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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

Sunday Feature

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Exploring music, history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature.

In-depth documentaries which explore music, history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature.

Sunday Feature: Literary Pursuits

Sunday Feature: Literary Pursuits: Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Life Stories

17/01/2016

Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea

Literary Pursuits

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Literary Pursuits, Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea

Sarah Dillon explores the arduous composition of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.

Sarah Dillon explores the stories behind the stories of how great works were written, focusing on the arduous composition of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.

Sarah Dillon is a literary detective, hunting down the story behind the story of the writing of great works. Jean Rhys was the author of four novels in the late 20s and 30s when she disappeared off the literary map and was presumed dead. She spectacularly re-appeared with the publication of Wide Sargasso Sea, telling the back story of the first Mrs Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Published in 1966 when the author was in her 70s, the novel became an instant classic.

Sarah Dillon goes on a journey to find out why there was a 27-year gap between novels: she travels to the British Library to look at Rhys's original notebooks; talks to Carole Angier, Jean's biographer; and goes to meet Jean's publisher Diana Athill.

The struggle to bring the book to completion touches on poverty, death and a passionate desire for perfection.

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.

Sarah Dillon on the stories behind the stories of how great novels were written.

Sarah Dillon explores the stories behind the stories of how great works of literature were written.

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