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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.

The Essay: Late Style

The Essay: Late Style: Episode 2: Paul Bailey

Episode 2

Episode 2: Paul Bailey

Late Style

Paul Bailey

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Late Style, Paul BaileyClose menu

Novelist Paul Bailey discusses writing in his ninth decade.

The novelist Paul Bailey discusses writing in his ninth decade. What does it mean to be creatively active for long enough to have a late style? 'Do not let me hear of the wisdom of old men', TS Eliot says, 'but rather of their folly'. Late Beethoven stared human extinction in the face and composed music of stark clarified beauty; late Rubens painted with a looser more sensuous brush stroke - was he remembering the flesh of his younger life or was his arthritis affecting his grip? Late style for writer might include a maturation of style, a relaxing into the wisdom of age and experience, but it might also mean struggling to hold onto your gifts, and writing through illness and through grief. A week of essays from three poets and two novelists. Producer: Tim Dee.

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.

Series of reflections about writing as one becomes older

Series of reflections about writing as one becomes older, with contributions from three poets and two novelists

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Late Style

Episode 2: Paul Bailey

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