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BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Book of the Week

Audiobooks

Factual

Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

BBC Radio 4 LW

Book of the Week: The Apple Orchard

Pete Brown

Laurence Wareing

Kirsteen Cameron

Book of the Week: The Apple Orchard: Episode 3

The Apple Orchard

Episode 3

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Apple Orchard, Episode 3

Pete Brown visits East Malling, the UK's most influential horticultural research station.

A visit to a fruit industry trade show leaves Pete Brown longing for the natural rhythms of an orchard; seeking inspiration, he heads to Somerset to pick apples in Avalon Orchard.

Writer Pete Brown follows the cycle of an orchard's year to illuminate the hand-in-hand history of humanity and our most familiar fruit. 

From its origins in Kazakhstan, its spread along the old spice roads and into mythology, the apple is now an all-year round supermarket staple. Customer demand means that the fruit industry must keep up-to-date with new trends and scientific discoveries. To see some of the work being done, Pete visits East Malling Research Station in Kent, the UK's biggest and most influential horticultural research station, which has been operating for over a hundred years. Then, keen to tune back into the natural rhythms of an orchard, he heads to Somerset to pick apples at Avalon Orchard, on the slopes of Glastonbury Tor.

Written and read by Pete Brown

Abridged by Laurence Wareing

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

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

Pete Brown illuminates the hand-in-hand history of humanity and our most familiar fruit.

Pete Brown follows the cycle of an orchard's year to illuminate the hand-in-hand history of humanity and our most familiar fruit.

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