Free Thinking

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

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: The continuing appeal of Tudor history

The continuing appeal of Tudor history

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, The continuing appeal of Tudor history

Philippa Gregory, Nandini Das, Susan Doran and Adam Roberts with Matthew Sweet.

Philippa Gregory and Profs Nandini Das, Susan Doran and Adam Roberts, with Matthew Sweet and a Coventry audience, discuss the way historical fiction shapes our view of history.

Historical novelist Philippa Gregory, historians Susan Doran and Nandini Das, and literary scholar Adam Roberts recorded with Matthew Sweet at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry as part of the BBC Contains Strong Language festival. Their conversation begins a Tudor week on Free Thinking - looking at the enduring appeal of Tudor history and the role that historical fiction plays in shaping our view of history. Plus the connection between Sir Walter Scott and nearby Kenilworth Castle. 

Kenilworth Castle and Garden are run by English Heritage https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenilworth-castle/

Walter Scott (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) wrote many historical novels including Kenilworth - his account of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of Leicester and the murder of his wife Amy Robsart which was published 13 January 1821.

Philippa Gregory's novels include The Other Boleyn Girl, The King's Curse and her current Fairmile Series.  She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck University of London.

Adam Roberts teaches at Royal Holloway, University of London and Nandini Das teaches at the University of Oxford. She is a BBC/ARHC New Generation Thinker.

Professor Susan Doran edited the exhibition catalogue for Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival Queens staged by the British Library. 

You can find a Free Thinking discussion about Waverly available to download as an Arts & Ideas podcast from the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04dr39q

There is also a discussion about how we used to feel in the past and the idea of emotional history which hears from author and historian Tracy Borman https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003zp2

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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Free Thinking

The continuing appeal of Tudor history

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