Something Understood

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Religion & Ethics

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

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Something Understood: Tiny Survivals

Tiny Survivals

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, Tiny Survivals

Classicist Llewelyn Morgan reflects upon the importance of fragments of the past.

Llewelyn Morgan considers how seemingly inanimate fragments of history are capable of evoking the most vivid lives. 


Classicist Llewelyn Morgan has a knack for piecing together the past through disparate objects and fragmented bits of information.  So when he stumbled across an old Russian samovar in his grandmother's attic, he was compelled to track down its owner by trawling through the thousands of names and places that appear in the census. 

In this edition of Something Understood, Llewelyn Morgan recounts his search to identify the samovar's owner and explores how objects that seem to tell us little when taken at face value can in fact reveal a rich and vivid picture of the past. 

With a contribution from the late Flemish philosopher Jaap Kruithof (courtesy of VRT), readings from John Donne, Keith Douglas and Lionel Shriver and music by Maurice Ravel, Alfred Schnittke and Fridge.

Readers: Adjoa Andoh and Jonathan Keeble
Producer: Katie Burningham
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

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