The Essay

Novelist Mark Haddon reflects on the house in Northamptonshire which was his childhood home, until the age of 12: "It was a detached, three bedroom, two storey new-build on a thin strip of reclaimed rubbish dump between the end of a red-brick terrace and the Smarts' bungalow. My father was an architect and although he didn't design the building himself it was, in its modest way, an architect's house, a couple of cuts above provincial 1960s boilerplate." This week's Essays are part of the 70th birthday celebrations of the Third Programme: the network discussed architecture from its earliest days, covering both new initiatives and historic buildings, most notably in talks by Nikolaus Pevsner. Producer Clare Walker.

In 1815 an anonymous author published "Memoirs of an Old Wig" and lamented the influx of French hairdressers to England. From the writings of ETA Hoffmann and Charles Dickens, from Hans Christian Andersen to Balzac and beyond, New Generation Thinker Seán Williams considers the depiction of hairdressers in prints and prose and what it tells us about a transformative period in British and European history. The Essay is recorded in front of an audience as part of Sound Frontiers: BBC Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre celebrating 7 decades of pioneering music and culture. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio. Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

In October 1884 the playwright August Strindberg took a train from exile to face a charge of blasphemy in court. New Generation Thinker Leah Broad, from the University of Oxford, reflects on "the woman question" in nineteenth century Scandinavian countries and what their debates have to say to us today.The Essay is recorded in front of an audience as part of Sound Frontiers: BBC Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre celebrating 7 decades of pioneering music and culture.New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

In 1912 Freud compared psychoanalysis to using the telephone, an instrument he disliked. Reflecting on this fear of the phone, the poet and New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson, from Nottingham Trent University, explores the telephone's voices in philosophy and fiction.The Essay is recorded in front of an audience as part of Sound Frontiers: BBC Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre celebrating 7 decades of pioneering music and culture.New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio.Producer: Fiona McLean.

Memories of Partition explored by New Generation Thinker Anindya Raychaudhuri, from the University of St Andrews. He listens to oral histories and looks at film and literature depicting this key moment in history and the shadows it has cast. He reflects on the way people now frame their own experiences through representations of the mass migration which they have seen in news reels, films and fiction.The Essay was recorded in front of an audience as part of Sound Frontiers: BBC Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre celebrating 7 decades of pioneering music and culture.New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio. Applications are now open for the 2018 scheme. Further details and examples of other essays and broadcasts from New Generation Thinkers can be found on the Free Thinking programme website.

From Spanish Inquisition stews and Reformation sausages to pork in French school dinners, New Generation Thinker Christopher Kissane from the London School of Economics explores the significance of food in past and present conflicts over identity. The Essay is recorded in front of an audience as part of Sound Frontiers: BBC Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre celebrating 7 decades of pioneering music and culture. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio.Producer: Luke Mulhall.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Radio 3, the network invited five writers with whom it shares a birthday, also turning 70 this year, on a birthday outing. Our contributors chose to visit places that have some personal significance for them where they could look back and reflect on their feelings in this special birthday year.Today, Ukrainian-British Novelist Marina Lewycka, best known for her 2005 novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which won the 2005 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, takes a trip up the Eiffel Tower to reflect on a lifetime of visiting the city and a look at what the future holds for the Europe she loves. Essayist and reader: Marina Lewycka Producer: Simon Richardson.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Radio 3, the network invited five writers with whom it shares a birthday, also turning 70 this year, on a birthday outing. Our contributors chose to visit a places that have some personal significance for them where they could look back and reflect on their feelings in this special birthday year.Today, novelist and memoirist Gervase Phinn, a former teacher and schools inspector, recalls joining the pilgrims on a visit to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, to pay homage to the relics of the apostle St James and to the act of pilgrimage itself. Essayist and reader: Gervase Phinn Producer: Simon Richardson.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Radio 3, the network invited five writers with whom it shares a birthday, also turning 70 this year, on a birthday outing. Our contributors chose to visit places that have some personal significance for them where they could look back and reflect on their feelings in this special birthday year.Liverpool-born novelist and former politician Edwina Currie returns to her native city for a ferry ride across the River Mersey where, over 50 years ago, in an end of school ritual, she and her peers threw their hated green school berets into the river. Essayist and reader: Edwina Currie Producer: Simon Richardson.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Radio 3, the network invited five writers with whom it shares a birthday, also turning 70 this year, on a birthday outing. Our contributors chose to visit places that have some personal significance for them, where they could look back and reflect on their feelings in this special birthday year.Today, poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen visits Eastwood and the childhood home of DH Lawrence, the poet who inspired him to write.Essayist and reader: Michael Rosen Producer: Simon Richardson.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Radio 3, the network invited five writers with whom it shares a birthday, also turning 70 this year, on a birthday outing. Our contributors chose to visit places that have some personal significance for them, where they could look back and reflect on their feelings in this special birthday year.Today, novelist and campaigner Lisa Appignanesi, who is Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, samples the timeless elegance of The Savoy Hotel's Beaufort Bar and reflects on the characters that have passed through its doors during the 'Belle Epoque' and since.Essayist and reader: Lisa Appignanesi Producer: Simon Richardson.

