The Essay
Monday - Thursday 23.00 - 23.15
Monday - Thursday series of cultural talks.
- The "See Also" list includes the series broadcast in this programme - any that appear on this page are due to me not renaming them..
- The programme started with four episodes, running Monday to Thursday, then it would vary between two-three-four, and now it's up to five.
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | A Five-day Journey, Marking | 20091102 | Writer Robert Macfarlane walks the length of the South Downs, exploring its chalk path and its ghosts. Walking the Hampshire miles of the South Downs, in monsoon rain and sunshine, Robert reflects on the relationship between paths and stories, and how old paths were imagined in 19th-and early 20th-century England as ghostly spaces of time-warp and spectres. He considers how paths might be thought of as sculptures, a kind of democratic art form; and he meets a man who has been on the road for seven years, since the death of his wife. Robert Macfarlane on the link between paths and stories, and paths as ghostly spaces. | |
| 01 | A Tribute To Mr Purcell, Purcell And Royalty | 20091116 | Purcell biographer Jonathan Keates places the composer's life and music in the context of the changes of monarch as Charles II was succeeded by James II and then William and Mary. Jonathan Keates on Purcell and the different monarchs for whom he worked. | |
| 01 | Chekhov Essays, Simon Russell Beale | 20100125 | Simon Russell Beale, who is amongst the most distinguished and popular actors on the British stage, reveals what he has learned from Chehov in terms of theatre-craft. After Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov is the most perfomed playwright in the world and amongst the most revered writers of short stories. While the pleasure he has given to theatre audiences and readers is immense, these Essays explore his legacy in terms of the craft and technique that he continues to bequeath to theatre practitioners and writers today. In the first of five programmes celebrating the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Chekhov's birth, the hugely popular actor Simon Russell Beale confides how the opportunity to perform in The Seagull with the Royal Shakespeare Company twenty five years ago, transformed his entire career. "I can't pretend to know precisely what my new employers saw in me, but I suspect that they wanted to use me, at least initially, as a comic actor - or as a young character actor, to use the old terminology. This was not unexpected. I could not imagine myself, even in my most self-deluded moments, as Lysander or Romeo or Sebastian....And then Terry Hands, the Artistic Director at the time, cast me as Konstantin in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov....". Simon Russell Beale on how performing in Chekhov's The Seagull changed his entire career. | |
| 01 | Enlightenment Voices, Diderot, Part 1 | 20100118 | It is hard to over-estimate the scope and ambition of the Encyclopedie. Published in two decades after 1751, it was the single greatest publishing enterprise of the European Enlightenment. Extending to 28 folio volumes, each a thousand pages in length, and with the intention of recording all existing knowledge, both practical and intellectual, the Encyclopedie contained some 72,000 articles by 230 contributors and sold an astonishing 250,000 copies across Europe. For the first of five programmes, the historian Justin Champion introduces the undertaking, from the commissioning of contributors to the practicalities of printing, binding and distribution, and on to its reception both by ordinary readers and by the political and religious authorities. In Justin's introduction Denis Diderot, the son of a provincial cutler, is brought back to life as the extraordinary driving passion behind this breathtaking landmark both of publishing history and the Enlightenment project. Justin Champion introduces French philosopher Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie project. | |
| 01 | Enlightenment Voices, Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 1 | 20091123 | Series exploring the work of philosopher, writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Distinguished scholar Janet Todd considers Wollstonecraft alongside other great thinkers of the Enlightenment. She places her passionate belief in feminism within the context of a broader, radical belief in social reform, from state politics to inheritance, slavery, land ownership, capitalism and education. Reader: Tessa Nicholson. Janet Todd considers Mary Wollstonecraft alongside other great Enlightenment thinkers. | |
| 01 | Enlightenment Voices, Robert Hooke, Hooke's Diary | 20091005 | Series exploring the work of scientific pioneer Robert Hooke. While he was well-known for Hooke's Law - the theory of elasticity - this great scientist was less acknowledged for his greater contribution to the development of science during the Enlightenment. He developed the microscope, spring pocket watch, a marine barometer, the universal joint - still used in cars today, was an architect, astronomer and had done much of the work on gravitational theory before Isaac Newton. Professor Lisa Jardine examines Hooke's diary and the insight it gives us into the world of the Enlightenment scientists. Lisa Jardine on what Robert Hooke's diary says about Enlightenment scientists in general. | |
