Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 278,124 playable programmes from the BBC

The Essay

'The Odd Woman', or celebrating five single females

The Spinster

Duration: 14 minutes

on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Rachel Cooke explores five versions of the single woman. She starts with the spinster, a word with positive origins but nowadays associated with loneliness and unhappiness. Show more

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3

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.