Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

The TLS podcast, with Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – this week: the complexities of modern Irish history; the ups and downs of historical fiction; Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Richard Ford gets to know Donald Trump; finally, Robert Potts reads a poem by Seamus Heaney.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The TLS podcast, with Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – this week featuring: Tim Parks on reviving and translating Giacomo Leopardi; Pamela Haag on America's surprisingly modern love affair with guns; Kate Webb on the category defying life and work of Angela Carter; finally, Alan Jenkins reads a poem by the late, great Geoffrey Hill, who died last week.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Books, culture and more from the TLS podcast, with Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – this week featuring: Athelstan – Britain's forgotten king; Mary Beard on the ancient precedent of our very modern referendum; a philosophical look at the ugly; English Country Houses, real and literary; and a poem, "Visiting Europe", by Bill Manhire  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Books, culture and more from the TLS podcast – this week featuring: responses to the refugee crisis, political and literary; the new Tate in London; Turkey's secular spaces; and a poem by Stephen Knight.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, gives the Elliott Lecture at St Antony's College Oxford, taking as her subject "The history of the Russian-Soviet soul".  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Caines talks to two authors who have been shortlisted for the 2016 South Bank Sky Arts Awards. Find out more: www.the-tls.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matthew Beaumont, Michael Caines, Chloe Houston and Nicole Pohl discuss Thomas More's Utopia, first published 500 years ago in 1516, and utopianism in its many and varied forms. Find out more: www.the-tls.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alan Jenkins introduces and reads a selection of the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Adrian Tahourdin and Mika Ross-Southall dip their toes in Casanova's celebrated memoirs. Find out more: www.the-tis.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Catharine Morris and Michael Caines take a look at the English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Find out more at the-tis.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam Graydon looks at the poet Robert Browning, exploring the major role he played in the development of the dramatic monologue, with a selection of readings from his works.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare and Cervantes, Mika Ross-Southall introduces a talk on these two giants of world literature.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Caines and Lucy Dallas take a tour of Thomas More's imaginary commonwealth, where private property has been abolished and reason rules all.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Toby Lichtig talks to Morris Dickstein about the ever-evolving relationship between Judaism and American literature.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mika Ross-Southall and Michael Caines look at the enduring appeal of Thomas Chatterton, an icon of thwarted Romantic genius, and how he became a figure of especial importance for Oscar Wilde.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To mark the centenary of Henry James's death, Catharine Morris and Michael Caines trace the course of his work as it was discussed in his lifetime – and as some of it appeared in the TLS itself.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the 10th anniversary of her blog, A Don's Life, The TLS' Classics Editor Mary Beard joins Rozalind Dineen to discuss its success. Find out more: www.the-tls.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Caines and Catharine Morris celebrate the bicentenary of Jane Austen's magnificent novel and its quixotic heroine. Find out more: www.the-tls.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael Caines reads a short story about a man and a woman taking tea, watching the surfers at Morecambe Bay – and falling out over art. For more information, head to www.the-tls.co.uk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A selection of poems by Aphra Behn, John Milton, Alexander Pope and the Earl of Rochester. Read by Michael Caines, Mika Ross-Southall and Alan Jenkins.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.