| 01 | Enlightenment Voices, Smith/hume, Part 1 | 20091130 | Series exploring the work of philosopher and 'father' of modern economics Adam Smith. Professor Alexander Brodie explores Smith's observations on morality and human behaviour. Smith believed that morality is, or should be, a lifelong project that leaves no space for complacency about our moral status. Whatever we have achieved Already, we could still make progress and we could still fall. Alexander Brodie examines Smith's observations on morality and human behaviour. | |
| 01 | Enlightenment Voices, Voltaire, Voltaire And The Voices Of The Enlightenment | 20090928 | Series exploring the work of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. Professor Nicholas Cronk, director of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford, introduces Voltaire, places him within the context of other Enlightenment thinkers and celebrates his novel Candide - a timeless satire on the human condition. Reader: Simon Russell Beale. Nicholas Cronk introduces Voltaire and celebrates Candide, a satire on the human condition | |
| 01 | Karachi Postcards, Arrival, And The Family Waits For Her... | 20100315 | The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to her city of birth every winter, and this time decides to explore it properly: 1. Arrival, and the family waits for her... Producer Duncan Minshull "Each time I visit Karachi there is a particular strangeness that accompanies me... invisible to x-ray machines... undetected by sniffer dogs. It is the strangeness of returning." London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. But it's not where she lives anymore, so it has a fresh and often surprising quality to it. Over five 'postcards' for The Essay, she explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light And the experience of arrival is a big deal. Outside the sleek, spare, deserted airport terminal all of Karachi's life comes towards you... Novelist Kamila Shamsie describes arriving at Karachi airport. | |
| 01 | Land And Sea And Sky, Out Of The Marvellous | 20100308 | The poet Katrina Porteous lives at the edge of the land in the Northumbrian village of Beadnell and has spent her life exploring and writing about the culture and language of fishing, the land and seascape, the sky full of seabirds and the history of her place. In her essay, 'Out of the Marvellous', recorded on the rocks, in a tarry old fisherman's hut and the ruins of an ancient headland chapel, she reveals how the meeting of land and sea and sky has shaped the way of life of a community, and her own way of seeing and artistic creation. Poet Katrina Porteous describes living in the Northumbrian coastal village of Beadnell. | |
| 01 | The World Turned Upside Down, Valeria Toth | 20091109 | 1989: Twentieth Anniversary Series in which essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on the changing use and meaning of an apparently banal object. Hungarian journalist Valeria Toth measures out her life in passports. We hear of the multiple passports of communist Hungary, with red for travel to Warsaw Pact nations, blue for travel outside the Soviet bloc and red with a blue stamp for non-aligned Yugoslavia. Special one-way passports are used to expel troublesome citizens. And passport anxiety continues into 1989, when thousands of East Germans enter Hungary and the ditch beside the border fills with discarded passports. Finally, a new era dawns in which - unthinkably - it's even possible to occasionally forget your passport. Hungarian journalist Valeria Toth measures out her life in passports. | |
| 01 | When Writers Play (series 2), Patrick Gale | 20091012 | Series in which writers describe their passions and talents for playing a musical instrument. Novelist Patrick Gale recalls how he got to grips with the cello as a schoolboy. Of course for him, playing music was far better than playing sport. Novelist Patrick Gale recalls how he got to grips with the cello as a schoolboy. | |
| 01 | William Hazlitt - Philosopher, Winterslow | 20100201 | Series of talks arguing that William Hazlitt was a committed philosopher as well as a great essayist. Jonathan Ree describes how, while living a solitary life near the small Wiltshire village of Winterslow, the young and as yet unknown Hazlitt devoted himself to the struggle of becoming a serious philosophical writer. Talk on how the young Hazlitt devoted himself to becoming a serious philosophical writer. | |
| 02 | A Tribute To Mr Purcell, Purcell In Performance | 20091116 | 20091117 | Andrew Parrott, who has been at the forefront of the early music movement in the UK as both a performer and a scholar, discusses his research into Hail! bright Cecilia and other Purcell works, and how these inform his approach in performance. Andrew Parrott on researching and performing Purcell's Hail! bright Cecilia. |
