as a place of retreat and refuge. Known recen...
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The Refusal of Place from 2021-01-27T23:00
In the next in a series exploring the joys of Essex, surely the most maligned and misunderstood of counties, writer and poet Lavinia Greenlaw takes us back to the formative landscape of her childho...
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Washed Up in Essex from 2021-01-26T22:45
In the next in a series exploring the joys of Essex, surely the most overlooked and misunderstood of counties, AL Kennedy takes on a watery journey through the rivers, mudflats and reedbeds of the ...
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Metropolitan Essex from 2021-01-25T22:45
Kicking off the series exploring the joys of Essex, surely the most maligned and misunderstood of counties, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg reflects on the borderland between London and Essex that fu...
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Anselm Kiefer from 2021-01-22T23:45
Anselm Kiefer, one of the greatest living painters, keeps a vast museum of work and materials, like part of a ruined civilisation, in the south of France. Martin Gayford visits.
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Lorenzo Lotto from 2021-01-20T23:45
Lorenzo Lotto is one of Martin Gayford's favourite painters. But the quest to see his pictures 'in the flesh' in Italy turns out to be tortuous, even for the most devoted art.
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Heads, Bodies and Legs from 2021-01-15T23:45
Writer Polly Coles reads the final essay in her series on portraiture and our obsession with ourselves: Heads, Bodies and Legs. In this series, she looks at five different aspects of portraiture an...
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Sitting - Our Place in the World from 2021-01-14T23:45
Writer Polly Coles reads the next of her essays about portraiture and our obsession with ourselves: Sitting - Our Place in the World. In this series, she looks at five different aspects of portrait...
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Fame and Infamy from 2021-01-13T23:45
Writer Polly Coles reads the third of her essays about portraiture and our obsession with ourselves: Fame and Infamy. In this series, she looks at five different aspects of portraiture and makes th...
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Portraits of Love and Hate from 2021-01-12T23:45
Writer Polly Coles reads the next of her essays about portraiture and our obsession with ourselves: Portraits of Love and Hate. In this series, she looks at five different aspects of portraiture an...
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Know Thy Selfie from 2021-01-11T23:45
Writer Polly Coles reads Know Thy selfie, the first of her essays on portraiture and our obsession with ourselves. She looks at five different aspects of portraiture and makes the case that portrai...
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Jess Gillam on Bach from 2020-12-11T23:00
Radio 3 presenter Jess Gillam celebrates the composer whose music unexpectedly helped her though lockdown, Johann Sebastian Bach,
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Jumoké Fashola on Nina Simone from 2020-12-10T23:00
Radio 3 presenter Jumoké Fashola celebrates the singer-songwriter whose music and life story helped her to find her own voice, American Nina Simone.
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Ian Skelly on Jean Mouton from 2020-12-09T23:00
Radio 3 presenter Ian Skelly celebrates the composer who helped him see humanity as integrated with nature, Frenchman Jean Mouton.
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Elizabeth Alker on Sofia Gubaidulina from 2020-12-09T11:39
Radio 3 presenter Elizabeth Alker celebrates the first 'unclassified' composer, Russian Sofia Gubaidulina.
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Hannah French on Barbara Strozzi from 2020-12-09T11:34
Radio 3 presenter Hannah French celebrates the composer who liberates her from imposter syndrome, Venetian Barbara Strozzi.
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Sonny Rollins from 2020-11-21T11:25
Radio 3’s veteran jazz broadcaster Geoffrey Smith concludes his series on perceptions of jazz in Britain, told through his own experience as an American settling in the UK nearly 50 years ago. In...
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Stan Tracey from 2020-11-20T17:20
Writer and broadcaster Geoffrey Smith continues his series on the changing perceptions of jazz in Britain, by taking a closer look at celebrated British pianist and composer Stan Tracey. Stan was...
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Americans in Britain from 2020-11-19T13:02
Geoffrey Smith continues his series on changing perceptions of jazz in Britain, focusing on the visits of two celebrated American artists, Duke Ellington and Bud Freeman. Britain has always been a...
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The British Audience from 2020-11-19T12:52
Writer and broadcaster Geoffrey Smith continues his series on the changing perceptions of jazz in Britain, focusing on the audience. In a culture obsessed with interpreting social signs, the Brit...
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On Not Being a Jazzer from 2020-11-19T12:38
Radio 3’s veteran jazz broadcaster Geoffrey Smith reflects on the changing perceptions and appreciation of jazz in Britain through his own experience as an American settling in the UK nearly 50 yea...
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Fort-de-France from 2020-10-26T11:04
Writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns continues his tour of great cities influenced by their relationship with Africa in Fort-de-France, the capital of the Caribbean island of Martinique. On an isl...
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Philadelphia from 2020-10-26T10:58
In the second of his essays on great cities which have been influenced by African migration, writer and broadcaster Lindsay Johns takes a walk around Philadelphia. It's a city whose history is tie...
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The woman with the spoon from 2020-10-16T22:10
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite used lockdown creatively. Responding to the Getty Museum’s social media challenge to reproduce a work of art using only household items, he embarked on an extraordinar...
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The man with the pipe from 2020-10-15T22:06
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite used lockdown creatively. Responding to the Getty Museum’s social media challenge to reproduce a work of art using only household items, he embarked on an extraordinar...
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The man with the French horn from 2020-10-14T22:03
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite used lockdown creatively. Responding to the Getty Museum’s social media challenge to reproduce a work of art using only household items, he embarked on an extraordinar...
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The boy with the monkey on his back from 2020-10-13T22:01
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite used lockdown creatively. Responding to the Getty Museum’s social media challenge to reproduce a work of art using only household items, he embarked on an extraordinar...
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The man with the ship on his head from 2020-10-13T15:56
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite used lockdown creatively. Responding to the Getty Museum’s social media challenge to reproduce a work of art using only household items, he embarked on an extraordinar...
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Susanna White-Winslow from 2020-09-17T22:00
Five essays reflect on the impact of the Puritan Pilgrims setting sail on the ship the Mayflower 400 years ago, from Plymouth in England heading west to “the New World”. Writers look at what the an...
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John Alden from 2020-09-17T06:49
Five essays reflect on the impact of the Puritan Pilgrims setting sail on the ship the Mayflower 400 years ago, from Plymouth in England heading west to “the New World”. Writers look at what the an...
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400 years on from 2020-09-14T22:00
Five essays reflect on the impact of the Puritan Pilgrims setting sail on the ship the Mayflower 400 years ago, from Plymouth in England heading west to “the New World”. Writers look at what the an...
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Egyptian Satire from 2020-07-09T18:28
Dina Rezk from the University of Reading looks at politics and the role of humour as she profiles Bassem Youssef “the Jon Stewart of Egyptian satire”. As protests reverberate around the world she l...
