Bureaucracy from Kafka to Dickens and Gospodinov
The Palace of Dreams is a novel set in the Ottoman empire but used by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare to reflect on the totalitarian state. Lea Ypi has been…
A Ghost Story for Christmas
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since…
George Orwell’s forgotten wife
George Orwell – the author of classics like 1984 – is a household name. But have you heard of his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, who convinced her husband to write…
The Pre-Raphaelites: everything you wanted to know
How did the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood become so famous? Did Elizabeth Siddal really almost die in a bathtub when she modelled for John Everett Millais' Ophelia? And which Rosetti painting shocked…
BBC Arts & Ideas: Libraries
The Great Library of Alexandria had a mission to collect every book in the world. In attempting to do so it created the foundations for the systems and structures of…
the inconsistencies of Western standards
The BBCs diplomatic correspondent, James Landale says the West is suffering reputational damage because of it's continuous support for Israel's crimes in Gaza. Speaking to the BBC Landale, pointed that…
BBC question time October 27 2023
Netanyahu statement on support for hamas in 2019
In Our Time – The Seventh Seal
In the 1000th edition of In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss arguably the most celebrated film of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). It begins with an image…
Melvyn Bragg talks to Mishal Husain
To mark his 1000th episode of In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg talks to Mishal Husain for Radio 4's Today programme. {listen}
Cat history: everything you wanted to know
Cats have lived alongside us for centuries, and our relationship with them has transformed over time – from venerating them to vilifying them. What roles have humans cast cats in…