| 02 | Chekhov Essays, Timberlake Wertenbaker | 20100126 | The playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker writes a love letter to Chekhov to thank him for all that he has taught her in terms of theatre-craft. After Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov is the most perfomed playwright in the world and amongst the most revered writers of short stories. While the pleasure he has given to theatre audiences and readers is immense, these Essays explore his legacy in terms of the craft and technique that he continues to bequeath to theatre practitioners and writers today. From her best known work, Our Country's Good, to her latest play, The Line, Timberlake Wertenbaker is one of our most highly valued contemporary playwrights. Chekhov is her favourite writer, and in this Essay - couched as a love letter - she reflects on what she has learned from him in terms of theatre-craft. Timberlake Wertenbaker on what she has learned from Chekhov in terms of theatre craft. | |
| 02 | Enlightenment Voices, Diderot, Part 2 | 20100119 | Considering it was published in the 1750s, the Encyclopedie, with its 28 folio volumes and 72,000 articles, puts the wonders of the internet firmly in the shade. Dr Kate Tunstall and Dr Caroline Warman, both of whom teach French at The University of Oxford, are passionate enthusiasts of the Encyclopedie. In this evening's programme, they broadcast from the Taylorian Institute in Oxford, pulling volume after immense folio volume from the open shelves to show how the complex system of "renvois" or cross-references, makes the Encyclopedie both a mine of information about the Enlightenment and a browser's dream. Kate Tunstall and Caroline Warman introduce the vast scope of Diderot's Encyclopdie. | |
| 02 | Enlightenment Voices, Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 2 | 20091124 | Series exploring the work of philosopher, writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Janet Todd of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, a renowned scholar of early women writers, examines Wollstonecraft's love-hate relationship with the character and writings of the great Swiss Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Reader: Tessa Nicholson. Janet Todd on Mary Wollstonecraft and the character and writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. | |
| 02 | Enlightenment Voices, Robert Hooke, Hooke And The Royal Society | 20091006 | Series exploring the work of the scientific pioneer Robert Hooke. Dr Felicity Henderson, manager of the Royal Society's 'History of Science Events' looks through the great science academy's archives to shed light on the ground-breaking exploits of Hooke, who was curator of experiments, as well as the founder members. She explores how Hooke was instrumental in the organisation's early success. Dr Felicity Henderson discusses Hooke's influence at the Royal Society. | |
| 02 | Enlightenment Voices, Smith/hume, Part 2 | 20091201 | Series exploring the work of philosopher and 'father' of modern economics Adam Smith. Historian and novelist James Buchan looks back to the great thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment and their interpretation of whether 'luxury' was a motivating benefit for society. Medieval historians felt that luxury was a threat to the immortal soul. In the 18th century, philosophers moralised on how best to deal with the new commercial society. James Buchan considers how the idea of medieval 'luxury' became modern political economy. | |
| 02 | Enlightenment Voices, Spinoza, Part 2 | 20100112 | Series focusing on the work of 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Prof Susan James from Birkbeck College, University of London, explores Spinoza's philosophical work on the role of democracy in 17th-century Europe. Spinoza's defence of democracy, along with his commitment to religious pluralism, set him apart from his contemporaries, and started a new line of political thinking which stretches to today. Reader: Bruce Alexander. Susan James explores Spinoza's work on the role of democracy in 17th century Europe. | |
| 02 | Enlightenment Voices, Voltaire, Voltaire And England | 20090929 | Series exploring the work of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. Professor Nicholas Cronk, director of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford, explores how Voltaire's encounter with English culture both influenced the writer personally and had far-reaching consequences for Enlightenment thinking generally. He explains why Voltaire came to England in the first place and considers why the book of essays he wrote - Letters Concerning the English Nation - has been described as 'the first bomb thrown at the ancient regime' - a praise of the country and a covert criticism pre-revolutionary France. With his vivid and often highly contemporary observations on religion, business, politics, science, philosophy and literature, Voltaire's book on England is as striking today as it was to both French and English readers when it was first published in 1733. Reader: Simon Russell Beale. Nicholas Cronk discusses the effect of Voltaire's time spent in England. | |