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.'Written and read by Kenneth StevenProducer Mark Rickards

Poet Kenneth Steven writes on Raasay, an island close to Skye once home to the great Gaelic bard Sorley MacLean. Kenneth describes the history of this 'fiercely traditional island', with its continuing belief in the sanctity of the Sabbath Day - Sunday. 'This was prevalent until recently all across the Highlands and islands; it has faded with increasing secularisation, but on Raasay (as in other Outer Hebridean islands in particular) it remains firm'.Kenneth looks at two famous sons of Raasay, bot born in 1911. Calum MacLeod is famous for building a road across the island when requests for its construction has fallen on deaf ears. 'Over a period of about ten years he constructed one and three quarter miles of road, using little more than a shovel, pick and wheelbarrow.'But his main interest is in the work of Sorley Maclean, Gaelic poet. 'Gaelic was his mother tongue; the language of the heart, and the poetry he wrote was out of the burning fires of the heart. This was no gentle poetry. Sorley Maclean's people were from Raasay and Skye and the memory of their struggle for justice and for land beat within him like a living drum.'Written and read by Kenneth StevenProducer 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.Written and read by Kenneth StevenProducer Mark Rickards

Poet Kenneth Steven writes on Hoy, the only place of cliffs and mountains in the archipelago of the Orkney islands Kenneth describes the beauty of the Orkney islands as seen in their greenness and lushness, in contrast to the harsher landscape of the north-east corner of Scotland just to their south. 'These islands seem almost cut out of some richly endowed agricultural shore far to the south and planted in the sea just to the top right of Scotland'. But Hoy is different, the island has a wildness not found elsewhere in the islands. Kenneth reflects on the relationship between writer George Mackay Brown and the composer Peter Maxwell Davies, who died in 2016. They had met and Peter Maxwell Davies made the decision to live on Hoy in its rugged yet peaceful landscape. 'His falling in love with Hoy was not just a passing whim. He had to win his right to the place in almost fairy-tale like terms. But the peace he had so craved was all about him and his was able to compose; the music that flowed through him could be released at last.'Written and read by Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards

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.'Written and read by Kenneth Steven Producer Mark Rickards

To celebrate the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth his biographer, Donald Sturrock remembers meeting the genius storyteller in the writing hut at the bottom of his garden. Here Dahl revealed how he used both the darkness and lightness of his childhood to fire his writing. Donald Sturrock wrote Storyteller: The Life of Road Dahl and has edited his letters, Love From Boy: Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother.Written and read by Donald Sturrock Produced by Justine Willett.

In the centenary year of Roald Dahl's birth the dazzling language, clever observation and rude humour that infuses Dahl's poetry is celebrated by the acclaimed children's writer and former children's laureate, Michael Rosen.Written and read by Michael Rosen Produced by Justine Willett.

In the centenary year of Roald Dahl's birth Laura Dockrill remembers growing up with Matilda and discovering through Dahl's heroine that it was OK to be different. Laura Dockrill is a writer, illustrator and performance poet. She is the creator of Darcy Burdock, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2014. Written and read by Laura Dockrill Produced by Justine Willett.

To celebrate the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth Jeremy Dyson remembers his ten-year-old self and the day he discovered Dahl's short stories for adults. The deliciously dark lure of that first encounter has never left him. In his essay he reflects on Dahl's storytelling genius and its influence on his own writing. Jeremy Dyson is a screenwriter and with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reese Shearsmith created The League of Gentlemen.Written and read by Jeremy Dyson. Produced by Justine Willett.

