Close Readings

In the fourth episode of Medieval Beginnings, Mary and Irina climb inside a tiny cell to explore the Ancrene Wisse, a gu... Read more

The third episode of The Long and Short turns to the short stories of Henry James. Mark and Seamus look in particular at... Read more

In the third episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom move from epic to lyric, with the poems of Sappho, or what rem... Read more

In the third episode of Medieval Beginnings, Mary and Irina explore the much-chronicled life of St Cuthbert, as told by ... Read more

In the second episode of The Long and Short, Mark and Seamus turn to Walt Whitman's ‘Song of Myself’, from Leaves of Gra... Read more

In episode two of Among the Ancients, Tom and Emily turn to Homer’s Odyssey. They discuss the twisting, turning nature o... Read more

In episode two of Medieval Beginnings, Mary and Irina turn the pages of the Exeter Book, a remarkable 10th century manus... Read more

Mark Ford and Seamus Perry start their series, The Long and Short, with Tennyson’s ‘Maud’, a weird and disturbing poem a... Read more

In episode one of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom begin with a beginning, Homer’s Iliad: its depictions of anger and g... Read more

Mary Wellesley and Irina Dumitrescu start their Medieval Beginnings series with Beowulf, a tale of monsters and heroes t... Read more