In the Shadow of Kafka

Transformer

Playwright Jeff Young explores the unusually powerful impact of Kafka's language.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

The Meaning of Trees: Pine

Professor Fiona Stafford on the workhorse of the forest, the pine tree.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

The Meaning of Trees: Hawthorn

Professor Fiona Stafford on hawthorn trees, which have divided Britain for centuries.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

The Meaning of Trees: Apple

Fiona Stafford discusses the apple tree, which has been loved and hated for centuries.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

The Meaning of Trees: Poplar

Fiona Stafford on the poplar, the most modern tree and the first to have its DNA sequenced

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

Cypress

Fiona Stafford discusses the Leyland cypress or leylandii.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

Horse Chestnut

Professor Fiona Stafford discusses the horse chestnut tree.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

Cherry

Fiona Stafford discusses the cherry tree, prized in many ways, but also in sharp decline.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

Holly

Fiona Stafford on the holly tree, which reaches huge proportions if not pruned annually.

• 15 mins

The Meaning of Trees

Birch

Birch trees provide punishment, beauty, versatility and wine, but are very short-lived.

• 15 mins

Why I Write

Hay Festival: Daniel Hahn

Editor and translator Daniel Hahn explains why he writes.

• 15 mins

Why I Write

Hay Festival: Alex Clark

Literary journalist and writer Alex Clark explains why she writes.

• 15 mins

Why I Write

Hay Festival: Horatio Clare

At the 2015 Hay Festival, author and journalist Horatio Clare explains why he writes.

• 15 mins

Why I Write

Hay Festival: Frank Cottrell Boyce

At the 2015 Hay Festival, novelist Frank Cottrell Boyce explains why he writes.

• 15 mins

Why I Write

Hay Festival: Gillian Clarke

At the 2015 Hay Festival, Welsh poet laureate Gillian Clarke explains why she writes.

• 15 mins

Five Imaginary Scottish Places

Show Me the Way to Tillietudlem

Literary critic Stuart Kelly explores the fictional locations of novelist John Galt.

• 15 mins

Five Imaginary Scottish Places

Thrums

Literary critic Stuart Kelly discusses JM Barrie's fictional Scottish town called Thrums.

• 15 mins

Five Imaginary Scottish Places

Duncairn

Stuart Kelly discusses author Lewis Grassic Gibbon's fictional Scottish town Duncairn.

• 15 mins

Five Imaginary Scottish Places

Unthank

Stuart Kelly explores the fictional city Unthank, from Alasdair Gray's 1981 novel Lanark.

• 15 mins

Five Imaginary Scottish Places

Brigadoon

Stuart Kelly discusses Brigadoon, the village of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

• 15 mins

WB Yeats at 150

Yeats by Heart

Fiona Shaw explains the impact of her childhood introduction to the work of WB Yeats.

• 15 mins

WB Yeats at 150

Not Liking Yeats

Writer and commentator Fintan O'Toole on his love-hate relationship with WB Yeats.

• 15 mins

WB Yeats at 150

The Second Coming of the Second Coming

Poet Paul Muldoon discusses WB Yeats's post-First World War poem The Second Coming.

• 15 mins

WB Yeats at 150

The View from the Tower

John Banville explains his long-held love for Yeats's 1928 collection of poetry The Tower.

• 15 mins

WB Yeats at 150

Of Miracle, of Magic

Paula Meehan explores the influence of the magical and the mystical in WB Yeats's work.

• 15 mins

Napoleon and Me

Julia Blackburn

Julia Blackburn looks for the ghost of Napoleon on St Helena, where he died in exile.

• 15 mins

Napoleon and Me

Andrea Stuart

Writer Andrea Stuart celebrates Napoleon's first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais.

• 15 mins

Napoleon and Me

Adam Nicolson

Writer Adam Nicolson recalls being a teenager as father wrote about Napoleon and 1812.

• 15 mins

Napoleon and Me

Kirsteen McCue

Kirsteen McCue discusses singing and interpreting James Hogg's Scottish Napoleonic songs.

• 15 mins

Napoleon and Me

Mark Adkin

Mark Adkin discusses being a military historian in the footsteps of Napoleon.

• 15 mins