The Essay

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 and mellow fruitfulness.....", "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty....." . Five leading contemporary poets each celebrate a single ode.3. Frances Leviston celebrates perhaps Keats' best-loved and most frequently anthologised poem, Ode to Autumn, exploring both its depiction of the bounty of autumn and its forebodings of death. Producer : Beaty Rubens

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 English history. In his humorous look at King Harold, he wonders why Shakespeare never chose to write a play about his life - which has all the elements of a gripping historical drama, and a great tragedy. Producer: Sarah Taylor

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 a period of turbulent politics, characterised by factional intrigue, rebellion, invasion and conquest. He personally experienced dramatic reversals in fortune, spending 25 years in exile before reigning as king of England for almost as long, through moments of periods triumph and humiliation. His posthumous life was similarly eventful . His death triggered the sequence of events that led to the Norman conquest; and his place of burial, Westminster Abbey, became the focal point of a cult which eventually made Edward the patron saint of the English monarchy, and the abbey a national treasure. Producer: Sarah Taylor

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 over one of the most turbulent times of English history. Producer: Sarah Taylor

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 historians, archaeologists and enthusiasts in the field. Starting at the lonely grave of an anonymous smith buried in 7th century rural Lincolnshire, Leslie Webster vividly recreates the life of the smith and his ambivalent status in Anglo-Saxon society. Drawing on archaeology and written sources such as Beowulf and Aelfric's Colloquy, she reflects on the practical role of the blacksmith in making everyday tools and weapons, and the legendary celebrity of a handful of goldsmiths, who created magnificent works of art such as the Alfred Jewel, which can still be seen in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford today. Producer Beaty Rubens.

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 rejuvenation of education and his legal expertise. Here are Alfred's own words about kingship. 'What I set out to do was to virtuously and justly administer the authority given to me. And I wanted to do it - so my talents and capacity might be remembered. But every natural gift in us soon withers if it is not ruled by wisdom. Without wisdom no talent can be fully realised: for to do something unwisely can hardly be accounted a skill. To be brief, I may say that it has always been my wish to live honourably, and after my death to leave to my descendents my memory in good works.' Producer: Sarah Taylor.

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 to the world 'The Ecclesiastical History of the English People' and marvels at the thousands of visitors from around the world who still come to worship at his tomb. In his lifetime, Bede lived in Northumbria - the edge of the known world. He never left the confines of his monastery yet he legacy is universal. Contributors include Nobel prize-winner Seamus Heaney on the Beowulf bard, the departing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on the first Archbishop of Canterbury, St Augustine; writer David Almond on the oldest surviving English poet, Caedmon; Michael Wood on King Alfred; Martin Carver on Raedwald; Richard Gameson on Eadfrith the Scribe; Helena Hamerow on the peasant-farmer; Geoffrey Robertson QC on the law-makers. Producer: Mohini Patel.

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 - known as the "scop" in old English - a man skilled in song and the pure art of story telling. Producer: Beaty Rubens

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 Gameson's vivid and detailed account of Eadfrith is also a fascinating survey of the many unnamed scribes from the Anglo-Saxon period. A leading expert from the University of Durham on the history of the book, Richard Gameson's vivid Portrait of Eadfrith is punctuated by many extraordinary facts and figures: Eadfrith's total line-length, for example, in the Lindisfarne Gospels, was nearly two kilometres and necessitated the slaughter of some 130 calves! From the writing to the binding, ornamental covering and later copying, this account brings to life each of the essential processes in creating a book in Anglo-Saxon times. It concludes that while the ostentatious ornatmentation suggests that the Anglo-Saxons did judge a book by its cover, the legacy of the scribes goes far beyond this. For, as Richard Gameson states: "Our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon history and literature relies almost entirely on the work of Anglo-Saxon scribes. Without scribes we would have no Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, no Beowulf, no copies of Bede's great Ecclesiastical History." Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Historian Tony Morris explores the life of Cuthbert, the popular saint of the Northeast, and his continuing appeal today, both on and far beyond his home, the island of Lindisfarne.

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 York in the second wave of excavations there, and vividly recreates the life, death and burial of its probable inhabitant, King Raedwald. With a fabulous eye for detail, he describes some of the 263 objects of gold, silver, bronze, iron, gems, leather, wood, textiles, feather and fur, laid out in a wooden chamber at the centre of a buried ship. And he uses these to recreate the life and turbulent times of this early Anglo-Saxon king and his clever, devoted wife. Producer: Beaty Rubens.

