Emma Harding

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Landays: Poems of Afghan Rebellion Lyse Doucet explores the verse form which Afghan women share to speak of love and hardship

What a privilege to speak to some of the courageous women poets of #Afghanistan with the brilliant Lyse Doucet & Zarghuna Kargar

Landays: Poems of Afghan Rebellion explores a short Pashtun form created & shared by women. 4pm Tue 10 Mar @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Landays: Poems of Afghan Rebellion Lyse Doucet explores the verse form which Afghan women share to speak of love and hardship

What a privilege to speak to some of the courageous women poets of #Afghanistan with the brilliant Lyse Doucet & Zarghuna Kargar

Landays: Poems of Afghan Rebellion explores a short Pashtun form created & shared by women. 4pm Tue 10 Mar @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Composer of the Week heads to New Zealand to explore the music of five of its leading composers. Today, Donald Macleod tells the story of Douglas Lilburn “the grandfather” of #NewZealandMusic 4pm @BBCRadio3 or @BBCSounds #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Lolita Chakrabarti and Dr Guy Leschziner A playwright-actor and a neurologist recommend favourite books with Harriett Gilbert.

From how to measure a cow to how to have a good death - all on A Good Read 3pm Mon @BBCRadio4 - when playwright & actor @lolitachakrabarti.bsky.social & Professor of Neurology Guy Leschziner join @harriettsg.bsky.social Producer Eliza Lomas #books #reading www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Of course! Typing too quickly…

Photograph of composer Sibelius

When you’ve finished admiring #Sibelius’ rather natty jacket… you might enjoy a week-long exploration of his glorious music in Composer of the Week 4pm each weekday @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds with Kate Molleson. Producer Luke Whitlock #Finland #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Jung Chang Harriett Gilbert and guests choose favourite books.

The fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen, poetry of Seamus Heaney & a novel by Alan Garner are the choices on today’s A Good Read when writers Jung Chang & @frankcottrellboyce.bsky.social join @harriettsg.bsky.social to talk #books 3pm @BBCRadio4 Producer Maggie Ayre www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Chervona Kalyna Powerful stories linked to this beautiful and stirring Ukrainian folk song

A 2022 episode of Soul Music @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds on Ukrainian folk song ‘Chervona Kalyna’ (Red Viburnum) & its continued power as a hymn of hope and resistance. Producer Karen Gregor #Ukraine #SlavaUkraini www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Salt by Catrin Kean, 1. Departure A love story based on the lives of the author's great-grandparents, who married in 1878.

Salt by Catrin Kean- a Wales Book of the Year. In the 1880s, a Cardiff girl falls for a ship’s cook from Barbados - Mon-Fri 22.45 @BBCRadio4 or listen now @BBCSounds Read by Kezrena James abridged @mirandaemmerson.bsky.social & produced by Fay Lomas & @mair.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Yes, glorious!

Our Composer of the Week is the pioneering Amy Beach. Donald Macleod explores the life & music of one of the most distinctive American musicians of the early C20th. Each weekday 4pm @BBCRadio3 Produced by Steven Rajam & Sam Phillips #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Martin Edwards and Tom Shakespeare The crime writer and the sociologist talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert.

Agatha Christie. Flann O’Brien. Claudia Pineiro. Your regular helping of A Good Read 3pm @BBCRadio4 @harriettsg.bsky.social is joined by writers @tomshakespeare.bsky.social & @martinedwardsbooks.bsky.social to discuss much-loved #books Producer Sally Heaven www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Roleplay, Blanche DuBois One big role. Actors who have played the part tell their stories. Today: Blanche DuBois.

‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.’

Roleplay @BBCRadio4 - actors from Cate Blanchett to Patsy Ferran tell stories of playing Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Produced by Camellia Sinclair & Sam Grist
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Photo of Rachmaninov at work in the garden of Ivanovka

Composer of the Week - Donald Macleod explores #Rachmaninov’s life in exile from Russia and attachment to the country estate he left behind: Ivanovka. 4pm each weekday @BBCRadio3 or @BBCSounds Producer Megan Jones www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Maria Balshaw and Léa Ypi The director of Tate and the political philosopher swap books they love.

