Opening Lines

John Yorke examines Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, ten semi-autobiographical short stories in which Dylan Thomas looks back and observes himself growing into the artist – the writer – that he became in adult life. The stories highlight Thomas’s contradictory nature. At

Writer Penelope Lively’s enduring themes are the connections and interplay between memory, history and time. Nowhere is this more compelling than in Moon Tiger, published in 1987 and widely regarded as one of her best novels. It won the Booker Prize that same year and went on to

John Yorke explores why Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes has had such a profound influence on storytelling in the 400 years since it was published in 1605.‘Like Shakespeare, Cervantes is inescapable for all writers who have come after him,’ according to literary critic Harold B

John Yorke explores why Don Quixote has had such a profound influence on storytelling in the four hundred years since it was published. The first European novel, it’s an epic work of comic - and tragic - genius. Quixote embodies an ideal of heroic resilience in the face of a brok

John Yorke takes a look at Transcription by Kate Atkinson.First published in 2018, Transcription tells the story of three different time periods in the life of our protagonist, Juliet Armstrong. The interweaving timelines take us from 1940 to 1981, telling of her experiences work

Tom Stoppard was of course best known for his work writing for stage and screen - but the dramas he created for radio were also an extremely important part of his career and his development as a writer. Across five decades he continued to return to a medium that suited him so wel

Flight by Walter White, published in 1926, asks questions about race and identity when its central character chooses to ‘pass’ as a white woman. In this second episode about the book, John Yorke asks if this is why the book has largely been forgotten even though it was written by

Flight was the second novel by one of twentieth century’s America’s most influential figures, Walter White. Published in 1926, it asks questions about race and identity when its central character chooses to ‘pass’ as a white woman. A prime mover in the Harlem Renaissance, White

John Yorke explores themes of loss, longing and the founding of America, in Willa Cather’s innovative novel, My Ántonia. A milestone in American literature, the novel’s heroine is - unusually for the time - a Czech immigrant, Ántonia Shimerda, seen through the eyes of her childho

Owen Wister’s 1902 novel The Virginian did more than any other single piece of art in establishing the parameters of the Western as a genre. Telling the tale of a charismatic tight-lipped cowboy whose actions always speak louder than his words, it was wildly popular with readers

In the series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work, John Yorke concludes his exploration of Margaret Mitchell’s epic Civil War romance, Gone with the Wind.In the 90 years since it was published it has sold more than 30 million copies – it was the bestse

In the series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work, John Yorke continues his exploration of Margaret Mitchell’s epic Civil War romance, Gone with the Wind.In the 90 years since it was published it has sold more than 30 million copies – it was the bestse