Charlotte Higgins turns her attention from man-made mazes and discusses the magical properties of some mazes made by nature (but featured in art)

From the dark, impenetrable forests of the Grimms' fairy tales, to the snow-bowed pines of CS Lewis's Narnia, to the haunting and mysterious moonlit woods of Paolo Uccello's 15th-century painting The Hunt in the Forest at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, "the first picture I dared to try to write about."

There are also some powerfully evocative childhood memories of a farm near her family home in Staffordshire, and the woods beside it which stretched down to the motorway that cut through the valley:

"I loved those woods, but they frightened me. Whenever I went into them I could feel them closing in. The freedom of the fields and the low, rolling hills would be lost. The sky would disappear..."

Series exploring more of our ancient fascination with mazes and labyrinths, and reflects on their significance - in art and in mythology, in literature and in life.

Written and concluded by Charlotte Higgins.

Abridged and produced by David Jackson Young.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2018. Show less