Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy, Women in hip hop, Creativity in isolation

Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror and The Light is published tomorrow. In the Front Row readers' panel, three of our listeners - Deborah Stuart, Sasha Simic, and Laura Helen Back - gather to discuss the first two novels in the Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, and to express their hopes and fears for the final instalment.

Shay D, a UK hip hop artist, is curating a national tour of women-only artists, to redress the balance of the male-dominated world. She joins Stig along with journalist J’na Jefferson from New York to talk about how women are cutting through the hip hop and rap world.

How does isolation or solitude breed creativity? As the likelihood of self-isolation increases with the coronavirus situation, what can we learn from artists about the creative properties of solitude, loneliness and even boredom? We discuss with composer and musician Errollyn Wallen, who composes from a remote lighthouse in Scotland, and poet and author Andrew Greig, who divides his time living in Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands.

Presenter Stig Abell Producer Jerome Weatherald