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Front Row: Anuradha Roy, Propaganda ceramics, British Ceramics Biennial, a new Culture Secretary

Anuradha Roy, Propaganda ceramics, British Ceramics Biennial, a new Culture Secretary

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Anuradha Roy, Propaganda ceramics, British Ceramics Biennial, a new Culture Secretary

Anuradha Roy on 'The Earthspinner', Propaganda ceramics, British Ceramics Biennial

Award-winning author Anuradha Roy on her new novel, The Earthspinner. Propaganda ceramics supporting the abolition of slavery. Clare Wood on the British Ceramics Biennial.

Award-winning author Anuradha Roy crafts pots as well as prose. She joins us live from India to discuss the fusion of ceramics and storytelling, pottery and politics in her new novel, The Earthspinner, a coming of age story set between two continents.

At a recent auction some 19th century pottery jugs, expected to fetch £100 or so, sold for £3,000 - £4,000. They were bought by major museums vying to add them to their collections. The jugs' selling point was that they were decorated with anti-slavery images or celebrations of abolition. Clare Durham, ceramics specialist at auctioneers Woolley & Wallis, who sold them, talks to Kirsty Lang about pottery propaganda and the increased interest in such pieces.

The British Ceramics Biennial is the largest ceramics event in the UK. Its new artistic director, Clare Wood, joins Front Row to discuss the shortlist for the festival’s contemporary ceramics prize and to reflect on a new artwork that puts slavery on a plate.

Nadine Dorries replaces Oliver Dowden as the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. BBC Arts Correspondent Vincent Dowd discusses the implications.

Main image: A plate from Jacqueline Bishop's History at the Dinner Table exhibition.
Image credit: Jenny Harper

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Anuradha Roy, Propaganda ceramics, British Ceramics Biennial, a new Culture Secretary

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