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Pogroms and prejudice from 2020-07-09T18:17
New Generation Thinker Brendan McGeever traces the links between anti-semitism now and pogroms in the former Soviet Union and the language used to describe this form of racism. Brendan McGeeve...
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Prison Break from 2020-07-01T15:59
Prison breaks loom large in both literature and pop culture. But how should we evaluate them ethically? New Generation Thinker Jeffrey Howard asks what a world without prison would look like. His...
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Facing Facts from 2020-06-28T19:17
Earlier periods of history have seen more people with scarring to their faces from duelling injuries and infectious diseases but what stopped this leading to a greater tolerance of facial differenc...
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Dam Fever and The Diaspora from 2020-06-28T18:49
New Generation Thinker Majed Akhter explores how large dam projects continue to form reservoirs of hope for a sustainable future. Despite their known drawbacks, our love affair with dams has not ab...
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Not Quite Jean Muir from 2020-06-26T12:56
Jade Halbert lectures in fashion but has never done any sewing. She swaps pen and paper for needle and thread to create a dress from a Jean Muir pattern. In a diary charting her progress, she refle...
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Digging Deep from 2020-06-26T12:35
There is fascinating evidence that 5,000 years ago, people living in Britain and Ireland had a deep and meaningful relationship with the underworld seen in the carved chalk, animal bones and human ...
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Tudor Virtual Reality from 2020-06-25T22:40
Advances in robotics and virtual reality are giving us ever more 'realistic' ways of representing the world, but the quest for vivid visualisation is thousands of years old. This essay takes the g...
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Coming out Crip and Acts of Care from 2020-06-25T22:12
This Essay tells a story of political marches and everyday acts of radical care; of sledgehammers and bags of rice; of the struggles for justice waged by migrant domestic workers but it also charts...
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Berlin, Detroit, Race and Techno Music from 2020-06-25T21:47
When Tom Smith sets out to research allegations of racism in Berlin’s club scene, he finds himself face to face with his own past in techno’s birthplace: Detroit. Visiting the music distributor S...
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5. The Holy Island from 2020-06-09T09:37
Poet Kenneth Steven finds inspiration in Scotland's west coast islands. Each memoir concludes with a poem written about the island he has visited. 5. The Holy Island: a personal reflection on an u...
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1. Mingulay from 2020-06-09T07:32
Poet Kenneth Steven finds inspiration in Scotland's west coast islands. Each memoir concludes with a poem written about the island he has visited. 1. Mingulay: in the Outer Hebrides, an island com...
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Ian Sansom: Mince on Toast with Christopher Isherwood from 2020-05-29T22:00
Diaries are one of our oldest literary traditions, conjuring questions of private confessions and public display. In this series of essays we explore five diarists of the past through the lens of t...
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Ian Sansom: Cheese Dreams with Graham Greene from 2020-05-28T22:00
Diaries are one of our oldest literary traditions, conjuring questions of private confessions and public display. In this series of essays we explore five diarists of the past through the lens of t...
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Helen Mort: More Than Enough from 2020-05-27T22:00
Diaries are one of our oldest literary traditions, conjuring questions of private confessions and public display. In this series of essays we explore five diarists of the past through the lens of t...
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AL Kennedy: Hope On, Hope Ever from 2020-05-26T22:00
Diaries are one of our oldest literary traditions, conjuring questions of private confessions and public display. In this series of essays we explore five diarists of the past through the lens of t...
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AL Kennedy: The Towers We Founded and the Lamps We Lit from 2020-05-25T22:00
Diaries are one of our oldest literary traditions, conjuring questions of private confessions and public display. In this series of essays we explore five diarists of the past through the lens of t...
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 10.Aida Edemariam from 2020-05-22T21:59
leading writers share their secrets of places of inner sanctuary 10.Aida Edemariam
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 8.Michael Morpurgo from 2020-05-21T21:59
leading writers on places of inner sanctuary in times of crisis 8.michael morpurgo
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 9.David Constatine from 2020-05-21T21:59
Leading writers share the secrets of places of inner sanctuary 9.David Constantine
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 7. Evie Wyld from 2020-05-19T21:59
leading writers on a place of inner refuge in times of crisis 7.evie wyld
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 6.David Almond from 2020-05-18T21:59
leading writers share the secrets of their internal places of refuge in times of crisis
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 5. Alice Oswald from 2020-05-08T21:59
Leading writers share secrets of their place of internal refuge 5.Alice Oswald
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 4.Tessa Hadley from 2020-05-07T21:59
leading writers share the secrets of places of internal refuge in crisis 4.Tessa Hadley
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 3. Tahmima Anam from 2020-05-06T21:59
leading writers evoke places of internal refuges which they visit in times of crisis
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The Essay - Let Me Take You There - 2.Inua Ellams from 2020-05-05T21:59
Leading writers share the secrets of places of internal refuge in times of crisis
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They Essay - Let Me Take You There 1 from 2020-05-04T21:59
Writers on personal places of refuge in times of crisis 1.Alan Hollinghurst
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Paul Robeson in Five Songs: 5. Joe Hill from 2020-04-15T15:57
Marybeth Hamilton on the ghosts of Joe Hill and Paul Robeson and their linked fates.
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Paul Robeson in Five Songs: 4. Zog Nit Keynmol from 2020-04-15T15:16
Paul Robeson's life and struggle through songs .Tayo Aluko on Robeson's Zog Nit Keynmol.
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Paul Robeson in Five Songs: 3. The Canoe Song from 2020-04-15T14:48
Paul Robeson's life and struggle told through music. Matthew Sweet on the Canoe Song.
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Paul Robeson in Five Songs: 1. No More Auction Block from 2020-04-15T13:00
Paul Robeson's life and struggle through song. Shana Redmond on No More Auction Block.
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Paul Robeson in Five Songs: 2. Ol' Man River from 2020-04-15T13:00
The life of Paul Robeson in songs. Granddaughter Susan Robeson on Ol' Man River.
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The Preseli Mountains from 2020-03-21T10:04
Jon Gower, writer and keen walker of the Welsh mountains, explores the unique characteristics of each of Wales's five ranges and reflects on what they mean to the people who live among them. For m...
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The Brecon Beacons from 2020-03-18T23:00
Jon Gower, writer and keen walker of the Welsh mountains, explores the unique characteristics of each of Wales's five ranges and reflects on what they mean to the people who live among them. For m...
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The Black Mountains from 2020-03-17T23:00
Jon Gower, writer and keen walker of the Welsh mountains, explores the unique characteristics of each of Wales's five ranges and reflects on what they mean to the people who live among them. For m...
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Margaret Oliphant from 2020-02-28T16:24
The novel Miss Marjoribanks (1866) brought to life a large comic heroine who bucked 19th-century conventions. New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore outlines the prolific writing career of Margar...
