Novels have always sparked controversy. Lady Chatterley's Lover, Lolita and American Psycho were all subject to fierce attacks.

But something is happening now that feels different - a rolling boil of social media outrage and news stories that are not about one novel but about the very nature of reading, studying and writing fiction.

In an era of content warnings, cancel culture and calls to decolonise the curriculum, Abigail Williams, Professor of English at the University of Oxford, asks how today's students are reading the novel.

From Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 by the way of the television campus comedy The Chair, Abigail finds a path through outrage and offence as she explores new approaches to teaching and studying the novel.

Producer: Julia Johnson
Series Producer: Julia Johnson
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam

An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4 Show less