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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

Free Thinking

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Christopher de Hamel

Matthew Sweet

Kylie Murray

Emma Donoghue

Dennis Duncan

Jacqueline Smith

Free Thinking: Medieval Manuscripts, Emma Donoghue, The Story of Boris Vian

Medieval Manuscripts, Emma Donoghue

22/09/2016

Medieval Manuscripts, Emma Donoghue, The Story of Boris Vian

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Medieval Manuscripts, Emma Donoghue, The Story of Boris Vian

With a discussion about medieval illuminated manuscripts, plus author Emma Donoghue.

Presented by Matthew Sweet. With a discussion about medieval illuminated manuscripts, author Emma Donoghue talking about her new novel and Dennis Duncan on the story of Boris Vian.

Medieval illuminated manuscripts are our key to European art for hundreds of years but also to political and social movements. Christopher de Hamel, keeper of possibly the oldest gospel in the Latin world, talks to Matthew about the stories these books can tell beyond their glowing illustrations. 
We also visit Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, currently glowing at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum; Kylie Murray, expert on Scottish medieval literature and a New Generation Thinker, reviews the exhibition.
Emma Donoghue author of 'Room' is back with a new novel and another child in claustrophobic setting. This room is an earth-floored room in mid-19th century Ireland, where a Florence Nightingale-trained nurse and 'The Wonder', a devout Irish girl, are locked in a potentially fatal battle over whether the girl is, as she claims, being fed by manna from heaven. Inspired by a historical phenomenon, 'the fasting girls', Donoghue's novel takes place on the battlefield between the forces of Victorian scientific rationalism and traditional religious belief 
Plus Dennis Duncan on the story of Boris Vian and a post-war best-seller in France - I Spit On Your Graves . 

Emma Donoghue's novel is called The Wonder.
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is by Christopher de Hamel - who has worked for Sothebys and is Fellow and librarian at Corpus Christi College Cambridge.
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is marking its first 200 year 1816 to 2016 with an exhibition called COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts. It runs until 30th December 2016 and includes on display the Macclesfield Psalter, an alchemical scroll, a duchess' wedding gift, and the ABC of a five-year old princess.

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