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Lady Mary Wroth from 2020-02-28T15:58
Author of the first prose romance published in England in 1621, her reputation at court was ruined by her thinly veiled autobiographical writing. Visit the family home, Penshurst Place in Kent, an...
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Storm Jameson from 2020-02-28T15:50
What is a writer's duty? Katie Cooper considers Storm Jameson's campaigning for refugees, her 1940 appeal To the Conscience of the World and why her fiction fell out of favour but is now seeing a r...
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Charlotte Turner Smith from 2020-02-28T15:50
New Generation Thinker Sophie Coulombeau argues that we should salute this woman who supported her family through her writing, who perfected sonnets about solitude before Wordsworth began writing h...
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Yolande Mukagasana from 2020-02-28T15:34
New Generation Thinker Zoe Norridge describes translating the testimony of a nurse who survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In Rwanda, Yolande Mukagasana is a well-known writer...
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Sophie Coulombeau - Walking Matilda from 2020-02-14T23:00
As an injured soldier under house arrest, Xavier de Maistre staved off boredom by imagining every step around his drawing room was a step across a country; Virginia Woolf’s writerly wandering aroun...
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Nat Segnit - The Other Ibiza from 2020-02-14T14:29
As an injured soldier under house arrest, Xavier de Maistre staved off boredom by imagining every step around his drawing room was a step across a country; Virginia Woolf’s writerly wandering aroun...
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Stephanie Victoire - Dark Hollow Falls from 2020-02-12T23:00
As an injured soldier under house arrest, Xavier de Maistre staved off boredom by imagining every step around his drawing room was a step across a country; Virginia Woolf’s writerly wandering aroun...
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Michael Donkor - On Wandsworth Bridge from 2020-02-11T23:00
As an injured soldier under house arrest, Xavier de Maistre staved off boredom by imagining every step around his drawing room was a step across a country; Virginia Woolf’s writerly wandering aroun...
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Jenn Ashworth - The Abiding Mental Riches of Preston from 2020-02-11T19:09
As an injured soldier under house arrest, Xavier de Maistre staved off boredom by imagining every step around his drawing room was a step across a country; Virginia Woolf’s writerly wandering aroun...
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10: The Resurrection from 2020-01-31T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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9: The Missing from 2020-01-30T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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8: The Echo from 2020-01-29T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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7: The Love Story from 2020-01-28T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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6: The Persona from 2020-01-27T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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5: The Deserter from 2020-01-24T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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4: The Living Artwork from 2020-01-23T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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3: The Most Hated Art Critic in France from 2020-01-22T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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2: The Boxer from 2020-01-21T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative c...
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1: The Poet from 2020-01-20T22:45
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada, surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative...
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Philippa Gregory on Jane Eyre from 2019-12-27T22:15
Five leading writers pick a novel they love and then write an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends. When she first encountered Jane Eyre in the ...
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Elif Shafak on Anna Karenina from 2019-12-26T22:30
Five leading writers pick a novel they love and then write an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends. Award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif...
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AL Kennedy on The Wind in the Willows from 2019-12-25T22:15
Five leading writers pick a novel they love and then write an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends. For the six-year-old AL Kennedy, Kenneth Gra...
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Bernardine Evaristo on Mrs Dalloway from 2019-12-24T22:30
Five leading writers pick a novel they love and then write an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends. Man Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo ...
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Ian Rankin on Lord of the Flies from 2019-12-23T22:30
Five leading writers pick a novel they love and then write an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends. In the first essay of the series, the crime ...
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Ian Rankin on Lord of the Flies from 2019-12-23T22:30
Five leading writers pick a novel they love and then write an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends. In the first essay of the series, the crime ...
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Dance Till You Bleed: The World According to Hans Christian Andersen - Episode 5 from 2019-11-29T23:00
Toby Jones stars as Hans Christian Andersen in five fairy-tale adaptations by Lucy Catherine that shine a light into the dark regions of the author’s mind. Each of the dramas is introduced by best-...
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Dance Till You Bleed: The World According to Hans Christian Andersen - Episode 4 from 2019-11-28T23:00
Toby Jones stars as Hans Christian Andersen in five fairy tale adaptations by Lucy Catherine that shine a light into the dark regions of the author’s mind. Each of the dramas is introduced by best-...
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Dance Till You Bleed: The World According to Hans Christian Andersen - Episode 3 from 2019-11-27T23:00
Toby Jones stars as Hans Christian Andersen in five fairy-tale adaptations by Lucy Catherine that shine a light into the dark regions of the author’s mind. Each of the dramas is introduced by best-...
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Dance Till You Bleed: The World According to Hans Christian Andersen - Episode 2 from 2019-11-26T23:00
Toby Jones stars as Hans Christian Andersen in five fairy-tale adaptations by Lucy Catherine that shine a light into the dark regions of the author’s mind. Each of the dramas is introduced by best-...
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Dance Till You Bleed: The World According to Hans Christian Andersen - Episode 1 from 2019-11-25T23:00
Toby Jones stars as Hans Christian Andersen in five fairy-tale adaptations by Lucy Catherine that shine a light into the dark regions of the author’s mind. Each of the dramas is introduced by best-...
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John Ocansey from 2019-11-22T22:45
In April 1881, a young African man named John Ocansey set sail from the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) for Liverpool in order to try and discover what had happened to goods that his father had dispa...
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Mary Prince and Sally Hemings from 2019-11-21T22:45
To mark the 400 years since the arrival of African slaves to America, Jamaican-born author Anne Bailey reflects on two remarkable women pertinent to this commemoration and discusses how they have i...
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Sarah Forbes Bonetta from 2019-11-20T22:45
To mark 400 years since the arrival of African slaves to America, David Olusoga reflects on the life of Sarah Forbes Bonetta. As a young Dahomeyan girl called Ina, she was sold into slavery and, in...
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Philip Quaque from 2019-11-18T22:45
To mark the 400 years since the arrival of African slaves to America, the author and playwright Caryl Phillips reflects on the life of one individual. In February 1766, a twenty-five year old Afri...
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Fiery the Angels Fell - David Thomson from 2019-11-13T18:13
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retrofitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washed...
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Fiery the Angels Fell - David Thomson from 2019-11-13T18:13
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retrofitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washed...
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Zhora and the Snake - Beth Singler from 2019-11-13T18:11
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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Zhora and the Snake - Beth Singler from 2019-11-13T18:11
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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More Human than Human - Ken Hollings from 2019-11-13T18:07
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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More Human than Human - Ken Hollings from 2019-11-13T18:07
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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Sounds of the Future Past - Frances Morgan from 2019-11-13T18:05
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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Sounds of the Future Past - Frances Morgan from 2019-11-13T18:05
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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Los Angeles, November 2019 - Deyan Sudjic from 2019-11-13T17:56
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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Los Angeles, November 2019 - Deyan Sudjic from 2019-11-13T17:56
Los Angeles, November 2019. Blade Runner's future is now ours. Ridley Scott's 1982 classic future film of replicants escaping to a retro-fitted Earth and meeting their end at the hands of the washe...