| 02 | Karachi Postcards, Traffic Stops As 'street Cricket' Takes Pride Of Place... | 20100316 | The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to the city of her birth every winter, and this time decides to explore it properly: 2. Traffic stops as 'street cricket' takes pride of place... "Each time I visit Karachi there is a particular strangeness that accompanies me... invisible to x-ray machines... undetected by sniffer dogs. It is the strangeness of returning." London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. But it's not where she lives anymore, so it has a fresh and often surprising quality to it. Over five 'postcards' for The Essay, she explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light. This time, she takes to the streets to enjoy the mania that is 'street cricket', and explains how this form of the game reflects on the professional version, with its groomed heroes and rivalry with India. Sporting politics are never far away though.. London-based novelist Kamila Shamsie learns about 'street cricket' in Karachi. | |
| 02 | Land And Sea And Sky | 20100309 | The poet and essayist Jeremy Hooker recalls his early life on the south coast, looking across to Isle of Wight, in wartime. The sea and sky were fascinating, and dangerous, and the land fractured, revealing remants of earlier creations and their stories. Out of these the poet was himself made. Hooker considers other poets of the south country -Tennyson, whose memorial he could see on the Island, and Thomas Hardy. Their poetry has a Victorian melancholy which he resists in his own. He contrasts the meeting of land and sea and sky he knew as a boy with that in west Wales, where storms shifted the furniture in his seafront room. And for Hooker the meeting of land and sea and sky, its shifting, its re-arranging and it rhythms provides an example, a poetic discipline. Poet and essayist Jeremy Hooker discusses his early life spent on the south coast. | |
| 02 | The World Turned Upside Down, Jana Scholze | 20091110 | 1989: Twentieth Anniversary Series in which essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on the changing use and meaning of an apparently banal object. Furniture curator Jana Scholze remembers her life in Communist East Germany and a much-desired garden chair. Furniture curator Jana Scholze on life in communist East Germany and a garden chair. | |
| 02 | When Writers Play (series 2), Al Kennedy | 20091013 | Series in which writers describe their passions and talents for playing a musical instrument. Novelist AL Kennedy describes what happened after she found a neglected banjo in a shop in Glasgow. Novelist AL Kennedy describes the result of finding a neglected banjo in a shop in Glasgow | |
| 02 | William Hazlitt - Philosopher, William Hazlitt Senior | 20100202 | Series of talks arguing that William Hazlitt was a committed philosopher as well as a great essayist. Jonathan Ree argues that Hazlitt's whole intellectual career can be seen as a dialogue with his father - a politically radical Unitarian minister. Hazlitt came to question his father's beliefs as he became disillusioned with the French Revolution. A talk about how Hazlitt's intellectual career can be seen as a dialogue with his father. | |
| 02 | Work-life Balance | 20100223 | We talk now of a 'work/life balance', as though 'work' is something quite separate from 'life' and the meaning of both is self-evident. How have we arrived at such a way of thinking? It's hard to find answers because, while there is endless newspaper coverage of the issue, no history of the work/life balance exists. Especially for The Essay, Professor Hugh Cunningham explores the place that work has played in British lives from proto-industrialism in the C18th to post-industrialism in the C21st through five vivid chronological snapshots. Each tells the story of a particular period while shedding new light on a contemporary juggling act that causes great stress to many if not most people in our society Throughout the series Hugh Cunningham returns to two themes: the impact of contemporary consumerism on our working lives and the difference between the work/leisure balance of the past - when the work-force was mainly male- and the so-called work/life balance of today - with women most taking the strain. In Episode Two, Hugh Cunningham looks at the battle - long fought but ultimately won - for leisure during the industrial revolution. Producer: Beaty Rubens (Rpt). Hugh Cunningham explores the battle for leisure during the Industrial Revolution. | |
| 03 | A Tribute To Mr Purcell, Purcell On The Stage | 20091117 | 20091118 | Roger Savage, formerly a senior lecturer in literature at Edinburgh University, examines Purcell's musical creations for the theatre and how we perceive them today. Roger Savage on Purcell's musical creations for the theatre. |
