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The Essay

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

Frances Leviston on Ode to Autumn

13 mins; January 07, 2019

Harold Godwinson

15 mins; January 04, 2019

Edward the Confessor

15 mins; January 03, 2019

Aethelred the Unready

15 mins; January 02, 2019

The Smith - Gold and Black

15 mins; January 01, 2019

Alfred the Great

15 mins; December 31, 2018

Bede, the Father of English History

15 mins; December 28, 2018

The Beowulf Bard

15 mins; December 27, 2018

Eadfrith the Scribe

15 mins; December 26, 2018

Cuthbert

15 mins; December 25, 2018

King Raedwald

15 mins; December 24, 2018

Dear Caravaggio

13 mins; November 16, 2018

Dear Frida Kahlo

13 mins; November 15, 2018

Dear Julia Margaret Cameron

13 mins; November 14, 2018

Dear Picasso

13 mins; November 13, 2018

Dear Albrecht Dürer

13 mins; November 12, 2018

Episode 4

13 mins; November 08, 2018

Episode 3

13 mins; November 07, 2018

Episode 2

13 mins; November 06, 2018

Episode 1

13 mins; November 05, 2018

Ted Hughes and Tenderness

13 mins; October 26, 2018

Ted Hughes and the River of Time

13 mins; October 25, 2018

Crows, Loss and a Violent Melancholia

13 mins; October 24, 2018

Ted Hughes and Animal Encounters

13 mins; October 24, 2018

Ted Hughes v Philip Larkin

13 mins; October 23, 2018

100 Acre Wood

13 mins; October 19, 2018

The Jungle Book

13 mins; October 18, 2018

Brothers Grimm

13 mins; October 16, 2018

Origins

13 mins; September 24, 2018

Artists

13 mins; September 24, 2018

Disorder

13 mins; September 24, 2018

Family

13 mins; September 24, 2018

Fate

13 mins; September 24, 2018

Why the Lloyd George museum is so small

13 mins; September 21, 2018

Devils

12 mins; September 20, 2018

Saint Teilo - A Surplus of Arms

13 mins; September 19, 2018

Ma-Hw

13 mins; September 18, 2018

Dinogad's Jerkin – The oldest lullaby in Britain

13 mins; September 17, 2018

Joan Crawford

13 mins; August 20, 2018

St Kilda

14 mins; August 15, 2018

Rum

14 mins; August 14, 2018

Iona

14 mins; August 13, 2018

Jean Harlow

13 mins; August 10, 2018

Barbara Stanwyck

12 mins; August 09, 2018

Katharine Hepburn

13 mins; August 07, 2018

Dear Agatha Christie...

14 mins; July 20, 2018

Dear Virginia Woolf...

14 mins; July 19, 2018

Dear George Eliot...

14 mins; July 18, 2018

Dear Geoffrey Chaucer...

14 mins; July 16, 2018

Sonny's Blues

13 mins; July 01, 2018

The Wings of the Dove

14 mins; July 01, 2018

Never Let Me Go

13 mins; July 01, 2018

To The Lighthouse

13 mins; July 01, 2018

The Underground Railroad

13 mins; July 01, 2018

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Women's Rights

14 mins; June 29, 2018

John Gower, the Forgotten Medieval Poet

13 mins; June 28, 2018

Sarah Scott and the Dream of a Female Utopia

13 mins; June 27, 2018

The Forgotten German Princess

13 mins; June 26, 2018

Rehabilitating the Reverend John Trusler

13 mins; June 25, 2018

Forest Fire

14 mins; June 22, 2018

Forests of the Imagination

15 mins; June 18, 2018

Mab Jones on Jane Eyre

13 mins; June 01, 2018

Francesca Rhydderch on Orlando

13 mins; May 31, 2018

Fiona Sampson on Mother Courage

13 mins; May 30, 2018

Bettany Hughes on Helen of Troy

13 mins; May 29, 2018

Afua Hirsch on Maggie Tulliver

13 mins; May 28, 2018

Rome

14 mins; May 21, 2018

New York

14 mins; May 21, 2018

Berlin

14 mins; May 21, 2018

Tirana

14 mins; May 21, 2018

The Shopping News: Paris

14 mins; May 21, 2018

Japan Refusal

13 mins; April 27, 2018

The Art of the Heist

13 mins; April 26, 2018

Rebranding the Buddha

13 mins; April 25, 2018

Happy Families

13 mins; April 24, 2018

Deer Cry Hall

13 mins; April 23, 2018

Secret Admirers: Kate Molleson on Eliane Radigue

13 mins; April 20, 2018

Secret Admirers: Andrew McGregor on Thomas Tallis

13 mins; April 19, 2018

Secret Admirers: Kathryn Tickell on Percy Grainger

14 mins; April 18, 2018

Secret Admirers: Tom McKinney on Olivier Messiaen

13 mins; April 17, 2018

Secret Admirers: Penny Gore on Leoš Janáček

14 mins; April 16, 2018

Episode 3

13 mins; April 11, 2018

Episode 2

13 mins; April 10, 2018

Episode 1

13 mins; April 09, 2018

Inua Ellams on Terry Pratchett

13 mins; April 06, 2018

Alastair Campbell on 'Madame Bovary'

13 mins; April 05, 2018

Zarah Hussain on The Arabian Nights

13 mins; April 04, 2018

Henry Marsh on 'War and Peace'

13 mins; April 03, 2018

Afua Hirsch on 'Wide Sargasso Sea'

13 mins; April 02, 2018

Paul Morley

13 mins; March 30, 2018

Jameela Siddiqi

13 mins; March 29, 2018

Professor Kofi Agawu

13 mins; March 28, 2018

Professor Alice Roberts

13 mins; March 27, 2018

Sir Roger Scruton

14 mins; March 26, 2018

What Do You Do If You Are a Manically Depressed Robot?

10 mins; March 23, 2018

Kids With Guns

13 mins; March 22, 2018

Speaking Truth to Power in the Past and Present

13 mins; March 21, 2018

When Shakespeare Travelled with Me

13 mins; March 20, 2018

A War of Words

13 mins; March 19, 2018

Doing Nothing

13 mins; March 16, 2018

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The Essay

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