'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 letters to five of history's most celebrated artists and interrogating them about, well, just about everything.'Dear Caravaggio, you're the sort of man who might know: what is wrong with us?' As the missives fly much is revealed about their lives as well as about Ian's current state of mind. Albrecht Durer is looking for an App developer. When Caravaggio asks for help finding a patron Ian suggests a crowd funding website. Meanwhile, how did Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron get hold of Ian's address? Did her great niece Virginia Woolf pass on his details? And should he really be telling the Tate Modern that Picasso was having a mid-life crisis in 1932?In his on-going quest to write more epistles than St Paul, it seems Ian is receiving surprising replies from some of our best-loved artists.Producer - Mark McCleary for BBC Northern Ireland

'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 letters to five of history's most celebrated artists and interrogating them about, well, just about everything.'Dear Caravaggio, you're the sort of man who might know: what is wrong with us?' As the missives fly much is revealed about their lives as well as about Ian's current state of mind. Albrecht Durer is looking for an App developer. When Caravaggio asks for help finding a patron Ian suggests a crowdfunding website. Meanwhile, how did Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron get hold of Ian's address? Did her great niece Virginia Woolf pass on his details? And should he really be telling the Tate Modern that Picasso was having a mid-life crisis in 1932?In his on-going quest to write more epistles than St Paul, it seems Ian is receiving surprising replies from some of our best-loved artists.Producer - Mark McCleary for BBC Northern Ireland

'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 letters to five of history's most celebrated artists and interrogating them about, well, just about everything.'Dear Caravaggio, you're the sort of man who might know: what is wrong with us?' As the missives fly much is revealed about their lives as well as about Ian's current state of mind. Albrecht Durer is looking for an App developer. When Caravaggio asks for help finding a patron Ian suggests a crowd funding website. Meanwhile, how did Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron get hold of Ian's address? Did her great niece Virginia Woolf pass on his details? And should he really be telling the Tate Modern that Picasso was having a mid-life crisis in 1932?In his on-going quest to write more epistles than St Paul, it seems Ian is receiving surprising replies from some of our best-loved artists.Producer - Mark McCleary for BBC Northern Ireland

'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 letters to five of history's most celebrated artists and interrogating them about, well, just about everything.'Dear Caravaggio, you're the sort of man who might know: what is wrong with us?' As the missives fly much is revealed about their lives as well as about Ian's current state of mind. Albrecht Durer is looking for an App developer. When Caravaggio asks for help finding a patron Ian suggests a crowd funding website. Meanwhile, how did Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron get hold of Ian's address? Did her great niece Virginia Woolf pass on his details? And should he really be telling the Tate Modern that Picasso was having a mid-life crisis in 1932?In his on-going quest to write more epistles than St Paul, it seems Ian is receiving surprising replies from some of our best-loved artists.Producer - Mark McCleary for BBC Northern Ireland

'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 letters to five of history's most celebrated artists and interrogating them about, well, just about everything.'Dear Caravaggio, you're the sort of man who might know: what is wrong with us?' As the missives fly much is revealed about their lives as well as about Ian's current state of mind. Albrecht Durer is looking for an App developer. When Caravaggio asks for help finding a patron Ian suggests a crowd funding website. Meanwhile, how did Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron get hold of Ian's address? Did her great niece Virginia Woolf pass on his details? And should he really be telling the Tate Modern that Picasso was having a mid-life crisis in 1932?In his on-going quest to write more epistles than St Paul, it seems Ian is receiving surprising replies from some of our best-loved artists.Producer - Mark McCleary for BBC Northern Ireland

The final run of Essays in the long-running series which explores the impact of the First World War on individual artists through the prism of a single great work of art.4.Alex Walton recalls the Australian artist, Isobel - "Iso" - Rae, who spent the war in the Etaples art colony in the South of France, but whose work, as a female artist, has long been overlooked. Born in Australia in 1860 and trained at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Rae travelled to France in 1887 and spent most of the rest of her life there. A longstanding member of the Étaples art colony, Rae lived in the area from the 1890s until the 1930s, painting the world she witnessed at Etaples Army Base Camp and exhibiting her work in London and Paris.She was one of only two female Australian artists to live and paint in France during the war, but neither were included in their country's first group of official war artists. Alex Walton, a curator at the Imperial War Museum, revisits her life and re-evaluates her largely forgotten work for a contemporary audience. Producer: Beaty Rubens

The final run of Essays in the long-running series which explores the impact of the First World War on individual artists through the prism of a single great work of art.3.Jane Potter on The Forbidden Zone, a depiction of nursing life at the Front by Mary Borden. Mary Borden was an Anglo-American novelist who served for four years as a nurse in a military hospital at the Front. Jane Potter celebrates a work which, like those of Sassoon, Graves, and Remarque, vividly depicts the horror of the Trenches and yet is far less well known. Producer; Beaty Rubens.

