North and South

In Our Time returns for a new series with host Misha Glenny.A world class seminar, every week. In Our Time explores the ideas, people and discoveries that have shaped our world, spanning history, philosophy, religion, science, literature, art and culture. On Thursdays, hear brand ...  Show more

Misha Glenny delves in to the In Our Time archive to select ten episodes for listeners to revisit. His fifth choice, first released in May 2024, is the Empress Dowager Cixi, the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what Virginia Woolf called 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'. It was written by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans (1819-80), published in 8 parts in 1871-72, and was originally two separate stories which became ...  Show more

What's the difference between the North and the South of England? And when does the "North" end and the "South" start? In this episode, we'll explore these questions, and touch on differences in accents, lifestyles, and even what people call their evening meal. The origins of the ...  Show more

England has long been divided by an invisible line somewhere north of Watford and south of the Mersey. But do northerners really have more in common with Scots and Welsh people than their fellow Englishmen in London? Dan Jackson, author of The Northumbrians and a former advisor ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Austen’s last complete novel, which was published just before Christmas in 1817, five months after her death. It is the story of Anne Elliot, now 27 and (so we are told), losing her bloom, and of her feelings for Captain Wentworth who she was ...  Show more