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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Land and Sea and Sky

The Essay: Land and Sea and Sky: Episode 4: Michael Bird

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Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Land and Sea and Sky

Episode 4

Episode 4: Michael Bird

Michael Bird

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Land and Sea and Sky, Michael BirdClose menu

Writer Michael Bird discusses the inspirational effect of living in St Ives in Cornwall.

Writer Michael Bird, who lives in St Ives in Cornwall, discusses the rejuvenating effect of the light, the weather, the waves and even the people there.

Michael Bird writes books about the visual arts, so St Ives is a good place to be. In his essay he explores how the constant transformations of what he sees, the land in the light, the weather, the breaking waves, even the people, have a rejuvenating, inspirational impact on him. Bird's essay was recorded in the streets leading down to the water, on Porthmeor Beach, on the cliff path leading to Land's End, along the run he takes to focus his thoughts. Unusually, but importantly, for a writer, he lives where the visual rather than the verbal, takes precedence. In St Ives one sees, then writes, rather than the other way around. And Michael Bird puzzles on his personal jouney, on how he came to be living in the far southwest, where land and sea and sky meet so dramatically.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Artists living on the UK coast on the personal and cultural importance of being there

Artists living around the UK coast describe the personal, cultural and imaginitive importance of residing there

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Episode 4: Michael Bird

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