To mark the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth Frank Cottrell Boyce writes about the myth that the celebrated storyteller Dahl constructed out of his near fatal plane crash during the Second World War, and how he so perceptively captured a child's-eye view in his writing. Cottrell Boyce also recalls his very first encounter with Dahl's writing, which ended in outrage. The award-winning Frank Cottrell Boyce's first novel, Millions, was made into a feature film. He is a successful screenwriter and helped devise the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.Roald Dahl at 100 is a celebration of the storyteller's work and legacy ahead of the centenary of his birth in September 2016. Five acclaimed writers, the screenwriter and children's novelist, Frank Cottrell Boyce; the screenwriter and co-creator of The League of Gentleman, Jeremy Dyson; the author and performance poet, Laura Dockrill; the writer and former children's laureate, Michael Rosen, and the biographer Donald Sturrock, explore their passion for Dahl's dazzling worlds, his dark humour and wild language and how it inspired their own work.Written and read by Frank Cottrell Boyce Produced by Justine Willett.

In a week of broadcasts tracking the 100th anniversary of the first week of the Battle of the Somme, Radio 3's Essay series is featuring five new poems written in response to the battle. The poems have been commissioned by 14-18Now and these programmes will broadcast the poems for the first time and also hear from the poets about their inspiration and writing. 4th July: Paul Muldoon: July 1st 1916, With the Ulster Division 5th July: Yrsa Daley-Ward: When your mother calls you, come. 6th July: Bill Manhire: Known Unto God 7th July: Jackie Kay: Private Joseph Kay 8th July: Daljit Nagra: On your 'A 1940 Memory'Daljit Nagra's poem was commissioned by 14-18 NOW:WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Writers' Centre Norwich. It was published by Gatehouse Press.Producer: Tim Dee.

In a week of broadcasts tracking the 100th anniversary of the first week of the Battle of the Somme, Radio 3's Essay series is featuring five new poems written in response to the battle. The poems have been commissioned by 14-18Now and these programmes will broadcast the poems for the first time and also hear from the poets about their inspiration and writing. 4th July: Paul Muldoon: July 1st 1916, With the Ulster Division 5th July: Yrsa Daley-Ward: When your mother calls you, come. 6th July: Bill Manhire: Known Unto God 7th July: Jackie Kay: Private Joseph Kay 8th July: Daljit Nagra: On your 'A 1940 Memory'Jackie Kay's poem was commissioned by 14-18 NOW:WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Writers' Centre Norwich. It was published by Gatehouse Press.Producer: Tim Dee.

In a week of broadcasts tracking the 100th anniversary of the first week of the Battle of the Somme, Radio 3's Essay series is featuring five new poems written in response to the battle. The poems have been commissioned by 14-18Now and these programmes will broadcast the poems for the first time and also hear from the poets about their inspiration and writing. 4th July: Paul Muldoon: July 1st 1916, With the Ulster Division 5th July: Yrsa Daley-Ward: When your mother calls you, come. 6th July: Bill Manhire: Known Unto God 7th July: Jackie Kay: Private Joseph Kay 8th July: Daljit Nagra: On your 'A 1940 Memory'Bill Manhire's poem was commissioned by 14-18 NOW:WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Writers' Centre Norwich. It was published by Gatehouse Press."Producer: Tim Dee.

In a week of broadcasts tracking the 100th anniversary of the first week of the Battle of the Somme, Radio 3's Essay series is featuring five new poems written in response to the battle. The poems have been commissioned by 14-18Now and these programmes will broadcast the poems for the first time and also hear from the poets about their inspiration and writing. 4th July: Paul Muldoon: July 1st 1916, With the Ulster Division 5th July: Yrsa Daley-Ward: When your mother calls you, come. 6th July: Bill Manhire: Known Unto God 7th July: Jackie Kay: Private Joseph Kay 8th July: Daljit Nagra: On your 'A 1940 Memory'Yrsa Daley-Ward's poem was commissioned by 14-18 NOW:WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Writers' Centre Norwich. It was published by Gatehouse Press."Producer: Tim Dee.

In a week of broadcasts tracking the 100th anniversary of the first week of the Battle of the Somme, Radio 3's Essay series is featuring five new poems written in response to the battle. The poems have been commissioned by 14-18Now and these programmes will broadcast the poems for the first time and also hear from the poets about their inspiration and writing. 4th July: Paul Muldoon: July 1st 1916, With the Ulster Division 5th July: Yrsa Daley-Ward: When your mother calls you, come. 6th July: Bill Manhire: Known Unto God 7th July: Jackie Kay: Private Joseph Kay 8th July: Daljit Nagra: On your 'A 1940 Memory'Paul Muldoon's poem was commissioned by 14-18 NOW:WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Writers' Centre Norwich. It was published by Gatehouse Press.Producer: Tim Dee.

