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Black Country Secrets

Roy McFarlane on Bilston

Writers choose a Black Country scene to reveal something of this strangely hidden region.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

Traybakes

Author Jan Carson on the women who kept her church supplied with tea and traybakes

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

Searching with Shorelines

Poet Gail McConnell on the inspiration of the sea in Louis MacNeice's work and her own.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

The Art of Staying

Poet Míchéal McCann navigates the careful etiquette of a rural Northern Irish wake.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

Chalk on the Wall

Writer Claire Mitchell peels back the layers of her hometown to find a radical history.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

Euphoria

Novelist Glenn Patterson on Belfast's hairdressers and clothes shops during the Troubles.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

1. Susannah Dickey: Two Pills

Poet and novelist Susannah Dickey assumes a new identity at a local pharmacy.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

2. Nandi Jola: Neither Here Nor There

Nandi Jola finds some surprising connections between Africa and Northern Ireland.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

3. Nick Laird: Animal Life

Nick Laird wonders if his children are missing out on the rural upbringing he enjoyed.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

4. Darran Anderson: Map Making

Darran Anderson draws an alternative map of Ulster for his young son.

• 14 mins

Another Northern Ireland

5. Bernie McGill: Our Art

During the Troubles, Bernie McGill was often told to be careful about what she said.

• 14 mins

Controversies: American Writing of the 1960s

William Styron

Should a white man write about a black revolutionary?

• 14 mins

Controversies: American Writing of the 1960s

Amiri Baraka

How poet and playwright Amiri Baraka cancelled himself in a single public appearance.

• 14 mins

Controversies: American Writing of the 1960s

Norman Mailer

Michael Goldfarb looks at how Norman Mailer's misogyny eventually caught up with him.

• 14 mins

Controversies: American Writing of the 1960s

Philip Roth

How Philip Roth's writing alienated him from the Jewish community in America.

• 14 mins

Controversies: American Writing of the 1960s

Joan Williams

Novelist Joan Williams, after a promising start, just disappeared. Why?

• 14 mins

The Little Secrets of Great Works

You've Got Mail

Children's novelist Elle McNicoll discusses one line from Nora Ephron's romantic comedy.

• 14 mins

The Little Secrets of Great Works

Sibelius's Fifth Symphony

Financial Times journailst Stephen Bush on the third movement of Sibelius's Symphony No 5.

• 14 mins

The Little Secrets of Great Works

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

Sam Leith on his fascination with a background figure in Judith Kerr's classic book.

• 14 mins

The Little Secrets of Great Works

Field of Dreams

Writer Sarfraz Manzoor discusses one moment in the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams.

• 14 mins

The Little Secrets of Great Works

Frida Kahlo's Broken Column

Art historian Katy Hessel on the symbolism of the spine in Frida Kahlo's Broken Column.

• 14 mins

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

The Soul of Music

Kate Kennedy reflects on her quest to find Pal Hermann's cello, and his soul.

• 14 mins

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

The Bee Cello

The story of an abandoned cello that a physicist has filled with 400,000 bees.

• 14 mins

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

The Auschwitz Cello

How the cellist of Auschwitz, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch's life was saved by her cello.

• 14 mins

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

The Shipwrecked Cello

The unlikely story of the reconstruction of the 'Mara' Stradivarius.

• 14 mins

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

The Flat-Pack Cello

Kate Kennedy reflects on a reimagined cello whose story is yet to begin.

• 14 mins

Highland Tails

The Reindeer

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

• 14 mins

Highland Tails

The Sea Eagle

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

• 14 mins

Highland Tails

The Wallabies

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

• 14 mins

Highland Tails

The Beaver

An Essay and reflection in poetry on the reintroduction of wild animals into the Highlands

• 14 mins