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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.

Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte, Governess

The Essay: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte

The Essay: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Episode 3: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Bronte and Robert Southey

I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte

Episode 3

Episode 3: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Bronte and Robert Southey

I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Bronte and Robert Southey

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte, I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Bronte and Robert SoutheyClose menu

Lyndall Gordon examines Charlotte Bronte's response to advice from poet Robert Southey.

Lyndall Gordon examines Charlotte Bronte's response to advice from poet laureate Robert Southey that 'Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life'.

In the 200th anniversary of her birth, Charlotte Bronte's true identity revealed through five powerful, poignant letters.

The poet laureate Robert Southey's letter to Charlotte Bronte is now infamous: "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation."

The scholar and Bronte biographer Lyndall Gordon, explores Bronte's response to this letter, in all its ambiguity: "In the evenings, I confess, I do think, but never trouble anyone else with my thoughts."

Producer: Beaty Rubens.

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.

Charlotte Bronte's true identity revealed through her powerful and poignant letters

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The Essay

I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte

Episode 3: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Bronte and Robert Southey

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