Alan Bennett's recently published story is written and read by him in five parts.

"The timing was good," Midgley acknowledged that. Only his father would have managed to make his farewell in the middle of a meet-the-parents week.

RT Shop: order Alan Bennett's latest work, plus his Talking Heads, on page 118.
A new lease of life: Alan Bennett writes about his latest story on page 29

Another literary feast today includes a new story from Alan Bennett, always an occasion for rejoicing. He reads Father! Father! Burning Bright (3.30pm R4) every day this week. A sequel to his 1982 TV film Intensive Care, it develops the character of Midgely, a teacher summoned to his father's deathbed in the middle of "meet the parents" week. Bennett writes about this latest story on page 29. Earlier, there's more literal feasting when Helena Bonham Carter reads from Artemis Cooper's biography of Elizabeth David, the influential woman who changed the eating-habits of England, largely by Writing at the Kitchen Table (9.45am R4 FM).

The Woman's Hour drama is Theodore Dreiser's racy novel, written in 1900, about a ruthless farm girl who runs away to Chicago and achieves fame and wealth: Sister Carrie (10.45am/745pm R4). SG