The Essay

Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth on 13th June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with the poet, dramatist and prose writer, William Butler Yeats. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1923, Yeats is a commanding presence in 20th-century literature and has inspired, and occasionally infuriated, successive generations of readers, writers, and performers e...

Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1923, William Butler Yeats is a commanding presence in 20th-century literature and has inspired, and occasionally infuriated, successive generations of readers, writers, and performers ever since. Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth on 13th June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with his work. The authors include nove...

Unthank, Brigadoon, Thrums. Scottish literature is filled with place names that can't be found in a gazeteer or GPS. The literary critic Stuart Kelly explores the imaginary locations that have provided the settings for some of Scotland's greatest novels. He concludes his visit to imaginary Scottish places with a visit to Brigadoon.

Scottish Literature is filled with imaginary places. Today Stuart Kelly explores Alasdair Gray's Unthank, the nightmarish setting for 1981's Lanark.

Brigadoon, Unthank, and today Duncairn. Literary critic Stuart Kelly explores the fictional Scottish cities that never appear on any map.

Brigadoon, Unthank, Thrums. There are places in Scottish literature which are missing from gazetteers or GPS. Literary critic Stuart Kelly explores the imaginary places where Scotland's finest writing is set. Today he travels to JM Barrie's imaginary "Thrums.".

Unthank, Brigadoon, Thrums. Scottish literature is filled with place names that can't be found in a gazeteer or GPS. The literary critic Stuart Kelly explores the imaginary locations that have provided the settings for some of Scotland's greatest novels. Today, the novelist John Galt, little known outside Scotland, whose books provide some of the wittiest portraits of 19th-century Scottish life.

In this series of The Essay, recorded in front of an audience at the Hay festival earlier this week, five writers take George Orwell's essay title Why I Write as a starting point for their own explorations. The writers include the screenwriter, novelist and author of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, Frank Cottrell Boyce; the editor and translator Daniel Hahn; Horatio Clare, whose first...

In this series of The Essay, recorded in front of an audience at the Hay Festival earlier this week, five writers take George Orwell's title Why I Write as a starting point for their own explorations. The writers include the screenwriter, novelist and author of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, Frank Cottrell Boyce; the editor and translator Daniel Hahn; Horatio Clare, whose first book w...

In this series of The Essay, recorded in front of an audience at the Hay festival earlier this week, five writers take George Orwell's title Why I Write as a starting point for their own explorations. The writers include the screenwriter, novelist and author of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, Frank Cottrell Boyce; the editor and translator Daniel Hahn; Horatio Clare, whose first book w...

Literary journalist and writer Alex Clark has written many of our leading publications, and is a former Booker and Granta judge. She comes to Hay to ask 'Why I Write'. In this series of The Essay, recorded in front of an audience at the Hay Festival earlier this week, five writers take George Orwell's title Why I Write as a starting point for their own explorations. The writers include the screenw...

In this series of The Essay, recorded in front of an audience at the Hay festival earlier this week, five writers take George Orwell's title Why I Write as a starting point for their own explorations. The writers include the screenwriter, novelist and author of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, Frank Cottrell Boyce; the editor and translator Daniel Hahn; Horatio Clare, whose first book w...

Welles's career is littered with lost and half-finished projects. Film critic, David Thomson explores the man's complicated relationship with failure. Five essays by five enthusiasts that follow the rise and fall of controversial Renaissance man, Orson Welles. Produced by Gemma Jenkins.

Five essays by five enthusiasts that follow the rise and fall of controversial Renaissance man, Orson Welles. Gatsby expert, Sarah Churchwell on Welles's talent for self-mythologizing and how he compares with fiction's great dissembler, Jay Gatsby. Produced by Gemma Jenkins.

Five essays by five enthusiasts that follow the rise and fall of controversial Renaissance man, Orson Welles. Film critic Peter Bradshaw shares his own Rosebud theory in his personal take on Citizen Kane. Produced by Gemma Jenkins.

Filmmaker, Kevin Jackson, crowns Welles the Prospero of the silver screen as he appraises Welles's Shakespeare trilogy. Five essays by five enthusiasts that follow the rise and fall of controversial Renaissance man, Orson Welles. Produced by Gemma Jenkins.

Five essays by five enthusiasts that follow the rise and fall of Orson Welles, the controversial Renaissance man who was an actor, film director, radio producer and theatre impresario. Essayists include film critics Peter Bradshaw and David Thomson and Sarah Churchwell. Simon Callow, Welles's biographer, tracks the transformation from schoolboy to prodigy and unpicks what really happened during th...

The novelist and academic Ian Sansom explores the literary, philosophical and cultural history of the table. From dining to designing, drinking and disagreeing; the table is central to our lives; "the departure point and launching pad for a thousand hare-brained schemes and ideas, a drawing board, a battlefield, and also the philosopher's favourite tool". Ian has raised a family round his kitchen...

In the final programme celebrating comic actors from mid-20th century British film, Simon Heffer turns his gaze on a man whose priapic laugh alone merits an entire radio series. Sid James was at the heart of the phenomenally successful Carry On films and one of the best-loved and most easily recognised comic actors of his day. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, the many roles he played were all, in es...

A further chance to hear the columnist and historian Simon Heffer with his 2015 Essays on much-loved comic actors of mid-20th century British film. 4 of 5: Tony Hancock. Tragedy and comedy have often shared the billing in Simon Heffer's series on British comic actors in mid-20th century film, but never more so than in the case of Tony Hancock. Hancock is warmy recalled for his embodiment on radio...

The columnist and historian Simon Heffer resumes his series of Essays celebrating mid-20th century British film with a new focus on five popular comic actors. In exploring five British comic film actors from the mid-20th century, Simon Heffer's gaze has never strayed far from the British obsession with class. The double-barrelled, single-named actor Terry-Thomas - with his monocle, his cigarette h...

Resuming his celebration of mid-20th century British film, the columnist and historian Simon Heffer turns his gaze on five hugely popular comic actors. Alastair Sim is perhaps best remembered for a definitive interpretation of Scrooge, but Simon Heffer also recalls the run of classic comedies in which he perfected his role as a slightly ambivalent, often incompetent and occasionally threatening pr...

A further chance to hear the columnist and historian Simon Heffer's Essays celebrating comic film actors of early British film. 1. Will Hay, by popular consent the greatest comic actor in films of the 1930s and '40s. With films such as Oh! Mr Porter, Boys Will Be Boys and The Goose Steps Out, Will Hay was, by popular consent, the greatest comic actor in films of the 1930s and '40s. Simon Heffer tr...

Poet and author Andrew Motion considers the penultimate lines of the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil". Five brilliant voices essay on different sections of the Lord's Prayer for our time. Author Ali Smith, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies Mona Siddiqui, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch and poet and author Andrew Motion exa...

Michigan-based poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch considers the lines of the Lord's Prayer "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us". Five brilliant voices essay on different sections of the Lord's Prayer for our time. Author Ali Smith, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies Mona Siddiqui, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch and poet and au...