Uncovering the stories behind the creation of six classic British books. Alexandra Harris shows how Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway re-imagined what a novel might be. Show more
Results 1 to 14 of 14 for your search filters
Order results by:
Filter by channel
Cerys Matthews tells the story of one of the great literary treasures of the medieval world, The Mabinogion, ancient tales that were later translated from Welsh. Show more
Series uncovering the story behind the creation of six classic books. Journalist Bidisha revisits Charlotte Bronte's classic novel after first reading it as a teenager. Show more
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein manuscripts, Alice Roberts finds someone concerned with the act of creation itself and evidence of husband Percy's collaborative role. Show more
Series which uncovers the story behind the creation of six classic books. Tony Jordan brings his writer's insight to Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Show more
Dr Janina Ramirez unravels Edmund Spenser's Elizabethan epic The Faerie Queene to reveal how this fantasy world was written during Tudor occupation of Ireland. Show more
Nicholas Parsons explores the fine line between joy and melancholy in Edward Lear's writing and discovers how this epileptic, asthmatic depressive pioneered a new kind of poetry. Show more
Fiona Shaw explores the genesis of The Mill on the Floss, and discovers how the scandal that caused George Eliot to take a male pen name also plays out in the plot of her novel. Show more
John Cooper Clarke explores Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and discovers how this addiction memoir avoids the cliches of modern 'misery-lit'. Show more
Samantha Bond reveals how a rootless childhood and terrible personal tragedy led Edith Nesbit to create a new kind of children's fiction, a blend of magic and realism. Show more
Rev Richard Coles dives beneath the surface of children's classic The Water-Babies to reveal the revolutionary science behind the story and the influence it had on social reform. Show more
Author Joanna Trollope traces the roots of her favourite book Cider with Rosie to uncover how Laurie Lee blended fact and fiction in his wistful elegy to a disappeared rural world. Show more
John Sergeant learns how Arthur Ransome came to perfect a new, more authentic kind of children's literature that featured real children doing real things in real places. Show more
Series which uncovers the story behind the creation of six classic books. Simon Russell Beale looks at what we can learn from Shakespeare's First Folio. Show more