The final run of Essays in the long-running series which explores the impact of the First World War on individual artists through the prism of a single great work of art.2.Janet Montefiore on Rudyard Kipling's 1922 collection, EpitaphsOn 27 September 1915, 8,000 out of the 10,000 British troops who took part in the disastrous Battle of Loos were killed or wounded. One of these, 2nd Lieutenant John Kipling, eighteen years old, the son of Rudyard Kipling, was reported ‘missing believed killed.’ His body was never found. Four years later, Rudyard Kipling published his ‘Epitaphs of the War 1914-1918’: thirty-one brief poems giving voice to those who died in the Great War: soldiers, airmen, nurses, non-combatants, Canadians, Indians, sailors, politicians, cowards and heroes. These days, Kipling is often criticised for his imperialist views on "the white man's burden", but in this Essay, Kipling scholar, Janet Montefiore uncovers a more sympathetic figure. She tells the story behind a poignant collection of poems which express Kipling's personal grief whilst giving voice to a wider sense of outrage about the victims of the war, including the famously succinct condemnation : If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.Producer: Beaty Rubens

The final run of Essays in the long-running series which explores the impact of the First World War on individual artists through the prism of a single great work of art. 1.Imaobong Umoren tells the story behind W.E.B. Dubois' seminal editorial, Returning Soldiers, which laid the early foundations of the Black Lives Matter campaign. Born in 1868 in Massachusetts, Du Bois was raised by a single mother who descended from African, English and Dutch ancestors. Growing up in the racially mixed town of Great Barrington, Du Bois attended public school alongside both white and black pupils and, at an early age, was singled out for his intellect. He was to grow up to become one of the leading scholars and activists of the twentieth century on what was then termed the ‘Negro Problem’. Published in The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Returning Soldiers’, was based on the experiences that Du Bois had during his three-month visit to France from December 1918 to March 1919. Imaobong tells the story behind its writing and uncovers its continuing importance in today's Black Lives Matter campaign. Dr Imaobong D Umoren is Assistant Professor of International History of Gender at London School of Economics and Political Science.

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 Little Frieda.Ted Hughes died in 2018, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In a new series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Simon Armitage. Produced by Simon Richardson.

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, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Zaffar Kunial. Produced by Simon Richardson.

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 memory left a deep and metaphorical imprint that has infused her own work in its relationships with landscape, loss and grief.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 as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Karen McCarthy Woolf. Produced by Simon Richardson.

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 as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Ted Hughes is perhaps best known for his poems about creatures - for poems like ‘The Thought Fox’, ‘Pike’ and for books like 'Crow'. In today's essay, Helen Mort thinks about what animals signify in Hughes's work and how they might connect to the way the poet writes about the tricky, mysterious lives of others, whether human or animal.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Helen Mort. Produced by Simon Richardson.

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 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 as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Sean O'Brien. Produced by Simon Richardson.

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 Ashdown Forest in East Sussex every year to track down Christopher Robin's tree and play Pooh Sticks. In his autobiography, Christopher Robin Milne wrote of a brief but blissful childhood spent amongst the trees with his battered teddy bear. Pooh's forest and the Ashdown Forest are, he wrote, identical.The writer, Brian Sibley, joins Eleanor for a walk through the forest and an appreciation of one of the saddest endings in literature. Christopher knows he has to leave his friends and return to school. That's enough to drive many adult readers to tears but Brian believes there will always be a boy and his bear sharing adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.Producer: Alasdair Cross

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 central Seoni region where he set The Jungle Book. As Daniel Karlin from Bristol University tells Eleanor, the vivid and detailed descriptions of the forest and its fauna came from books and travellers' tales. Kipling was fascinated by animal behaviour but he wasn't too precious to invert reality when the stories required a dash of cruelty or an expression of nobility.Today the region contains a renowned tiger reserve. Shere Khan is protected whilst the friendlier creatures of The Jungle decline in number.Producer: Alasdair Cross

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 Grimm to blame. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is joined by the writer and illustrator Chris Riddell for a walk through the deep, dark Germanic forest of the Grimms' imagination. The company may be agreeable and the conversation fascinating but be sure to leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind.Producer: Alasdair Cross

