Great Writers Inspire Great Writing

Sophie Duncan introduces Oscar Wilde by setting him in an accurate historical context. She then moves on to consider the revolutionary aspects of his four plays Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance and The Importance of Being Earnest. 

Dr Julian Thompson considers a writer described by Kingsley Amis as 'our greatest writer of short stories'. In this discussion of Rudyard Kipling, Julian acknowledges Kipling's lack popularity with readers, but argues for the greatness of short stories from across his ouvre and p ...  Show more

Fifth lecture in the Osar Wilde series. Sos Eltis talks about Oscar Wilde's plays including an Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Ernest and A Woman of No Importance. 

Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, is proposed by Will Self, a writer once described as a 'high powered satirical weapon'.In 1895, and at the height of his success, Wilde began libel proceedings against the Marquess of Queensber ...  Show more

Sos Eltis gives the second lecture in her series on Oscar Wilde, focussing on his place in the modernist tradition. 

First lecture in the Oscar Wilde series in which Sos Eltis talks about Wilde's life and his work, De Profundis.