Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Book at Bedtime

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and literature from around the world

BBC Radio 4 FM

Book at Bedtime: Orlando

Amanda Hale

Virginia Woolf

Richard Hamilton

Elizabeth Allard

Book at Bedtime: Orlando: Episode 1: Boyhood

Orlando

Episode 1

Episode 1: Boyhood

Boyhood

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Orlando, Boyhood

Orlando is a young nobleman in Tudor England and writes the first lines of The Oak Tree.

Orlando is a young nobleman in Tudor England and writes the first lines of The Oak Tree, a poem that he keeps about him as he travels through time.

In Virginia Woolf's boisterous adventure her hero, Orlando, embarks on a tumultuous journey spanning five centuries.

Orlando, "the longest and most charming love letter in literature" was intended for and inspired by Vita Sackville-West and her noble roots. Along with the eponymous hero's adventuring through the ages, Woolf explores what it means to write and the all important question of gender - as relevant and resonant today as it was in the 1920s when she wrote this high spirited novel.


Orlando, is a young nobleman in Tudor England when we first encounter him and he writes the first lines of his poem, The Oak Tree, a poem that he keeps about him as he travels through time. Swept along by his adventures we next find him as he falls in love for the first time with a beautiful Russian princess on the frozen Thames at the court of James I. A desire to write leads to a disastrous meeting with a much admired poet before, under Charles 1, he becomes the king's charismatic ambassador in Constantinople. A dramatic transformation takes place in this opulent city and Orlando continues his adventures as a woman. Returning to eighteenth century London, the life of the poet continues to call, but later the restrictions placed upon Orlando by the Victorian era are impossible to bear. Glimmers of new possibilities arrive with the twentieth century and the promise of fulfilment through love and writing.

Reader: Amanda Hale
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Elizabeth Allard.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Virginia Woolf's adventure spans five centuries and explores issues of gender and identity

Virginia Woolf's high-spirited adventure, which spans five centuries and explores what it means to write and the question of gender. Read by Amanda Hale

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Book at Bedtime

Orlando

Episode 1: Boyhood

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4