Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has written and painted itself into the cultural life of Britain, the earliest days to the present, come rain come shine.

The weather finds us everywhere. Inside, we are out of the weather. That's the point.

But when we close the front door, we do not entirely shut the weather out.

This series bears witness to Britain's cultural climates across the centuries. Before the Norman Conquest, Anglo-Saxons living in a wintry world wrote about the coldness of exile or the shelters they had to defend against enemies outside.

The Middle Ages brought the warmth of spring; the new lyrics were sung in praise of blossoms and cuckoos.

Descriptions of a rainy night are rare before 1700, but by the end of the 18th century the Romantics had adopted the squall as a fit subject for their most probing thoughts.

A British History in Weather is a celebration of the British climate and a life story of those who have lived in it.

Music by Jon Nicholls.

Producer: Tim Dee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2016. Show less