Fiction by #OctaviaEButler #Gogol & Lissa Evans - all on A Good Read, Mon 3pm @BBCRadio4 Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate art museums & galleries & Léa Ypi, professor of politics & philosophy at LSE swap books they love with @harriettsg.bsky.social Producer @elizalomas www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Valentine’s Day: Impress them with these love poems Michael Longley, Elaine Feeney and eight other Irish poets choose their favourite romantic verse

from @martindoyle.bsky.social 2019

Michael Longley choose Graves:
She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half-words whispered low:
As Earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

BASHÕ 1Old man among the reeds mistrust of the poet.He is on his way to the North he is making a book with his eyes.He is writing himself upon the water he has lost his master.Love on...

And that poem in full - Bashō www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poe...

Cees Nooteboom, Dutch novelist and travel writer, dies aged 92 Writer made international breakthrough with 1980 novel Rituals and won acclaim for his travel writing

‘Death took off his hat,
as should be. The sense has remained.
Only in his poems could he dwell.
Just a little while and you will see the cherry blossoms of Yoshino.’

Thank you, Cees Nooteboom. Today’s a day for reading one of his astonishing books.

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Rays of Darkness The lives and imaginations of two writers interweave in this lyric drama by Gwyneth Lewis.

Rays of Darkness - the lives & imaginations of two writers interweave in this lyrical, autobiographical drama by Gwyneth Lewis, former National Poet of Wales. Stars Eiry Thomas, Sharon Morgan & Clare Corbett as Margiad Evans 2.15pm Weds 11 Feb @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Yes, the wider impact is very much the argument the programme makes - so hope you’re be reassured when you hear it.

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Drama in Schools: An Unfolding Tragedy? The actor Christopher Eccleston investigates the decline in drama education in schools.

Drama in Schools: an unfolding tragedy? Actor Christopher Eccleston investigates the decline in #drama education in schools in England. 4pm Tues 10 Feb @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds Producer @robinmarkwell.bsky.social #education #schools www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

View of Dresden by Moonlight by Johan Christian Dahl

Need some uplift? Head to @BBCRadio3 at 4pm for Composer of the Week when Donald Macleod explores the life & music of the great German #Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz #Dresden #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Robin Ince and Philip Hensher The comedian and the writer share good books with Harriett Gilbert.

Looking for reading inspiration in this #NationalYearOfReading2026 ? A Good Read is back 3pm @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds with eclectic suggestions. Today, writer @philiphensher.bsky.social & comedian @robinince.bsky.social join @harriettsg.bsky.social with favourite #books www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Text of Heaney’s poem

Photo of snowdrops

Now it's #StBrigidsDay and the first snowdrop
In County Wicklow, and this a Brigid's Girdle
I'm plaiting for you, an airy fairy hoop
(Like one of those old crinolines they'd trindle),
Twisted straw that's lifted in a circle
To handsel and to heal, a rite of spring…

#SeamusHeaney #otd #poetry

Thank you! Will look it up.

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Walden Henry David Thoreau's account of a year living in a cabin in the woods next to Walden Pond

Other Americas are available… #Walden: Paul Farley’s evocative dramatisation of #Thoreau’s classic memoir of paying attention & attempting to live lightly on the Earth. Stars the wonderful Matthew Needham. A huge pleasure to make this one. 3pm Sun 1 Feb @bbcradio4 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A packed second hand bookshop

Did a book completely transform your life?

A new BBC documentary is looking for stories about the life-changing power of books.

If so, upload a video of you telling your story to the link below or email reading@blinkfilmsuk.com explaining how the book impacted on you.

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I’d forgotten that! Wonderful use of music in that film.

“My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here…”

Happy #BurnsNight 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 A favourite Burns poem - and Arvo Pärt’s haunting setting of it youtu.be/6UadEvSJMrQ?...