| 03 | Chopin | 20100303 | Pianist Piers Lane discusses Chopin's often overlooked role as a piano teacher in Paris. class="blq-clearfix"> The Essay: Chopin Pianist Piers Lane looks at Chopin's often overlooked role as a piano teacher in Paris. Producer: Jo Wheeler Presenter: Piers Lane. | |
| 03 | Enlightenment Voices, Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 3 | 20091125 | Series exploring the work of great philosopher, writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Baroness Helena Kennedy, who has built a reputation as a fighter for civil liberties, human rights and social justice, dicusses how Wollstonecraft influenced her life and work. Reader: Tessa Nicholson. Barrister Helena Kennedy on how Mary Wollstonecraft influenced her life and work. | |
| 03 | Enlightenment Voices, Robert Hooke, Hooke's Ideas And Methods | 20091007 | Series exploring the work of the scientific pioneer Robert Hooke. Dr Allan Chapman, of Hooke's alma mater, Wadham College, Oxford, explores Hooke's revolutionary ideas and methods. One of the great experimental scientists of his day, he devised the first successful vacuum pump and his work with microscopes led to the publication of his best-selling work, Micrographia, a book so riveting that Samuel Pepys called it 'the most ingenious book that ever I read in my life'. Allan Chapman explores Robert Hooke's revolutionary ideas and methods. | |
| 03 | Enlightenment Voices, Voltaire, Voltaire, Sarkozy And The Burka Debate | 20090930 | Series exploring the work of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. French journalist Agnes Poirier asks what Voltaire, the father of 'laicite' - France's version of secularism - would say about the debate taking place in her country about banning the burka, the head-to-toe Islamic veil. Reader: Philip Fox. Agnes Poirier asks how Voltaire would view the debate in France about banning the burka. | |
| 03 | Karachi Postcards, What Women Do In The City! | 20100317 | The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to her city of birth every winter, and this time decides to explore it properly: 3. What women do in the city! Producer Duncan Minshull "Each time I visit Karachi there is a particular strangeness that accompanies me... invisible to x-ray machines... undetected by sniffer dogs. It is the strangeness of returning." London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. But it's not where she lives anymore, so it has a fresh and often surprising quality to it. Over five 'postcards' for The Essay, she explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light Now she meets the women of the city. How do they live their daily lives? How do men see them? And what is the difference between what one women in a queue calls 'rights and privileges' ? Writer Kamila Shamsie explores the paradoxical lives that women lead in modern Karachi. | |
| 03 | Land And Sea And Sky, Over The Water: Writing Belonging | 20100310 | The young Liverpool dramatist and singer Lizzie Nunnery brings an urban eye to bear on the meeting of land and sea and sky in her essay 'Over the Water: Writing Belonging'. Recorded by water, at the pierhead on the Mersey and on the streets of Liverpool, her essay recalls the pleasure of growing up in a city with beaches which she took for granted, then her growing awareness of how the city grew from the meeting of the land and the sea, how the traffic of people and ideas created the identity of the place, the character of the people, and her own sensibility as a writer. Dramatist and singer Lizzie Nunnery recalls growing up in Liverpool. | |
| 03 | When Writers Play (series 2), Louise Doughty | 20091014 | Series in which writers describe their passions and talents for playing a musical instrument. Novelist Louise Doughty explains how playing the piano later in life presented new challenges. Louise Doughty on how playing the piano later in life presented new challenges. | |
| 03 | William Hazlitt - Philosopher, Hazlitt And The Fate Of Modern Philosophy | 20100203 | Series of talks arguing that William Hazlitt was a committed philosopher as well as a great essayist. Historian Jonathan Ree explores how Hazlitt, once a committed believer in rational Christianity and political radicalism, soon came to question all the main tenets of 'modern philosophy', preferring doubt to certainty. Talk exploring how Hazlitt came to question all the main tenets of 'modern philosophy'. | |
| 04 | A Tribute To Mr Purcell, Purcell's Reputation | 20091118 | 20091119 | Andrew Pinnock combines his skills as a Purcell scholar and a cultural economist to find out why Purcell's reputation is greater than that of his contemporaries, and how Purcell the entrepreneur helped engender his own fame. Andrew Pinnock on how Purcell's skills as an entrepreneur helped enhance his reputation. |