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Philip Hoare - The Haunted Sea from 2019-09-27T22:00
The annual Arts Over Borders festival reaches into rural and urban communities on both sides of the Irish border. Curated with a strong sense of place and extending across four counties – from Ferm...
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Ed Vulliamy - Forever Young from 2019-09-26T22:00
The annual Arts Over Borders festival reaches into rural and urban communities on both sides of the Irish border. Curated with a strong sense of place and extending across four counties – from Ferm...
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Wendy Erskine - Knock Knock, Who's There? from 2019-09-25T22:00
The annual Arts Over Borders festival reaches into rural and urban communities on both sides of the Irish border. Curated with a strong sense of place and extending across four counties – from Ferm...
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Stephen Sexton - The Tory Islanders from 2019-09-24T22:00
The annual Arts Over Borders festival reaches into rural and urban communities on both sides of the Irish border. Curated with a strong sense of place and extending across four counties – from Ferm...
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Sinead Gleeson - Pain, Borders and Averting Our Gaze from 2019-09-23T22:00
The annual Arts Over Borders festival reaches into rural and urban communities on both sides of the Irish border. Curated with a strong sense of place and extending across four counties – from Ferm...
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The Wood Beyond the World from 2019-08-26T21:48
Lose yourself in a forest of fair maidens and knights with suspiciously shiny armour. This is a forest where the romantic couplings may be fantastical but the backdrop is meticulously drawn. Each ...
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Scents of the Forest from 2019-08-22T21:44
As he enters a woodland, perfumer, Roja Dove can be overwhelmed. This legendary nose of the perfume industry can identify 800 different scents blindfolded. Place him in a forest and he can sense na...
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Outlaws of the Forest from 2019-08-20T22:00
Forests are the perfect place for outlaw artists to enact their vision. Just fourteen stops from Soho on the Central Line, Epping Forest provides a particularly convenient place to lose yourself an...
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Forest Folk from 2019-08-19T22:38
The folk singer, Nancy Kerr joins Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough for a walk in the woods. Forests play a vital role in folk music, as a refuge for romantic outlaws, as a metaphor for freedom and as a...
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Kate Molleson on Eliane Radigue from 2019-08-16T22:00
Radio 3 presenter Kate Molleson celebrates a composer whose music is particularly important to her: the Frenchwoman Eliane Radigue, whose calm and long-form sense of perspective Kate finds inspirat...
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Andrew McGregor on Thomas Tallis from 2019-08-15T22:00
Radio 3 presenter Andrew McGregor reflects on the powerful Lamentations of English composer Thomas Tallis and their special place in his life.
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Kathryn Tickell on Percy Grainger from 2019-08-08T22:00
Radio 3 presenter Kathryn Tickell celebrates a composer whose music is particularly important to her: the Australian-American folksong fanatic Percy Grainger.
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Tom McKinney on Olivier Messiaen from 2019-08-06T22:00
Radio 3 presenter Tom McKinney celebrates the birdsong-inspired music of the twentieth-century French composer Olivier Messiaen and its special place in his life.
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Penny Gore on Leoš Janá?ek from 2019-08-05T22:00
Radio 3 presenter Penny Gore celebrates a composer particularly important to her: the Moravian, Leoš Janá?ek, whose music is shot through with the uncertainties of life.
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Petroc Trelawny on Lennox Berkeley from 2019-08-02T22:00
Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny celebrates a composer whose fascinating life story and music are particularly special to him: the Englishman Lennox Berkeley.
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John Toal on Maurice Ravel from 2019-08-01T22:00
Radio 3 presenter John Toal the French composer Maurice Ravel, whose music had a special place in his life long before he discovered an unexpected connection.
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Clemency Burton-Hill on George Enescu from 2019-07-31T22:00
Clemency Burton-Hill celebrates the Romanian composer George Enescu, whose philosophy of the profound importance of music in all areas of life has been a particular inspiration to her.
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Ian McMillan on Ralph Vaughan Williams from 2019-07-24T22:00
Radio 3 presenter and poet Ian McMillan celebrates the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music has been particularly special to him ever since he first heard The Lark Ascending at the ...
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Fiona Talkington on Joseph Canteloube from 2019-07-22T21:45
Radio 3 presenter Fiona Talkington celebrates the French composer Joseph Canteloube, whose famous Songs of the Auvergne have become particularly important to her during her experience of cancer.
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Rame Head Chapel from 2019-07-12T22:00
The author Natasha Carthew on Rame Head Chapel, near Whitsand Bay, in south east Cornwall. 5/5 Natasha describes how she would write here in the wild as a child and how the chapel symbolised hope....
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Trinity Theatre from 2019-07-11T22:00
The writer Bridget Collins takes us backstage to Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells. 4/5 Bridget reflects on repurposing old buildings and the links between church and theatre.This week's Essays are...
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Malcolm's Place, Uig, Isle of Lewis from 2019-07-10T22:00
Author James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd, talks about Malcolm's place, Taigh na Trathad (The Beach House) in Uig on the Isle of Lewis. 3/5 James describes how the history and sense of comm...
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The Dead Dad Show from 2019-07-10T11:12
As part of Radio 3's Take Five week of young artists, the second of five dramatic monologues by young writers. Each writer was given a particular piece of music and asked to write a dramatic monolo...
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Rochdale Town Hall from 2019-07-09T22:00
Novelist Beth Underdown on Rochdale Town Hall. 2/5 Beth describes how her family's personal history is tied up with the building and how Hitler reputedly admired it so much that he ordered it spar...
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Glasgow School of Art from 2019-07-08T22:00
Author Louise Welsh reflects on Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art. 1/5 Louise describes her memories of the building before it was ravagedby two fires. This week's Essays are cel...
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The Hard Man in the Call Centre from 2019-06-21T21:45
A song about a Glaswegian tough guy begins this Essay from New Generation Thinker Alistair Fraser. Recorded with an audience at the York Festival of Ideas. To hear audience questions download the ...
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'Bedford, do you call this thing a coat?' The History of the Three-Piece Suit from 2019-06-20T21:45
What does wearing a suit say? New Generation Thinker Sarah Goldsmith's Essay introduces an audience at York Festival of Ideas to Beau Brummel and others who have understood the mixed messages of su...
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Comrades in Arms from 2019-06-19T21:45
Queerness might not be the most obvious association with soldiering, but New Generation Thinker Tom Smith's Essay argues that although the East German army had a reputation for unbending masculinit...
