The Little Secrets Of Great Works

In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, underappreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.

For this edition, the children's novelist and screenwriter Elle McNicoll (A Kind of Spark, Like a Charm) describes the inspiration she has taken from a single line of dialogue in Nora Ephron's much loved romantic comedy 'You've Got Mail', starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Elle describes growing up with Ephron's film collection in the house and gaining a love of New York from 'Nora'. She also remembers how she connected to Ryan's character Kathleen - as a bookseller and advocate for children's literature - through one line spoken in a book store scene.

Producer: Sam Peach

Children's novelist Elle McNicoll discusses one line from Nora Ephron's romantic comedy.

Essays identifying a small, underappreciated aspect of a famous artistic work. In this episode, children's novelist Elle McNicoll discusses a line of dialogue in You've Got Mail.

[LISTEN NOW]

In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, under-appreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.

In this edition Stephen Bush, Associate Editor of the Financial Times, considers the Third Movement of Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 and what it means to him.

Producer: Mohini Patel

Financial Times journailst Stephen Bush on the third movement of Sibelius's Symphony No 5.

In this edition Stephen Bush, associate editor of the Financial Times, considers the third movement of Jean Sibelius's Symphony No 5 and what it means to him.

Financial Times journalist Stephen Bush on the third movement of Sibelius's Symphony No 5.

Essays on the small, underappreciated aspects of famous artistic pieces. Journalist Stephen Bush discusses his connection to the third movement of Sibelius's Fifth Symphony.

[LISTEN NOW]

In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, underappreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.

Spectator Literary Editor Sam Leith explores his fascination with a background figure in Judith Kerr's classic picture book ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea'.

Producer: Sam Peach

Sam Leith on his fascination with a background figure in Judith Kerr's classic book.

Essays on the small, underappreciated aspects of famous artistic pieces. Literary critic Sam Leith on his fascination with a background figure in Judith Kerr's classic book.

[LISTEN NOW]

[LISTEN NOW]

Art historian and author of The Story of Art Without Men, Katy Hessel draws our attention to the spine as a symbol of feminine strength and survival in Frida Kahlo's Broken Column. No matter how ambitious and brave she was in her painting, life was a constant battle: in love, in her physicality, and her struggle to be taken seriously as a woman and as an artist. Kahlo was stunted by her life - from her operations to her heartbreak, her miscarriage to her constant fight to be heard - Broken Column is a message to us that justice will come; life will be reborn.

Producer:

Mohini Patel

Art historian Katy Hessel on the symbolism of the spine in Frida Kahlo's Broken Column.

In this Essay on underappreciated aspects of great art, Katy Hessel draws our attention to the spine as a symbol of feminine strength and survival in Frida Kahlo's Broken Column.

[LISTEN NOW]

For this edition, Shetland singer-songwriter and author of Sixty Degrees North and That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, Malachy Tallack, draws our attention to the briefest of mishaps in Neil Young's ‘Out on the Weekend' studio recording. An error which he describes as impossible to unhear once you have heard it.

Producer: Emma Betteridge

The Essay - The Little Secrets of Great Works

Essays on the small, underappreciated aspects of famous artistic pieces.

Shetland singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack draws our attention to a mishap in Neil Young's ‘Out on the Weekend' studio recording - impossible to unhear once you have heard it.

[LISTEN NOW]

In this edition, award-winning journalist and author of his debut novel, ‘Going Home', Tom Lamont, lets us into the secret of why one sentence in EM Forster's Howard's End stands out more to him than any of the others.

Producer: Emma Betteridge

Essays on the small, underappreciated aspects of famous artistic pieces.

Journalist and author Tom Lamont lets us into the secret of why one sentence in EM Forster's Howard's End stands out more to him than any of the others.

[LISTEN NOW]

In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, under-appreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.

In this edition, we hear from Welsh journalist and author Angela Hui. Her memoir is called ‘Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter', and in this essay she draws our attention to a moment in a movie which others might have seen hundreds of times before but may have missed. For Angela, there's a small uneventful scene in Hayao Miyazaki's ‘Spirited Away' where No Face, one of the spirits in the film, is politely drinking tea and eating a slice of cake that makes her laugh out loud and warms her heart to the core.

Producer: Emma Betteridge

Welsh journalist and author Angela Hui draws our attention to a moment in Hayao Miyazaki's film ‘Spirited Away' that makes her laugh out loud and warms her heart to the core.

[LISTEN NOW]

In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, under-appreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.

For this edition, Irish Journalist and literary editor, Fintan O'Toole, draws our attention to a little character in James Joyce's ‘Ulysses' who has recently come to haunt him. It is a book he first read when he was 17, and one which teems with almost 200 other named characters. Fintan, however, missed the significance of one apparently minor character until now - a boy called Patsy Dignam who faces a fate that could have been that of his own father when he was growing up in their home city of Dublin.

Producer: Emma Betteridge

[LISTEN NOW]

In this series of The Essay, five leading cultural voices choose a great work of art and talk about a small, under-appreciated aspect of the piece that carries great meaning for them.

In this edition, we hear from scholar, writer and broadcaster, Nigel Simeone, about the secret inspiration behind composer Leoš JanáĀ?ek's 'Sinfonietta', written in 1926. We learn what really motivated the composer to write this 22-minute masterpiece, and why we should especially listen out for the bells.

Produced by Emma Betteridge

Writer and broadcaster Nigel Simeone reveals the secret inspiration behind composer Leoš JanáĀ?ek's 'Sinfonietta' - and why we should especially listen out for the bells.

[LISTEN NOW]