| 04 | Chekhov Essays, Ruth Thomas | 20100128 | The short story writer Ruth Thomas confesses how her early ignorance and dislike of Chekhov turned later to love as she came to emulate his loving depictions of domestic life. After Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov is the most perfomed playwright in the world and amongst the most revered writers of short stories. While the pleasure he has given to theatre audiences and readers is immense, these Essays explore his legacy in terms of the craft and technique that he continues to bequeath to theatre practitioners and writers today. In the fourth of five programmes celebrating the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Chekhov's birth, the novelist and short story writer Ruth Thomas tells the true tale of how a missing cat in a misty cherry orchard started a life long interest in the life and work of Chekhov. Young short story writer Ruth Thomas explains how she came to love Chekhov's work. | |
| 04 | Enlightenment Voices | 20091203 | Series exploring the work of philosopher David Hume, one of the major figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. In his lifetime, Hume was not only known for his philosophical works but also as a historian and essayist. Alongside his writing, one of his last jobs was secretary to the British Embassy in Paris, where he was lionised by the intelligentsia as an architect of the Enlightenment. Professor Simon Blackburn of Cambridge University assesses Hume's originality of thought and his influence on later thinkers like Darwin. Simon Blackburn on Hume's originality of thought and influence on thinkers such as Darwin. | |
| 04 | Enlightenment Voices, Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 4 | 20091126 | Series exploring the work of philosopher, writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Scholar Janet Todd traces the complex emotional and intellectual trajectory of Wollstonecraft's reactions to events during the French Revolution in 1789, and its impact on her hopes and wishes for change in her native England. Reader: Tessa Nicholson. Janet Todd traces Mary Wollstonecraft's reactions to the events of the French Revolution. | |
| 04 | Enlightenment Voices, Robert Hooke, Hooke's Inventions | 20091008 | Series exploring the work of the scientific pioneer Robert Hooke. Professor Lisa Jardine examines Hooke's inventions, explores how they were received at the time and how some are integral to the way we live now. Hooke was at the forefront of invention in the 17th century. As he and his fellow scientists went about their quest to 'know everything', Hooke was continually inventing new ways with machinery, telescopes, microscopes, watches and medicine. Charles II took a great interest in many of his designs and some of his discoveries have lasted through the years and are critical to our lives today. His 'Hooke joint' which he developed for carriages is now used in a rear-wheel drive car to connect the drive shaft to the transmission. Lisa Jardine discusses how Robert Hooke's inventions were received in the 17th century. | |
| 04 | Enlightenment Voices, Voltaire, Voltaire And Religion | 20091001 | Series exploring the work of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. The cataclysmic Lisbon earthquake of 1755, in which tens of thousands of people died, is the starting point of Professor Simon Blackburn, of Cambridge University's philopsophy department, as he examines Voltaire's views on religion and belief. The event occurred on All Saints' Day - November 1st - which meant that the churches in one of the godliest cities in Catholic Europe were all packed, while the brothels were relatively empty. Where, Voltaire wondered, was divine providence in all this? Professor Blackburn explores not only Voltaire's coruscating views on the corrupt and powerful established Church, but also the complex question of his lingering faith. Above all, he examines the practical effect of Voltaire's ideas, celebrating the role of the Enlightenment in replacing the altars and thrones of an older Europe with the largely secular constitutional democracies that followed. Reader: Philip Fox. Professor Simon Blackburn examines Voltaire's views on religion and belief. | |
| 04 | Karachi Postcards, Leaving A Hot City For Life On The Beach... | 20100318 | The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to her city of birth every winter, and this time decides to explore it properly: 4. Leaving a hot city for life on the beach... "Each time I visit Karachi there is a particular strangeness that accompanies me... invisible to x-ray machines... undetected by sniffer dogs. It is the strangeness of returning." London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. But it's not where she lives anymore, so it has a fresh and often surprising quality to it. Over five 'postcards' for The Essay, she explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light In her fourth postcard, Kamila escapes the hot, steamy bustle of the city centre and heads like hundreds do to the nearby beaches, where a poetic and calm state of mind and body takes over.. Novelist Kamila Shamsie explores Karachi and heads for the beach. | |