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with insights into her life, the places she’s lived and worked in, and the people she's met through food. These stretch from Italians who would become a collective of godparents to her eldest daughter, to world class artists and musicians, ranging from Derek Jarman to Sviatoslav Richter. In the first programme, Joanna reveals how her love of food already manifested itself when she was a child growing up in different parts of the UK. Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories in these Essays amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with deeply personal insights into her life, the places she has lived and worked in, and the people she has met through food. In the second programme, Joanna is a young adult. She is now working two jobs in London, involving food and encounters with world class artists, designers and musicians. In Soho, these include Derek Jarman, Howard Hodgkin and Alexander McQueen, while on the South Bank she serves, for example, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Sviatoslav Richter. Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories in these Essays amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with deeply personal insights into her life, the places she has lived and worked in, and the people she has met through food.In the fourth programme, Joanna is in Rome. Initially as a young woman, spending a long summer being initiated into the culinary and cultural delights of the city. And later, she returns as a future wife and mother, getting her daily bread from the same centuries-old bakery as Rossini did while he composed the Barber of Seville. When the time comes, Joanna's baby is welcomed by a family far bigger than merely her relatives: the neighbourhood's grocers, restaurant owners and Rossini's bakery who asked to become a collective of godparents. Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories in these Essays amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with deeply personal insights into her life, the places she has lived and worked in, and the people she has met through food.In the final programme, Joanna is living in Paris. Fortune has smiled on her in the shape of a second daughter, but when it comes to food, her luck seems to have run out, as neither her children's school lunches nor local restaurants' menus live up to Joanna's expectations which had been stoked by food writers of the calibre of Elizabeth David and MFK Fisher whom Joanna read avidly as a teenager. Now it's chips with everything it seems. Fate has one good surprise in store however: Joanna's local baker, where she gets her daily morning bread, has just been crowned the best baguette maker in Paris.Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories in these Essays amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with deeply personal insights into her life, the places she’s lived and worked in, and the people she's met through food. In the third programme, Joanna is still living in London as a twenty-something. A passionate love affair ends so badly, that Joanna feels food is no longer for her, and she slides into a severe eating disorder. Brought back from the brink, she then designs her own recovery programme: training as a chef, and life-modelling for painters and sculptors. Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.

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 minister is not fondly remembered there. Some think that Lloyd George betrayed his country's cause in order to further himself in England and the Empire, others that his behaviour during the First World War was warmongering (he personally gave many speeches recruiting young welsh men to the army). Twm also recalls that a filthy limerick was found in Lloyd George's wallet at the time of his death, and that as a museum assistant, it wasn't the done thing to draw attention to the verse.Producer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales

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 this series of Essays, poet and musician Twm Morys brings his personal perspective to five stories looking at aspects of the history of Wales over several centuries, following the fortunes of Welsh figures both eminent and ordinary.In his fourth essay this week, Twm looks into the experiences of an African man in North Wales in the 1770s, and the stories the community told about how he came to be there. The only black man anyone had ever come across in Cricieth at that time, it seems Jack Ystumllyn may have been an escaped slave, who overcame prejudice to become an extremely popular and respectable man.Producer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales

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 Breton was like speaking Welsh after taking some psychedelic drug, and living there was like a Wales where Methodist chapels never happened. St Teilo fled to Brittany with a band of monks in the 6th century to escape the plague, and during this time tamed a fierce dragon and chained it to a rock in the sea. Twm explains how a church in Brittany still manages to claim that they hold a hallowed relic of the Welsh Saint - his arm and hand, encased in silver - even though he returned to Wales to die.Producer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales

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 this series of Essays, poet and musician Twm Morys brings his personal perspective to five stories looking at aspects of the history of Wales over several centuries, following the fortunes of Welsh figures both eminent and ordinary.In the second essay Twm explores a tradition that was preserved for more than a thousand years in Wales - that of farmhands singing songs to their oxenProducer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales

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 this series of Essays, poet and musician Twm Morys brings his personal perspective to five stories looking at aspects of the history of Wales over several centuries, following the fortunes of Welsh figures both eminent and ordinary.In the first essay, Dinogad's Jerkin, he tells the story of the oldest lullaby in Britain, sung by a mother to her son in Borrowdale in the Lake District at the end of the 7th century. It was preserved in a medieval manuscript which reveals that it was in the Welsh language, throwing a strange light on the history of England.In the second essay Twm follows the very different fates of two famous Welshmen during the First World War - David Ivor Davies and Ellis Humphrey Evans. From opposite ends of Wales geographically and economically, the former became known as Ivor Novello and thanks to his contacts not only survived the war but was made famous by it. The latter was a poet known as Hedd Wyn, who became the figurehead for Wales' experience of the war: he was killed within hours of going into action on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele.‘Jack Ystumllyn’, or 'A victory over racism in 18th century Criccieth', looks into the experiences of an African man in North Wales, and the stories the community told about how he came to be there. The only black man anyone had ever come across, it seems he may have been an escaped slave, and Jack overcame prejudice to become an extremely popular and respectable man.Twm 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 minister is not fondly remembered there. Some think that Lloyd George betrayed his country's cause in order to further himself in England and the Empire, others that his behaviour during the First World War was warmongering (he personally gave many speeches recruiting young welsh men to the army). Twm recalls that a filthy limerick was found in Lloyd George's wallet at the time of his death, and that as a museum assistant, it wasn't the done thing to draw attention to the verse.In the final essay 'Saint Teilo - a surplus of arms' Twm delves into the cultural links between Brittany and Wales, drawing on his experience of living there for ten years. Of this he says that speaking Breton was like speaking Welsh after taking some psychedelic drug, and living there was like a Wales where Methodist chapels never happened. St Teilo fled to Brittany with a band of monks in the 6th century to escape the plague, and during this time tamed a fierce dragon and chained it to a rock in the sea. Twm explains how a church in Brittany manages to claim that they hold a hallowed relick of the Welsh Saint - his arm and hand, encased in silver - even though he returned to Wales to die.Producer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales

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 admire later in life. Why? Because this star tried too hard, was unrelenting, was altogether frightening. She now thinks about Joan Crawford - the 'working girl'.Producer Duncan Minshull.

Poet Kenneth Steven writes on the remote islands of St Kilda, where the community is only a distant memory echoed in the sound of seabirds. This is an island far out in the ocean. 'To make the sea crossing to St Kilda a boat is heading into the full fury of the North Atlantic; west of here lies nothing more than Rockall - and then America.' Once a thriving community lived on the island known as Hirta. 'Not only was there life on St Kilda, there was joy in life. The reports written by early visitors make that abundantly clear: the people made music and danced, they were singers of songs and tellers of tales. They faced hardship together and even death on a daily basis, but this little society held together in happiness.'But by 1930 the British Government wanted an end to the expense of supporting this remote colony, and the community were forced to take the decision to evacuate. Now there are only the empty shells of houses and the endless cries of seabirds.'In all the cobbles, concrete years to come Their islands promises to lie at the bottom of a glass, Or silent forever in their eyes, a story frozen Like a fly in the amber of time.' Producer Mark Rickards.

Kenneth Steven looks at Rum, a wild and windswept Hebridean island, and responds to its landscape in poetry. Rum is the largest of a group making up the 'Small Isles', Rum, Muck, Eigg and Canna, lying west of the fishing port of Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands. 'I don't know a Hebridean island more beautiful to approach. Every time I do I think of it again as a treasure island.'Its remote and rugged beauty attracted an eccentric Victorian industrialist, who bought it and attempted to transform it into his own vision of an island home, complete with a castle. 'The castle itself was built of red sandstone and shaped from the Isle of Arran. Greenhouses were brought for the growing of peaches, grapes and nectarines. There were heated pools for turtles and alligators; an aviary was constructed for birds of paradise and humming birds.' It was not to last, and Kenneth looks at what's left of the island fantasy today, leaving him with a profound sense of sadness.

Poet Kenneth Steven has a special relationship with the small Hebridean island of Iona, set in the Atlantic off the west coast of Scotland. It was the place of learning and worship in the 6th century, when St Columba brought Christianity from Ireland and set up a monastery, and today it still has a spiritual quality for many of its visitors. Kenneth has visited since he was a child and collected stones polished by the sea along its beaches. Today he reflects on Iona's place as a 'meeting of the sea roads, which has had such a profound impact on so many, and has done for longer than we can ever know'. '..That is why I keep returning, thirsty, to this place That is older than my understanding, Younger than my broken spirit.'.

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 who is all 'satin' and 'chrome'. The author moves on to consider the original 'blonde bombshell' - Jean Harlow.Producer Duncan Minshull.

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 Stanwyck - 'the tough dame' - who could do more with a raised eyebrow and 'side-eye' than anybody else around.Producer Duncan Minshull.

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 Queen', who inspired the young author growing up in Chicago and lacking any role models. One day she watched The Philadelphia Story on television and life changed forever ...Producer Duncan Minshull.

Novelist Ian Sansom has a theory to put to Queen of crime, Agatha Christie.

A letter of apology to Virginia Woolf from novelist, Ian Sansom.

Novelist Ian Sansom pens a missive to George Eliot...

Novelist Ian Sansom fires off a letter to Geoffrey Chaucer...

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 Medicine - a term coined to describe the capacity to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by stories of illness. Simply - it's medicine practised by someone who knows what to do with stories. Part of the BBC's NHS at 70 season. Warning: this episode deals with serious medical issues and trauma.