As part of BBC Music Get Playing, supporting amateur music making around the UK this summer, 5 leading writers and artists contribute an Essay in this series, in which they talk about their little-known passions for playing an instrument. In the final programme of the series, the writer Alexander McCall Smith, author of "The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" describes how he learned to play saxophone which led to him starting The Really Terrible Orchestra.His career as an amateur saxophonist began with lessons' from his wife's flute teacher and then, during a stay in the US, he began to assemble a collection of saxophones, including a fine bass instrument.After returning home to Edinburgh, Alexander decided that he should encourage other amateur musicians to play together, no matter what their standard, and the Really Terrible Orchestra was born. In spite of its name, it has performed in concert halls to packed houses.Producer: Emma Kingsley.

As part of BBC Get Music Playing supporting amateur music making around the UK, 5 leading writers and artists contribute an Essay in this series, in which they talk about their little-known passions for playing an instrument. In the 4th programme of the series, the Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw describes how he was reunited with his electric guitar, decades after having given it away. He explores what playing the instrument meant to him as a youngster and assesses how he approaches it now as an adult. He examines the pleasures and pitfalls of relearning an instrument. And he marvels at the beauty of the electric guitar itself. For more information visit bbc.co.uk/getplayingProducer: Emma Kingsley.

As part of BBC Music Get Playing, supporting amateur music making around the UK, 5 leading writers and artists contribute an Essay in this series, in which they talk about their little-known passions for playing an instrument. In the third programme of the series, the poet Fiona Sampson explores how playing the violin to professional standard in her youth has informed her life and work today.She relives her youth spent at summer schools and in orchestras and describes playing the violin in the practice rooms at the Royal Academy of Music. And she describes how the shape that that her body made around the violin stays with her wherever she goes. For more information visit bbc.co.uk/getplaying Producer: Emma Kingsley.

As part of BBC Music Get Playing, supporting amateur music making around the UK, 5 leading writers and artists contribute an Essay in this series, in which they talk about their little-known passions for playing an instrument.In the second programme, the award-winning novelist Joanne Harris (best known for her novel "Chocolat") describes how she learned to play the flute as a child. This was followed by the bass guitar which she began after falling in love with a drummer in a band and wanting to join. When she heard the story told by her grandfather of how he had refused to hand his double bass over to a Nazi soldier in occupied France, the young Joanne Harris realised that a musical instrument could be a powerful force. She began playing herself, first the flute and then, as a 16 year old, the bass guitar. She's continued to play both instruments and is now developing a way of telling stories in performances which incorporates music. In this Essay, Joanne tells the story of her performing life and considers the way in which music can be an essential part of storytelling. for more information visit bbc.co.uk/getplaying Producer: Emma Kingsley.

As part of the BBC Music Get Playing, supporting amateur music making around the UK, 5 leading writers and artists contribute an Essay in this series, in which they talk about their little-known passions for playing an instrument. In the first programme, the impressionist, actor and writer Alistair McGowan describes his attempts to relearn the piano. He started learning as a child but gave it up to play football instead. He tried it again in his 30s but stopped when his TV series "The Big Impression" took over. Then, later on, after a midnight piano lesson on a cruise ship, he began in earnest again and discovered a new world of music-making. Alistair is fascinated by short pieces in particular. His special favourites are the pieces he heard his mother play and also ones he has discovered on piano courses and through hearing them on the radio. A tiny nugget of Satie, Mompou or John Field carries for him all the weight of human experience and channels a musical history into one small but perfect form. more info visit bbc.co.uk/getplaying Producer: Emma Kingsley.

In this series of The Essay, recorded this week in front of an audience at the Hay Festival, five writers explore The Art of Storytelling. The writers include linguist Prof. David Crystal, artist and memoirist Edmund de Waal, broadcaster and musician Clemency Burton-Hill and novelist Jon Gower.Today, Prof. Emma Smith takes a closer look at Shakespeare's skills as a storyteller and how his plots, where the outcome is often signposted from the beginning, still hold audiences enthralled.Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at the Hay Festival, with programmes In Tune, Lunchtime Concert, Free Thinking and The Verb all broadcasting from the Festival.