| 04 | Land And Sea And Sky | 20100311 | Michael Bird writes books about the visual arts, so St Ives is a good place to be. In his essay he explores how the constant transformations of what he sees, the land in the light, the weather, the breaking waves, even the people, have a rejuvenating, inspirational impact on him. Bird's essay was recorded in the streets leading down to the water, on Porthmeor Beach, on the cliff path leading to Land's End, along the run he takes to focus his thoughts. Unusually, but importantly, for a writer, he lives where the visual rather than the verbal, takes precedence. In St Ives one sees, then writes, rather than the other way around. And Michael Bird puzzles on his personal jouney, on how he came to be living in the far southwest, where land and sea and sky meet so dramatically. Writer Michael Bird discusses the inspirational effect of living in St Ives in Cornwall. | |
| 04 | When Writers Play (series 2), Jasper Rees | 20091015 | Series in which writers describe their passions and talents for playing a musical instrument. Journalist Jasper Rees sets himself the crazy challenge of re-learning the French horn, then playing live at the Royal Festival Hall. Jasper Rees on re-learning the French horn and playing live at the Royal Festival Hall. | |
| 04 | Work-life Balance | 20100225 | We talk now of a 'work/life balance', as though 'work' is something quite separate from 'life' and the meaning of both is self-evident. How have we arrived at such a way of thinking? It's hard to find answers because, while there is endless newspaper coverage of the issue, no history of the work/life balance exists. Especially for The Essay, Professor Hugh Cunningham explores the place that work has played in British lives from proto-industrialism in the C18th to post-industrialism in the C21st through five vivid chronological snapshots. Each tells the story of a particular period while shedding new light on a contemporary juggling act that causes great stress to many if not most people in our society Throughout the series Hugh Cunningham returns to two themes: the impact of contemporary consumerism on our working lives and the difference between the work/leisure balance of the past - when the work-force was mainly male- and the so-called work/life balance of today - with women most taking the strain. Those of us who take real pleasure and pride in our work are the lucy ones. In Episode Four Hugh Cunningham tells the story of great Victorians such as William Morris and Karl Marx who fought to improve the quality of the working lives of all Britons. Producer: Beaty Rubens (Rpt). Hugh Cunningham tells the story of great Victorians such as William Morris and Karl Marx. | |
| 05 LAST | A Five-day Journey, Collecting | 20091106 | Writer Robert Macfarlane walks the length of the South Downs, exploring its chalk path and its ghosts. Walking the final miles of the South Downs with artist Chris Drury, Robert explores the sometimes eerie relationship between walking, collecting and creation. Vladimir Nabokov, Iris Murdoch, Hugh Macdiarmid, Bruce Chatwin and Drury's own land-art sculptures feature, as does the life and death of Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in the Sussex Ouse having slipped a single, heavy flint into her pocket. Robert Macfarlane explores the relationship between walking, collecting and creation. | |
| 05 LAST | Enlightenment Voices, Diderot, Part 5 | 20100122 | Diderot experts Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall join forces to introduce his most extraordinary work, "D'Alembert's Dream". Denis Diderot's publications range from his monumental Encyclopedie to his erotic novella, Indiscreet Jewels, but perhaps his most extraordinary work is D'Alembert's Dream. It starts with Diderot's fellow encyclopedist, D'Alembert, challenging him to explain human life without making any reference to God or the soul or anything that isn't purely physical. Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall, both Diderot experts at the University of Oxford, take on the Dream in a dialogue of their own and playfully challenge the listener to grapple with this quintessentially Enlightenment subject themselves. Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall introduce Diderot's dialogue D'Alembert's Dream. | |
| 05 LAST | Enlightenment Voices, Robert Hooke, Hooke And The Great Fire Of London | 20091009 | Series exploring the work of the scientific pioneer Robert Hooke. Architectural historian Dr James Campbell focuses on Hooke's activities after the Great Fire of London. Together with all his scientific commitments at the Royal Society, Hooke was employed as Christopher Wren's right hand man, the surveyor responsible for measuring out the new street plan of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666. James assesses Hookes achievements and contribution to the rebuilding of London. James Campbell discusses Robert Hooke's activities after the Great Fire of London. | |
