麻豆社

Listener, They Wore It

Empress Elizabeth's Diamonds

Daisy Goodwin on diamonds in a portrait of Empress Elizabeth of Austria by Winterhalter.

• 15 mins

Listener, They Wore It

Gatsby's Suit

Writer Michael Bracewell discusses Jay Gatsby's suit in the novel The Great Gatsby.

• 15 mins

Listener, They Wore It

Alec Leamas's coat (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold)

Antonia Quirke on the coat worn by Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

• 15 mins

Listener, They Wore It

Patti Smith's Shirt

Susanna Frankel recalls a brilliant white shirt on the cover of an LP by Patti Smith.

• 15 mins

The Darkest Hour

Margaret Drabble

Author Margaret Drabble explores how insomnia has become something of an old friend.

• 15 mins

The Darkest Hour

Episode 2

Literary critic and author John Sutherland explores the history of insomnia in literature.

• 15 mins

The Darkest Hour

Episode 3

Author AL Kennedy explores why she has always found the nights too thrilling to sleep.

• 15 mins

The Darkest Hour

Episode 4

Poet Michael Symmons Roberts examines why he has been so fascinated by insomnia.

• 15 mins

The Darkest Hour

Episode 5

Actor Juliet Stevenson on why a creative life often means a life in want of sleep.

• 15 mins

Explaining the Explicit

Julian Barnes

Writer Julian Barnes asks 'Is writing about sex the same as writing about anything?'.

• 15 mins

Explaining the Explicit

David Bellos

Writer and academic David Bellos on why translating sex in literature is so difficult.

• 15 mins

Explaining the Explicit

Sarah Churchwell

Sarah Churchwell examines the tradition of depicting sex in popular fiction.

• 15 mins

Explaining the Explicit

Vicki Feaver

Vicki Feaver reflects on how the poet can explore their own sexuality.

• 15 mins

Explaining the Explicit

Rachel Johnson

Rachel Johnson asks if we are all too ready to leap to judgement about writing about sex.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

Homage to Catalonia

Alan Johnston explains how Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell inspired him.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

The Wrench

Potter and writer Edmund de Waal explains how Primo Levi's book The Wrench inspired him.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Scientist Colin Blakemore praises a lesser-known work by Charles Darwin.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

Pride and Prejudice

Academic Mona Siddiqui explores her affection for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

The Smoking Diaries

Ed Smith explains how Simon Gray's The Smoking Diaries liberated him as a wordsmith.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

Othello

Poet Musa Okwonga on how Shakespeare's Othello mirrored his experience of isolation.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

In the Land of Israel

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner on Amos Oz's book In the Land of Israel.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

The Silent Spring

Journalist Julian Pettifer on how Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring inspired him.

• 15 mins

The Book that Changed Me

Chocky

Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock on how Chocky by John Wyndham inspired her.

• 15 mins

A Taste for the Baroque

Alexandra Harris

Alexandra Harris discusses the legacy of Baroque style in 20th-century English design.

• 15 mins

A Taste for the Baroque

Paul Farley

Paul Farley, poet and professor of creative writing, discusses 'baroque 'n' roll'.

• 15 mins

A Taste for the Baroque

Ed Hollis

Former architect Ed Hollis discusses 20th-century architecture's battle with the Baroque.

• 15 mins

A Taste for the Baroque

Chloe Aridjis

Mexican novelist Chloe Aridjis discusses the survival of Baroque in her country.

• 15 mins

A Taste for the Baroque

Tessa Hadley

Tessa Hadley on Henry James's sentences and jokes. Is there such a thing as Baroque prose?

• 15 mins

Anglo-Saxon Portraits

Vortigern

Discussion on Vortigern, the king often blamed for inviting the first Anglo-Saxon invaders

• 15 mins

Anglo-Saxon Portraits

The Peasant Farmer

Portrait of the peasant farmers who have shaped the English landscape as we know it today.

• 15 mins