In this series of The Essay, recorded this week in front of an audience at Hay Festival, five writers explore The Art of Storytelling. The writers include artist and memoirist Edmund de Waal, broadcaster and musician Clemency Burton-Hill, Shakespeare scholar Professor Emma Smith and novelist Jon Gower. Today, with so many of the world's languages disappearing, Professor David Crystal asks how we can preserve for the future the many different stories of accent, dialect and language. Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at Hay Festival, with programmes In Tune, Lunchtime Concert, Free Thinking and The Verb all broadcasting from the Festival.

In this series of The Essay, recorded earlier this week in front of an audience at Hay Festival, five writers explore The Art of Storytelling. The writers include novelist Jon Gower, linguist Professor David Crystal, artist and memoirist Edmund de Waal and Shakespeare scholar Professor Emma Smith.Today broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill considers the relationship between storytelling and music.Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at Hay Festival, with programmes In Tune, Lunchtime Concert, Free Thinking and The Verb all broadcasting from the Festival.

In this series of The Essay, recorded this week in front of an audience at Hay Festival, five writers explore The Art of Storytelling. The writers include linguist Professor David Crystal, broadcaster and musician Clemency Burton-Hill, artist and memoirist Edmund de Waal and Shakespeare scholar Professor Emma Smith. Today novelist and short story writer Jon Gower reflects on lessons learned from a master storyteller - his grandfather - and recalls an encounter with The Lady of the Lake.Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at Hay Festival, with programmes In Tune, Lunchtime Concert, Free Thinking and The Verb all broadcasting from the Festival.

In this series of The Essay, recorded this week in front of an audience at the Hay Festival, five writers explore The Art of Storytelling. The writers include linguist Prof. David Crystal, broadcaster and musician Clemency Burton-Hill, Shakespeare scholar Prof. Emma Smith and novelist Jon Gower.Today Edmund de Waal, artist and writer of the memoir 'The Hare With Amber Eyes' considers the idea of storytelling through objects, taking as his starting-point a fragment of 12th century porcelain he bought in a Chinese street-market.Part of Radio 3's week-long residency at the Hay Festival, with programmes In Tune, Lunchtime Concert, Free Thinking and The Verb all broadcasting from the Festival.

In Lines of Work prominent people in a particular job read and reflect on the writings of an illustrious forebear. In this essay the gardener Jackie Bennett responds to the ideas and principles laid out by the Elizabethan thinker Francis Bacon in his Essay 'Of Gardens'.Producer: James Cook.

In Lines of Work prominent people in a particular job read and reflect on the writings of an illustrious forebear of the same trade. The essays are partly about ideas and how they change, but also about the practice and experience of being a certain kind of thing; be it a teacher, a journalist, a soldier or a critic.Journalist Helen Lewis reads the poet John Milton's defence of a Free Press, Aeropagitica. The question of freedom of the press rarely goes away but it feels particularly of the moment. Helen, deputy editor of the New Statesman, reads Milton for the first time to see whether his 17th century concerns can help us think through the post-Leveson age.Producer: James Cook.

Prominent people in a particular line of work read and reflect on the writings of an illustrious forebear of the same trade. The essays are partly about ideas and how they change, but also about the practice and the human experience of being a certain kind of thing; be it a teacher, a soldier a critic or a journalist.Soldier and author Harry Parker, relives The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant, through the lens of his own experiences in Helmand province. Grant fought in the US Mexican War and then commanded the Union armies in the American Civil War. Reading Grant's spare prose Harry reflects on the changes in the way war is experienced, consumed and portrayed.Producer: James Cook.

Prominent people in a particular line of work read and reflect on the writings of an illustrious forebear of the same trade. The essays are partly about ideas and how they change, but also about the practice and the human experience of being a certain kind of thing; be it a teacher, a soldier a critic or a journalist.Theatre critic Susannah Clapp has a passionate exchange of views with Oscar Wilde through his essays on criticism. Many of Wilde's pungent epithets and observations â€" his 'silken arrows' as Susannah describes them - still have the power to thrill, inform and entertain. But Susannah finds Wilde was on the wrong side of anonymity arguments and struggles to make sense of the internet age. Susannah ends telling her illustrious forebear of her fears for Wildean criticism in the age of mere opinion.Producer: James Cook.

Prominent people in a particular line of work read and reflect on the writings of an illustrious forebear of the same trade. The essays are partly about ideas and how they change, but also about the practice and the human experience of being a certain kind of thing; be it a teacher, a soldier a critic or a journalist.Francis Gilbert was a secondary school teacher for a number of years and is now Lecturer in Education at the University of London. He reads Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile and reflects on whether this template for a perfect education has a place and an influence on today's curriculum. Rousseau was an 18th-century Swiss philosopher and Emile - which charted the imagined education of the books titular young man - can be through of as the educational textbook of the Romantic movement. Rousseau's ideas have influenced Steiner Schools and the Montessori movement but are they desirable (or even feasible) in the age of mass state education.Producer: James Cook.