| 05 LAST | Enlightenment Voices, Voltaire, Voltaire's Library And Legacy | 20091002 | Series exploring the work of the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. Professor Nicholas Cronk, director of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford, explores the legacy of this greatest of Enlightenment figures. When Voltaire died in 1778 aged 84, he was the most famous writer in the world and his immortality was assured. Nicholas recounts the extraordinary story of the removal of Voltaire's library of around 7,000 books from his chateau in France all the way to St Petersburg, where Catherine the Great planned to build a type of Voltaire theme park. He explores Voltaire's celebrity status, both before and after his death, and goes on to discuss how his ideas about politics, religion and tolerance continue to resonate today. Nicholas concludes with an illustration of how - in the true spirit of the Enlightenment - writers continue to debate with Voltaire and, in so doing, perpetuate his legacy. Reader: Simon Russell Beale. Professor Nicholas Cronk discusses Voltaire's legacy and his library. | |
| 05 LAST | Karachi Postcards, Departure, But First A Feast... | 20100319 |
The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to her city of birth every winter, and this time decides to explore it properly: 5. Departure, but first a feast... Producer Duncan Minshull "Each time I visit Karachi there is a particular strangeness that accompanies me... invisible to x-ray machines... undetected by sniffer dogs. It is the strangeness of returning." London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. But it's not where she lives anymore, so it has a fresh and often surprising quality to it. Over five 'postcards' for The Essay, she explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light. It's nearly time to return to London. It's late February. And to mark the event a ritual takes place. Off Kamila goes with friends to the Bunns Road, which is renowned for its amazing eateries. A last supper awaits, in all its delicious glory... Kamila Shamsie and friends go to eat on the Bunns Road in Karachi. | |
| 05 LAST | Land And Sea And Sky | 20100312 | Chris Wood has won awards for his songwriting and his performance, such as BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year, 2009. He is much concerned with English identity and our relationship with the land (his album 'Trespasser' is a musical examination of enclosure as a continuing affront). Exploring such themes Wood draws on the ancient storytelling of traditional song, engages with our very nature in 'Turtle Song' - a new song written for the recent Darwin anniversary - and place (there's even a song about his allotment). He has always lived in Faversham and recorded on location here in Kent's creek, mudflat region, his essay explores how the sea snaking far inland the vast sky and the Dickensian marshes have all shaped his sensibility and concerns. Singer Chris Wood on how the sea, the sky and the marshes in Faversham have affected him. | |
| 05 LAST | The World Turned Upside Down | 20091113 | 1989: Twentieth Anniversary Series in which essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on the changing use and meaning of an apparently banal object. Essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on an apparently banal object. | |
| 05 LAST | When Writers Play (series 2), Niall Ferguson | 20091016 | Series in which writers describe their passions and talents for playing a musical instrument. Historian Niall Ferguson recalls with fondness his days as the double-bass player in a jazz quartet. Historian Niall Ferguson recalls his days as the double-bass player in a jazz quartet. | |
| 05 LAST | William Hazlitt - Philosopher, Acquaintance With Poets | 20100205 | Series of talks arguing that William Hazlitt was a committed philosopher as well as a great essayist. Historian Jonathan Ree explores Hazlitt's relationship with Coleridge and Wordsworth. The former found Hazlitt to be 'a thinking, observant, original man', and it was this recognition that gave him the confidence to struggle quietly for many years to make his mark as a thinker as well as a writer. Historian Jonathan Ree explores Hazlitt's relationship with Coleridge and Wordsworth. | |
| Enlightenment Voices, Smith/hume, 02/12/2009 | 20091202 | Series exploring the work of philosopher and 'father' of modern economics Adam Smith. Vincent Cable, MP and Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman explores some of Smith's groundbreaking theories and insights into human nature and our relationship with money. What advice might Smith have for today's economists? Vincent Cable MP wonders what Smith would make of today's global financial crisis. | ||
| Enlightenment Voices, Smith/hume, 04/12/2009 | 20091204 | Series exploring the work of philosopher David Hume, one of the major figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. David Hume enjoyed huge fame and respect in his lifetime, yet he considered his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion too provocative to be published within his own lifetime. Philosopher Professor Simon Blackburn of Cambridge University analyses Hume's ground breaking thoughts about religion in Dialogues. Simon Blackburn assesses Hume's revolutionary Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. |
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