The Essay

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...

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...

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 e...

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...

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 foll...

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 t...

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,...

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 c...

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. Par...

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...

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...

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, Aero...

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...

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 Wild...

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...

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 London The 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 t...

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 India Preti recently undertook a wide-reaching trip to India in order to research her own new novel based...

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 foo...

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. 2.James Loxley on Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare and the Nation At a time when relationships between the UK and the rest of Europe, and between the UK's own constituent nation...

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 Suffragettes Sophie Duncan reveals how Shakespeare's heroines helped transform Victorian schoolgirls into Edwardian activists. The...

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