Hermione Lee discusses the origins and remarkable success of the Irish literary tradition in English, as identified in a new book by Seamus Deane. His novel Reading in the Dark was shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year and his new non-fiction work, Strange Country, considers relationships between works as apparently diverse as The Dubliners and Dracula. Lee also talks to art historian Marcia Pointon about her study of women in the visual cultures of 17th- and 18th-century England. Producer Fiona Bailey
SOUNDING THE CENTURY