Joe Moran has spent his life trying to get to grips with his shyness. In this Field Guide to Shyness, he explores the hidden world of reticence, navigating the myriad ways scientists and thinkers have tried to explain and cure shyness, and uncovering the fascinating stories of the men and women who were 'of the violet persuasion'.

"It feels like coming late to a party when everyone else is about three beers in and entering that state that allows them to have fluent exchanges that settle on some pre-agreed theme as if by magic."

The autistic scientist and writer Temple Grandin has suggested that the very first cave paintings might have been created 40,000 years ago by "some Asperger sitting in the back of a cave". Psychiatrist Lorna Wing felt that having some autistic traits might be an essential ingredient of the creative life. Moran explores the artistic worlds of the staggeringly shy LS Lowry - Mr Lowry as he preferred to be known - and the grumpily solitary Alfred Wainwright, and asks could the origins of art itself lie in our capacity for introversion, the need to make strategic retreats from social life in order to make sense of our experiences?

Read by Nigel Planer
Written by Joe Moran
Abridged and produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4. Show less