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Sword to Pen: Redcoat and the Rise of the Military Memoir from 2019-06-18T21:45
Napoleon inspired much fiction and non-fiction. New Generation Thinker Emma Butcher looks at the publishing phenomenon that was the traumatised Napoleonic Redcoat - Recorded before an audience at t...
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The Well-Groomed Georgian from 2019-06-18T21:45
Lockdown brought beards and the question of to shave or not to shave to the fore. New Generation Thinker Alun Withey looks at what made 18th-century men shave off centuries of manly growth. Recorde...
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Le Festival de Men from 2019-06-14T11:18
As part of Radio 3's Take Five week of young artists, the last of five dramatic monologues by young writers. Each writer was given a particular piece of music and asked to write a dramatic monologu...
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Every Night from 2019-06-13T11:17
The fourth of five dramatic monologues by young writers. Each writer was given a particular piece of music and asked to write a dramatic monologue in which the music becomes part of the soundtrack....
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Reluctant Spirit from 2019-06-12T11:14
The third of five dramatic monologues by young writers. Each writer was given a particular piece of music and asked to write a dramatic monologue in which the music becomes part of the soundtrack. ...
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Daniel Hahn from 2019-05-31T22:00
Daniel Hahn considers language in the relationship between Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday, and how two meeting cultures communicate In this series of Essays, recorded in front of an audience at th...
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Alys Conran from 2019-05-30T12:00
Alys Conran reflects on the theme of isolation in Robinson Crusoe and the act of reading it as a novelist In this series of Essays, recorded in front of an audience at the 2019 Hay Festival, five...
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Alex Wheatle from 2019-05-29T22:00
Having enjoyed it as an eight-year-old boy, Alex Wheatle re-reads Robinson Crusoe and reflects on its themes of imperialism and slavery. In this series of Essays, recorded in front of an audience ...
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Horatio Clare from 2019-05-28T22:00
Horatio Clare explores the castaway myth, looking at what happens to the soul and mind in the great spaces and on actual desert islands. In this series of Essays, recorded in front of an audience ...
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Fiona Stafford from 2019-05-27T22:00
Fiona Stafford explores ‘The Strange, Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe’, looking at what Crusoe the narrator was most surprised by, and the stranger aspects of the book In this series of E...
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Swimming the Avon from 2019-05-17T22:03
Poet and wild swimmer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett joins Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough for an inspirational dip in the chilly River Avon. Elizabeth-Jane's latest book, The Grassling, is a nature memoir a...
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The Power of the Thames from 2019-05-16T22:01
Stand knee-deep in a river and consider the energy flow. Water presses against you, light reflects upon the surface. What else can you feel? Helen Czerski of University College London views the Tha...
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The Art of Zen Fly Fishing from 2019-05-15T21:59
For Feargal Sharkey the perfect cast is a lifelong obsession. It's the moment when man and river exist in perfect harmony. It's a passion he shares with generations of artists before him on the cha...
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Medway Mudlarks from 2019-05-15T13:57
On the banks of the River Medway, Nicola White is in search of artistic inspiration. Driftwood, perhaps? A Victorian poison bottle or a Roman pot? In the second of a series of Essays on British riv...
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Gaelic Waters from 2019-05-15T13:55
Gaelic songs and stories burst with mythical water creatures, from seductive kelpies and selkies to woeful waterfall banshees. In the first of five Essays from the banks of British rivers, folk sin...
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Dear William... from 2019-05-03T22:00
'Dear Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wilde, Do you mind if I just call you Oscar? It's just you always seemed so approachable yet ultimately unknowable...a bit like the Queen.'Continuing his series of im...
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Dear Marianne ... from 2019-05-02T22:00
'Dear Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wilde, Do you mind if I just call you Oscar? It's just you always seemed so approachable yet ultimately unknowable...a bit like the Queen.'Continuing his series of im...
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Dear Oscar... from 2019-05-01T22:00
'Dear Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wilde, Do you mind if I just call you Oscar? It's just you always seemed so approachable yet ultimately unknowable...a bit like the Queen.'Continuing his series of im...
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Dear Mary... from 2019-04-30T22:00
'Dear Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wilde, Do you mind if I just call you Oscar? It's just you always seemed so approachable yet ultimately unknowable...a bit like the Queen.'Continuing his series of im...
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Dear Dante... from 2019-04-29T22:00
'Dear Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wilde, Do you mind if I just call you Oscar? It's just you always seemed so approachable yet ultimately unknowable...a bit like the Queen.'Continuing his series of im...
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Where Do Human Rights Come From? from 2019-04-12T21:45
You don't have to be religious to believe that, as the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "all human beings have the right to be free and treated equally." However, drawi...
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Should Salman Rushdie Live and Let Die ? from 2019-04-10T21:45
You are a liberal who opposes art being banned. But would a movie that calls for you to be killed change your view of censorship? This was the quandary facing Salman Rushdie when filmmakers in Paki...
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Who Wrote Animal Farm? from 2019-04-09T22:00
Was George Orwell’s wife his forgotten collaborator on one of the most famous books in the world? Lisa Mullen takes a new look at Animal Farm from the perspective of the smart and resourceful Eilee...
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Shopping Around the Baby Market from 2019-04-04T22:00
Commercial surrogacy – the practice of paying another woman to carry a pregnancy to term – has been criticised for being exploitative, particularly when poorer women are recruited. Even if these w...
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Why Trespassing Is the Right Way To Go from 2019-04-03T21:45
Have you ever been somewhere you shouldn't? In this essay, New Generation Thinker Ben Anderson creeps around, and explains how trespassers in the early-twentieth century helped create new attitudes...
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Cooking and Eating God in Medieval Drama from 2019-04-02T21:45
Daisy Black looks at religious imagery, food, anti-Semitism and product placement in medieval mystery plays. Eaten by characters, dotted around the stage as saliva-prompting props, or nibbled by au...
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A City is not a Park from 2019-04-01T21:45
Des Fitzgerald tracks the relationship between the modern city and its green environs. Drawing together psychological research with urban history and literature it asks: what would change, psycholo...
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Mabinogi - Episode 5 from 2019-03-22T23:05
Adapted by Lucy Catherine
From the Red Book of Hergest, these are the tales of the Mabinogi. Final episode of a new fantasy adventure series, based on the iconic work of medieval Welsh mytholog...
Mabinogi - Episode 4 from 2019-03-21T23:05
Adapted by Lucy Catherine
From the Red Book of Hergest, these are the tales of the Mabinogi. Fourth episode of a new fantasy adventure series, based on the iconic work of medieval Welsh my...
Mabinogi - Episode 3 from 2019-03-20T23:05
Adapted by Lucy Catherine
From the Red Book of Hergest, these are the tales of the Mabinogi. Third episode of a new fantasy adventure series, based on the iconic work of medieval Welsh myt...