Four centuries after Shakespeare's death, young scholars share new evaluations of his work - in a series of essays recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon.5.Siobhan Keenan on Shakespeare Beyond LondonThe Globe Theatre on the South Bank gives us such a clear image of productions of Shakespeare's plays in his own day, that it's easy to forget they were also performed far beyond London. Siobhan sets out to explain how Shakespeare and his fellow actors regularly toured the country, performing in spaces ranging from town halls and churches to large country houses.Siobhan sheds light on why most of Shakespeare's plays were designed so that they could be performed anywhere - with call for few props and little scenery - in order to reveal the importance of touring to his career, and the emergence of Shakespeare as a cultural icon in Elizabethan and Jacobean England - and beyond. Siobhan Keenan is Reader in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at De Montfort University. BBC Radio 3 is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Four centuries after Shakespeare's death, young scholars share new evaluations of his work - in a series of essays recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon.4.Preti Taneja: Freedom of Speech or "Nothing": King Lear and Contemporary IndiaPreti recently undertook a wide-reaching trip to India in order to research her own new novel based on King Lear. In this Essay, she considers Shakespeare's great tragedy as a lens through which to explore some of the contradictions of freedom of speech and censorship, development and corruption, activism and violence facing the world's youngest, fastest growing democracy today. Preti Taneja is a former Radio 3 New Generation Thinker and post-doctoral research fellow in Global Shakespeare at Queen Mary, University of London, and Warwick University. BBC Radio 3 is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Joan explores the symbolism of food and eating in Shakespeare's plays

Four centuries after Shakespeare's death, young scholars share new evaluations of his work - in a series of essays recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon.3.Joan Fitzpatrick with "Wolf All?- Shakespeare and Food in Renaissance England"Joan Fitzpatrick explains her new research on what people ate in Shakepeare's England, and what food and the consumption of food signifies in his plays. She starts with details of enormously popular Dietary books, such as William Bullein's Government of Health, (first printed in 1542) and goes on to explore why eating is about far more than nourishment, shedding important new light on the old, the young, the thin, the fat, women, foreigners, the poor and social elites in Shakespeare's plays. Joan Fitzpatrick is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Loughborough UniversityBBC Radio 3 is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Producer : Beaty Rubens.

Four centuries after Shakespeare's death, young scholars share new evaluations of his work - in a series of essays recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon. 2.James Loxley on Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare and the NationAt a time when relationships between the UK and the rest of Europe, and between the UK's own constituent nations, looks more unsettled than for many years, James Loxley explores what light Shakespeares plays might throw on tricky questions of national identity and the political debates that can grow up around them.James starts by considering Henry V, for which Shakespeare is often depicted as a celebrant of untroubled Englishness, giong on to explain that during Shakespeare's most creative period, the very name and nature of the country was in dispute, with the concept of "Great Britain" becoming a prospect for the first time.And he concludes by wondering how Shakespeare's plays can help us understand our own national questions today.James Loxley is Professor of Early Modern Literature in the University of EdinburghBBC Radio 3 is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Producer: Beaty Rubens.

James explores the light Shakespeare throws on national identity, then and now

Four centuries after the death of Shakespeare, five young scholars share new evaluations of his work - in a series of essays recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon. 1.Sophie Duncan on Shakespeare and the SuffragettesSophie Duncan reveals how Shakespeare's heroines helped transform Victorian schoolgirls into Edwardian activists.The 19th century actress Ellen Terry told the suffragettes that they had more in common with Shakespeare's female characters than with the fragile, domestic ladies of Victorian novels. Sohie Duncan's new research starts with the unanticipated results of a competition run in The Girls' Own Paper in 1888 to find its readers' favourite Shakespearean heroine. It moves into more conventional scholarly territory with an analysis of a Suffragist-led production of The Winter's Tale in 1914, and its impact on English Suffragettes as a depiction of violence against women and the transformative power of female friendship.Sophie Duncan is Calleva Post-Doctoral Researcher at Magdalen College, OxfordBBC Radio 3 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Playwright and academic Elizabeth Kuti explores Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie"

Photographer John D McHugh explores one of the war photos taken by Fr Francis Browne