The Essay: On Disappointment

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The Essay: On Disappointment: Creative

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On Disappointment

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Rachel Cooke takes a wry look at artistic disappointment.

Rachel Cooke takes a wry and wide-ranging look at artistic disappointment, from a 19th-century artist upstaged by 'General Tom Thumb to empty book launches today.

In five Essays, Rachel Cooke takes a wry and wide-ranging look at disappointment. She believes life is full of let-downs, the 'twenty-first-century world seems expressly to set us up' for them.  From a cup of coffee to new clothes, highly anticipated pleasures often prove to be an anti-climax.

In this episode, she takes a look at artistic disappointment, from 19th-century artist Benjamin Haydon whose attempts to stage a grand exhibition were thwarted by the far more popular ' General Tom Thumb'; to the contemporary writer whose book event is - disappointingly  - empty.  Creative disappointment, which often follows years of solitary work, is, Rachel feels, one of the worst kinds.

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.

Rachel Cooke takes a wry, robust and wide-ranging look at disappointment.

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