Mabinogi - Episode 2 from 2019-03-19T23:01
Adapted by Lucy Catherine
From the Red Book of Hergest, these are the tales of the Mabinogi. Second episode of a new fantasy adventure series, based on the iconic work of medieval Welsh my...
Mabinogi - Episode 1 from 2019-03-18T23:01
Adapted by Lucy Catherine
From the Red Book of Hergest, these are the tales of the Mabinogi. First episode of a new fantasy adventure series, based on the iconic work of medieval Welsh myt...
Woman on the Edge of Time from 2019-03-08T23:00
Comedian and author Viv Groskop explores five forgotten feminist futures; from the book that predicted the internet, to the world where men have been wiped out in a plague. Episode 5/5: Woman on ...
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The Female Man from 2019-03-07T23:00
Comedian and author Viv Groskop explores five forgotten feminist futures. Episode 4/5: The Female Man, by Joanna Russ, which tells four versions of the same woman, a complex narrative which pref...
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Mizora: A Prophecy from 2019-03-05T23:00
Comedian and author Viv Groskop explores five forgotten feminist futures. Episode 2/5: Mizora: A Prophecy, the 19th-century narrative written by author Mary E Bradley, who didn’t want her husba...
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Three Hundred Years Hence from 2019-03-04T23:00
Comedian and author Viv Groskop explores five forgotten feminist futures; from the book that predicted the internet, to the world where men have been wiped out in a gender-specific plague. Episo...
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Cary Grant from 2019-02-15T22:45
Sarah Churchwell celebrates various leading men of the silver screen from the 1930s and 1940s. She says, "the truth is, I would have done five essays on Cary Grant, but my producer wouldn't let me...
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Joel McCrea from 2019-02-14T22:45
Sarah Churchwell celebrates various leading men of the silver screen, from the 1930s and 1940s. Joel McCrea starred in westerns and crime capers and refused some movies if the characters did not p...
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Charles Boyer from 2019-02-13T22:45
Sarah Churchwell celebrates various leading men of the silver screen, from the 1930s and 1940s. Charles Boyer played killers and gigolos, conmen and psychopaths. He was good at romantic comedy and...
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Frederic March from 2019-02-12T22:45
Sarah Churchwell celebrates various leading men of the silver screen from the 1930s and 1940s. Frederic March had an amazing range, playing a lot of different types, and he should be admired for t...
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Clark Gable from 2019-02-11T22:45
Sarah Churchwell celebrates various leading men of the silver screen, from the 1930s and 1940s: First off is Clark Gable and Gone with the Wind of course. And countless other films where this clas...
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Make Some Noise from 2019-02-08T22:45
Writer and broadcaster AL Kennedy concludes her exploration of voice. Today, make some noise before it's too late. Written and read by AL Kennedy.Producer: Justine Willett
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Your Master's Voice from 2019-02-07T22:45
Writer and broadcaster AL Kennedy continues her exploration of voice. Today, she compares the soothing radio voices of her childhood with the angry voices of today's media. Written and read by AL ...
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Words, Words, Words from 2019-02-06T22:45
Acclaimed writer AL Kennedy continues her exploration of voice. Today, she looks at the voice on the page - and the importance of telling our stories. Written and read by AL Kennedy.Producer: Just...
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Not Killing Conversation from 2019-02-05T22:45
Acclaimed writer and broadcaster AL Kennedy continues her exploration of voice. Today, she looks at the importance of conversation and of being heard. Written and read by AL Kennedy.Producer: Just...
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Voices, Voices, Everywhere from 2019-02-04T22:45
Using her own voice recordings, writer AL Kennedy explores the power of voice and what it can say about us. Written and read by AL Kennedy.Producer: Justine Willett
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25/01/2019 from 2019-01-25T22:45
Andrew Martin's five essays that muse on the county of his birth and upbringing: Sitting on a bench in Scarborough station, he recalls the Yorkshire coast of his youth. This takes in Whitby and Br...
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24/01/2019 from 2019-01-24T22:45
Andrew Martin's five essays that muse on the county of his birth and upbringing. He thinks he's best able to evoke a Yorkshire steeped in the past, but whatabout the future. Yorkshire independence...
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23/01/2019 from 2019-01-23T22:45
Andrew Martin's five essays that muse on the county of his birth and upbringing: This time, he ponders questions of class in God's Own County. "My dad was one of the men who went to work in suits,...
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22/01/2019 from 2019-01-22T22:45
Andrew Martin's five essays that muse on the county of his birth and upbringing: This time, Andrew ponders the age-old question to do with Yorkshire and Lancashire rivalries - who comes out on top...
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21/01/2019 from 2019-01-21T22:45
Andrew Martin's five essays that muse on the county of his birth and upbringing: To begin, he is getting up there by train from London, thinking about his 'Tyke' identity. Also, who are the exemp...
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Paul Batchelor on Ode to Psyche from 2019-01-11T23:00
1819 was a stunningly fertile year for John Keats, when he wrote five of the greatest odes in the English language and actually introduced words and phrases never heard before - "Season of mists an...
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Sasha Dugdale on Ode to a Nightingale from 2019-01-10T23:00
1819 was a stunningly fertile year for John Keats, when he wrote five of the greatest odes in the English language and actually introduced words and phrases never heard before - "Season of mists an...
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Sean O'Brien on Ode on Melancholy from 2019-01-08T23:00
In 1819, John Keats wrote five of the greatest odes in the English language. Five leading contemporary poets each celebrate a single ode. 2. Sean O'Brien on Ode on Melancholy1819 was a stunningly...
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Alice Oswald on Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn from 2019-01-07T23:00
1819 was a stunningly fertile year for John Keats, when he wrote five of the greatest and most frequently anthologised odes in the English language, fresh-minting phrases now in common use , such a...
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Frances Leviston on Ode to Autumn from 2019-01-07T15:05
1819 was a stunningly fertile year for John Keats, when he wrote five of the greatest odes in the English language and actually introduced words and phrases never heard before - "Season of mists an...
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Harold Godwinson from 2019-01-04T10:00
Clive Anderson has always been fascinated by Harold Godwinson whose life and reign came to a bloody end at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, which a thousand years on is still the most famous date in...
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Edward the Confessor from 2019-01-03T10:00
Stephen Baxter creates a vivid portrait of Edward the Confessor. By any standards, Edward the Confessor lived a remarkable life, and left a still more remarkable legacy. He was a central figure in ...
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Aethelred the Unready from 2019-01-02T10:00
Aethelred's name is a combination of the Old English word aethel, meaning 'noble, excellent', and raed, meaning 'advice, counsel'. Simon Keynes probes the life of this Anglo-Saxon monarch who ruled...
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The Smith - Gold and Black from 2019-01-01T10:00
The return of the major series which rediscovers the Anglo-Saxons through vivid portraits of thirty individuals - women as well as men, famous we well as humble - written and presented by leading h...
