The Essay

Poet Simon Armitage talks about reading Ted Hughes as a child and, later, finding an unexpected in tenderness the poet's work. This essay includes a close reading of Hughes's poem Full Moon and Little Frieda.Ted Hughes died in 2018, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In a new series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Simon Armitage. Produced by Simon Richardson.

Poet Zaffar Kunial explores Ted Hughes's personal obsession with dates and anniversaries.Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In a new series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Zaffar Kunial. Produced by Simon Richardson.

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf on finding solace in Hughes's work during a troubled childhood. To her his books were more a mood: a dark and brooding presence but one that resonated. That subconscious memory left a deep and metaphorical imprint that has infused her own work in its relationships with landscape, loss and grief.Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In this series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Karen McCarthy Woolf. Produced by Simon Richardson.

Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In this series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Ted Hughes is perhaps best known for his poems about creatures - for poems like ‘The Thought Fox’, ‘Pike’ and for books like 'Crow'. In today's essay, Helen Mort thinks about what animals signify in Hughes's work and how they might connect to the way the poet writes about the tricky, mysterious lives of others, whether human or animal.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Helen Mort. Produced by Simon Richardson.

Poet Sean O'Brien considers the reputations of two very different poets: the raw versus the cooked, the shaman versus the rationalist, Ted Hughes versus Philip Larkin.Ted Hughes died in 1998, and we are still arguing about his legacy. In this series of the Radio 3 Essay, leading poets bring a sharp eye to the poems themselves, reminding us why Hughes is regarded as one of the 20th-century's greatest writers, and exploring how the works match up to, inform and contradict what we know of the man.Recorded before a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull in 2018.Written and read by Sean O'Brien. Produced by Simon Richardson.

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough braves the fearsome heffalumps as she steps into the world of AA Milne. There's no secret about the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh. Thousands of people flock to the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex every year to track down Christopher Robin's tree and play Pooh Sticks. In his autobiography, Christopher Robin Milne wrote of a brief but blissful childhood spent amongst the trees with his battered teddy bear. Pooh's forest and the Ashdown Forest are, he wrote, identical.The writer, Brian Sibley, joins Eleanor for a walk through the forest and an appreciation of one of the saddest endings in literature. Christopher knows he has to leave his friends and return to school. That's enough to drive many adult readers to tears but Brian believes there will always be a boy and his bear sharing adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.Producer: Alasdair Cross

Join Mowgli, Shere Khan and Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough in the lush and dangerous Indian forest of Rudyard Kipling's imagination.Although he was born in India, Kipling had never visited the central Seoni region where he set The Jungle Book. As Daniel Karlin from Bristol University tells Eleanor, the vivid and detailed descriptions of the forest and its fauna came from books and travellers' tales. Kipling was fascinated by animal behaviour but he wasn't too precious to invert reality when the stories required a dash of cruelty or an expression of nobility.Today the region contains a renowned tiger reserve. Shere Khan is protected whilst the friendlier creatures of The Jungle decline in number.Producer: Alasdair Cross

Walk through a dark forest and you can't escape the brooding presence of the Brothers Grimm. Unwilling to stray from the path? A glimmer of sharp, white teeth behind that tree? It’s the Brothers Grimm to blame. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is joined by the writer and illustrator Chris Riddell for a walk through the deep, dark Germanic forest of the Grimms' imagination. The company may be agreeable and the conversation fascinating but be sure to leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind.Producer: Alasdair Cross

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories in these Essays amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with deeply personal insights into her life, the places she has lived and worked in, and the people she has met through food.In the fourth programme, Joanna is in Rome. Initially as a young woman, spending a long summer being initiated into the culinary and cultural delights of the city. And later, she returns as a future wife and mother, getting her daily bread from the same centuries-old bakery as Rossini did while he composed the Barber of Seville. When the time comes, Joanna's baby is welcomed by a family far bigger than merely her relatives: the neighbourhood's grocers, restaurant owners and Rossini's bakery who asked to become a collective of godparents. Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.

Joanna Robertson's earliest childhood memory is that of the baker calling at noon each day, with a basket full of fragrant buns, cakes and bread. It was the first indication of what was to develop into a lifelong love affair with food. For Joanna, food has never just been about nourishment. It has shaped her life in highly personal as well as professional ways, with surprising, funny or poignant results. So much so, that telling her food stories in these Essays amounts to sharing an intimate and revealing autobiography, with deeply personal insights into her life, the places she’s lived and worked in, and the people she's met through food. In the third programme, Joanna is still living in London as a twenty-something. A passionate love affair ends so badly, that Joanna feels food is no longer for her, and she slides into a severe eating disorder. Brought back from the brink, she then designs her own recovery programme: training as a chef, and life-modelling for painters and sculptors. Joanna Robertson is a journalist who has lived in several countries and is now based in Paris. Produced by Arlene Gregorius.