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England and the Touch of Rain

The last of Nandini Das's curated essays about different responses to rain across the globe arrives in Britain, where Dr Tess Somervell recalls and relishes the touch of rain.

If there's a subject in which England has every right to claim knowledge through experience, it is the subject of rain. Poets, politicians, or labourers, we've lived a literally and metaphorically sheltered life if we haven't felt the chill of rain on our face. In her Rainsong Essay Dr Tess Somervell pulls together the many ways in which rain has been gathered and responded to in her native land, from the bedraggled and almost inevitably soon to be betrothed costume-drama heroine, to the high romance of the romantic poets and the ancient wisdom of an unknown medieval bard. While smell and taste and sound and sight might all play a part in our collective response to rain, we also feel it, not just on our skin but in our bones.

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14 minutes

Last on

Fri 6 Oct 2023 22:45

Broadcasts

  • Fri 5 Mar 2021 22:45
  • Fri 6 Oct 2023 22:45

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