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Alfred the Great from 2018-12-31T10:00
Michael Wood on Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and king of the Anglo-Saxons. Michael Wood chronicles Alfred's achievements: his writings; his reflections on kingship; his military skill; his reju...
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Bede, the Father of English History from 2018-12-28T10:00
Anglo-Saxon scholar and guide at Durham Cathedral where Bede is buried, Lilian Groves explores the life and times of the saint widely regarded as one of the greatest theological scholars who gave t...
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The Beowulf Bard from 2018-12-27T10:00
Another chance to hear an Essay by the Nobel prize-winner the late Seamus Heaney, recorded before he died in 2013. This is his portrait of the great Beowulf bard and of the court poet in general - ...
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Eadfrith the Scribe from 2018-12-26T10:00
Most of these Anglo-Saxon Portraits are of named individuals, and Eadfrith, the scribe who wrote and ornamented the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospel in around 700, is no exception. But Richard Gameso...
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King Raedwald from 2018-12-24T10:00
Martin Carver tells the sensational story of the unearthing of Britain's richest ever grave, at Sutton Hoo, in spring 1939. He goes on to describe the role of his own team from the University of Yo...
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Dear Caravaggio from 2018-11-16T23:00
'Dear Albrecht, Everyone had hair like that - did they? I'll take your word for it. You were very good at hair, can I just say?' In a series of imaginary correspondences, Ian Sansom is writing let...
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Dear Frida Kahlo from 2018-11-15T23:00
'Dear Albrecht, Everyone had hair like that - did they? I'll take your word for it. You were very good at hair, can I just say?' In a series of imaginary correspondences, Ian Sansom is writing let...
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Dear Julia Margaret Cameron from 2018-11-14T23:00
'Dear Albrecht, Everyone had hair like that - did they? I'll take your word for it. You were very good at hair, can I just say?' In a series of imaginary correspondences, Ian Sansom is writing let...
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Dear Picasso from 2018-11-13T23:00
'Dear Albrecht, Everyone had hair like that - did they? I'll take your word for it. You were very good at hair, can I just say?' In a series of imaginary correspondences, Ian Sansom is writing let...
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Dear Albrecht Dürer from 2018-11-12T23:00
'Dear Albrecht, Everyone had hair like that - did they? I'll take your word for it. You were very good at hair, can I just say?' In a series of imaginary correspondences, Ian Sansom is writing let...
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Ted Hughes and Tenderness from 2018-10-26T21:45
Poet Simon Armitage talks about reading Ted Hughes as a child and, later, finding an unexpected in tenderness the poet's work. This essay includes a close reading of Hughes's poem Full Moon and Lit...
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Ted Hughes and the River of Time from 2018-10-25T21:45
Poet Zaffar Kunial explores Ted Hughes's personal obsession with dates and anniversaries. Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In a new series of the Radio 3 Essay, ...
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Crows, Loss and a Violent Melancholia from 2018-10-24T21:45
Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf on finding solace in Hughes's work during a troubled childhood. To her his books were more a mood: a dark and brooding presence but one that resonated. That subconscious m...
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Ted Hughes and Animal Encounters from 2018-10-24T09:34
Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In this series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded...
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Ted Hughes v Philip Larkin from 2018-10-23T21:45
Poet Sean O'Brien considers the reputations of two very different poets: the raw versus the cooked, the shaman versus the rationalist, Ted Hughes versus Philip Larkin. Ted Hughes died in 1998, and...
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100 Acre Wood from 2018-10-19T21:50
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough braves the fearsome heffalumps as she steps into the world of AA Milne. There's no secret about the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh. Thousands of people flock to the...
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The Jungle Book from 2018-10-18T21:52
Join Mowgli, Shere Khan and Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough in the lush and dangerous Indian forest of Rudyard Kipling's imagination. Although he was born in India, Kipling had never visited the cent...
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Brothers Grimm from 2018-10-16T21:53
Walk through a dark forest and you can't escape the brooding presence of the Brothers Grimm. Unwilling to stray from the path? A glimmer of sharp, white teeth behind that tree? It’s the Brothers...
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Why the Lloyd George museum is so small from 2018-09-21T22:00
Twm Morys was brought up in the same village as Lloyd George, and in the essay 'Why the Lloyd George museum is so small' (Twm worked in the museum for a while), he explains that the former prime mi...
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Saint Teilo - A Surplus of Arms from 2018-09-19T22:00
Twm Morys delves into the cultural links between Brittany and Wales, and looks into the story of St Teilo. Drawing on his experience of living in Brittany for ten years, Twm says that speaking Bre...
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Dinogad's Jerkin – The oldest lullaby in Britain from 2018-09-17T22:00
The history of the Welsh people, from the year six hundred to the present, can be traced through poetry - there has not been one generation in that time in which poets haven't kept a record. In th...
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Joan Crawford from 2018-08-20T22:00
Author and broadcaster Sarah Churchwell describes the spell that female film stars of the 1930's and 40's have over her. From Jean Harlow, the blonde bombshell, to someone the author came to admir...
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Jean Harlow from 2018-08-10T22:00
Author and broadcaster Sarah Churchwell describes the spell that female film stars of the 1930s and '40s have over her..
From Barbara Stanwyck, 'the tough broad', to a vision of modernity ...
Barbara Stanwyck from 2018-08-09T22:00
Author and broadcaster Sarah Churchwell describes the spell that female film stars of the 1930's and 40's have over her.
From stately Katharine Hepburn she moves on to think about Barbara ...
Katharine Hepburn from 2018-08-07T22:00
Author and broadcaster Sarah Churchwell describes the spell that female film stars of the 1930s and '40s have over her..
She begins her series with Katharine Hepburn, the so-called 'Ice Qu...
Dear Agatha Christie... from 2018-07-20T21:45
Novelist Ian Sansom has a theory to put to Queen of crime, Agatha Christie.
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Dear Virginia Woolf... from 2018-07-19T21:45
A letter of apology to Virginia Woolf from novelist, Ian Sansom.
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Dear George Eliot... from 2018-07-18T21:45
Novelist Ian Sansom pens a missive to George Eliot...
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Dear Geoffrey Chaucer... from 2018-07-16T21:45
Novelist Ian Sansom fires off a letter to Geoffrey Chaucer...
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Sonny's Blues from 2018-07-01T23:01
How James Baldwin's short story helped a doctor and her patient break down the divisions of class, age and race.
This is part one of The Essay's five-part series, Narrative Medi...
The Wings of the Dove from 2018-07-01T23:01
Dr Rita Charon finds a model physician in the pages of Henry James: someone who though on the sidelines of a person's life remains a loyal advocate.
This is part two of The Essa...
