Boris Vian, Arne NΓ¦ss, Karl Ove KnausgΓ¥rd, Javier MarΓas, Nawal El Saadawi, Tale of Genji. All of these programmes are available as Arts and Ideas podcasts via the Downloads tab.
Do poets choose their words or are they predetermined?
Matthew Sweet and guests look at 1921's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and witches now.
A history of indexes and ideas about tidiness, clutter and archiving in Ruth Ozeki's novel
Novelist Colm Toibin joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the German author's life and struggles.
Philippa Gregory, Nandini Das, Susan Doran and Adam Roberts with Matthew Sweet.
A teacher's view, a Frankenstein-inspired ballet, outsider status and circus paintings.
Art historian Martin Kemp and painter Emma Safe, parallels with Proust and a Dante website
Guests including author Tom McCarthy join Matthew Sweet to discuss the French 'new novel'.
Music from thunder, art inspired by a dog walk; essays about a city wood and a rural field
Rana Mitter and guests explore the art and culture of Iran, and why people abandon cities.
Matthew Sweet looks at the connections between the arts and coal mining communities.
Sandeep Parmar talks to poets Kayo Chingonyi, Paisley Rekdal and Dr Nasser Hussain.
Eric Parry and Alison Brooks; writers Fiona Mozley and SI Martin and pianist Belle Chen.
Edmund de Waal and Frances Stonor Saunders discuss uncovering Jewish family stories.
The work of Turner prize nominees, a Tiger Bay murder story, Under Milk Wood on stage.
Rana Mitter meets the six authors shortlisted for the UK's most prestigious history prize.
Rana Mitter talks to documentary makers, a novelist and historian about breaking silences.
Salman Rushdie is one of Matthew Sweet's guests for a conversation about the imagination.
Was Nero really a victim of plots? Bulgaria's hidden past. And a novel about startups.
Two weavers of fantastical fiction sift through myths with Matthew Sweet.
American graphic novelist Alison Bechdel talks mushrooms, therapy and Adrienne Rich.
Patience Agbabi's novel time-travels back to 18th-century London. So do we.
Two American authors talk to Laurence Scott about their sense of time, place and self.
Who are the best writers past and present who give us an insight into the natural world?