Never Let Me Go from 2018-07-01T23:01
Dr Rita Charon considers Kazuo Ishiguro's novel and the questions that it raises. What it means to be human? And how can physicians respond to life's mysteries and paradoxes?
Th...
To The Lighthouse from 2018-07-01T23:01
Dr Rita Charon traces parallels between the portents of war in Virginia Woolf's novel and the responses of her New York City patients to the 9/11 attacks.
This is part four of T...
The Underground Railroad from 2018-07-01T23:01
Dr Rita Charon explains how Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel about American slavery is used to train medical students, encouraging them to "write what can't be told".
This...
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Women's Rights from 2018-06-29T22:00
170 years ago one woman launched the beginning of the modern women's rights movement in America. New Generation Thinker Joanna Cohen of Queen Mary University of London looks back at her story and w...
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John Gower, the Forgotten Medieval Poet from 2018-06-28T22:00
The lawyer turned poet whose response to political upheaval has lessons for our time - explored by New Generation Thinker Seb Falk with an audience at the York Festival of Ideas
The 14th ...
Sarah Scott and the Dream of a Female Utopia from 2018-06-27T22:00
A radical community of women set up in 1760s rural England is explored in an essay from New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell, recorded with an audience at the 2018 York Festival of Ideas.
Sa...
The Forgotten German Princess from 2018-06-26T22:00
The most famous imposter of the seventeenth century - Mary Carleton. John Gallagher, of the University of Leeds, argues that the story of the "German Princess" raises questions about what evidence ...
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Rehabilitating the Reverend John Trusler from 2018-06-25T21:00
Sophie Coulombeau tells the story of John Trusler, an eccentric Anglican minister who was the quintessential 18th-century entrepreneur. He was a prolific author, an innovative publisher, a would-be...
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Forest Fire from 2018-06-22T23:59
Forests are a potent source of inspiration for artists, writers and composers but the truly creative force in the forest is fire. Andrew C Scott from Royal Holloway, University of London is the aut...
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Forests of the Imagination from 2018-06-18T23:32
What is it about forests that inspires our imagination? In this series of Essays for our Into the Forest season, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough takes five woodland walks with writers and artists who ...
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Mab Jones on Jane Eyre from 2018-06-02T00:00
Recorded at this week's Hay Festival 2018, Mab Jones introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, with whom she identifies most - and extracts the l...
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Francesca Rhydderch on Orlando from 2018-06-01T00:00
Recorded at this week's Hay Festival 2018, Francesca Rhydderch introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Virginia Woolf's, arguably, most playful and ground-breaking character...
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Fiona Sampson on Mother Courage from 2018-05-31T00:00
Recorded at this week's Hay Festival 2018, Fiona Sampson introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Bertolt Brecht's anti-heroine Mother Courage, from his play 'Mother Courage ...
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Bettany Hughes on Helen of Troy from 2018-05-30T00:00
Recorded at this week's Hay Festival 2018, Bettany Hughes introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Helen of Troy; a character written about in fiction for millennia - and ext...
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Afua Hirsch on Maggie Tulliver from 2018-05-29T00:00
Afua Hirsch introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Maggie Tulliver from George Eliot’s ‘Mill on the Floss’ – and extracts the lessons we could all learn from her. Recorded ...
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The Shopping News: Paris from 2018-05-21T23:45
Joanna Robertson is a journalist and mother who has lived in five foreign countries, where she has observed that local shopping habits tell you a lot about the place. In these Essays, she argues th...
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Japan Refusal from 2018-04-28T00:00
Christopher Harding asks if mental illness in Japan may actually be a sign of a rejection of a narrowly conceived modernity? From the neurasthenia of the great novelist Natsume Soseki to the "hikik...
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The Art of the Heist from 2018-04-27T00:00
Christopher Harding tells the story of a famous crime, the robbery of hundreds of millions of yen in 1968 - which also serves as a metaphor for the theft of postwar promises of liberty and openness...
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Rebranding the Buddha from 2018-04-26T00:00
Christopher Harding examines how Buddhism was reimagined in early 20th-century Japan in the service of militarism and nationalism. At risk of terminal decline and blamed for an economic and imagina...
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Happy Families from 2018-04-25T00:00
Delving further into the darker sides of Japan's recent history, Christopher Harding explores two starkly contrasting models of ‘family’ in turn-of-the-century Japan. One was a neo-Victorian idyll,...
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Deer Cry Hall from 2018-04-24T00:00
Christopher Harding begins his exploration of some of the darker sides of Japan's recent history by reflecting on popular doubts and misgivings about mainstream modern life through the story of a b...
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Secret Admirers: Kate Molleson on Eliane Radigue from 2018-04-20T23:45
Radio 3 presenter Kate Molleson celebrates a composer whose music is particularly important to her: the Frenchwoman Eliane Radigue, whose calm and long-form sense of perspective Kate finds inspirat...
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Secret Admirers: Andrew McGregor on Thomas Tallis from 2018-04-19T23:45
Radio 3 presenter Andrew McGregor reflects on the powerful Lamentations of English composer Thomas Tallis and their special place in his life.
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Secret Admirers: Kathryn Tickell on Percy Grainger from 2018-04-18T23:45
Radio 3 presenter Kathryn Tickell celebrates a composer whose music is particularly important to her: the Australian-American folksong fanatic Percy Grainger.
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Secret Admirers: Tom McKinney on Olivier Messiaen from 2018-04-17T23:45
Radio 3 presenter Tom McKinney celebrates the birdsong-inspired music of the 20th-century French composer Olivier Messiaen and its special place in his life.
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Secret Admirers: Penny Gore on Leoš Janá?ek from 2018-04-16T11:45
Radio 3 presenter Penny Gore celebrates a composer particularly important to her: the Moravian Leos Janacek, whose music is shot through with the uncertainties of life.
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Inua Ellams on Terry Pratchett from 2018-04-07T00:00
The poet and playwright describes how he was influenced by the comic novel "Pyramids". "When I opened the first few pages...it is no exaggeration to say my whole world changed," he recalls. As a tw...
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Alastair Campbell on 'Madame Bovary' from 2018-04-06T00:00
Tony Blair's former spokesman, on how Gustave Flaubert's novel gave him a lifetime love of French culture. "It is a love that has endured. I like reading French, speaking French, listening to Frenc...
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Zarah Hussain on The Arabian Nights from 2018-04-05T00:00
Zarah Hussain explains how The Arabian Nights inspired her as an artist. On discovering the book as a child, she found "the book was absolutely beautiful...There was a border of pink and blue arabe...
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Henry Marsh on 'War and Peace' from 2018-04-04T00:00
Neurosurgeon and writer Henry Marsh on how "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy began a teenage love affair with all things Russian. "I burned the plastic coating off my NHS spectacle frames to reveal th...
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