Painting the posh ..... Madam Le Brun ...... on the wireless today

Vigée Le Brun, my Wikipedia tells me "was a French painter who mostly specialized in portrait painting, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries".*

Élisabeth Louise Vigée, Self Portrait, after 1782

And what a fascinating women she was.

Her life and work is discussed on this week's edition of In Our Time.**

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss the French portrait painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755 - 1842). 

From her teens she delighted her high society subjects in and around Paris, notably Marie Antoinette who she painted around 30 times, and she invariably found ways to show her sitters at their best. 

Some critics were affronted that she, a young woman, dared paint at all and, when they saw how good her portraits were, some spread a rumour that surely this could not really be her work and she must have had a secret male lover finishing her portraits in a studio. 

The French Revolution forced Vigée Le Brun out of France and so she set off from one European court to another to find more success from Naples to Vienna to St Petersburg and to London, eventually settling back in France. Today her works are on show in major galleries around the world.

With Rosalind Polly Blakesley,Master of Pembroke College and Professor of Russian and European Art at the University of Cambridge, Robert Wenley, Deputy Director of Collections and Research at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, and, Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, Curator of Later Italian, Spanish and French Paintings at The National Gallery, London.

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Location; In Our Time, BBc Radio 4

Picture; Élisabeth Louise Vigée, Self Portrait, after 1782, National Gallery, Location; room 33, Accession number, NG1653

*Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e_Le_Brun

**Vigée Le Brun, In Our Time, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002y1gt 

Choose your friends ....The Delian League ....power politics in 5th century Greece on the wireless

Now this is one I am going to listen to.

Hoplite 5th century, 2018

It's the latest offer from In Our Time on BBC Radio 4.

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss the origins and evolution of an alliance which transformed the geopolitics of the classical world: the Delian League. 

Since the start of the 5th Century BCE, city states across Greece had been fighting a series of armed conflicts in the Greco-Persian Wars. 

After the defeat of a second Persian invasion in 478 BCE, a league of cities across Greece came together and formed a new alliance led by Athens. That alliance is now known as the Delian League, after the island of Delos where it was established. 

In the following decades, Athens used the Delian League to grow its own wealth and formidable naval power. But cities who tried to leave the alliance found themselves violently put down and their lands confiscated by the Athenians. 

What had begun as a cooperative alliance sworn to resist the Persian Empire gradually started to seem like it may have created another imperial power: the Athenian Empire.

With Leah Lazar, Lecturer in Hellenistic Culture at the University of Manchester, Polly Low, Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham, and, Paul Cartledge, AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge

Producer: Martha Owen"*

Location; In Our Time, BBC Radio 4

Pictures; Hoplite 5th century, 2018, Jona Lendering, his file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication and the Thermopylae pass at the area of the Phocian Wall, Author Fkerasar, Licensing, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses

*The Delian League, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002xp5l

The Evolution of Trees ... one to listen to .... on the wireless ... today

I like trees and who wouldn't?

They look good, offer shade, have heaps of different things to eat and can be found in parks, along roads and in gardens as well as huge parts of our countryside.

So I am looking forward to The Evolution of Trees on BBC Radio 4.

It is part of the In Our Time series and today "Misha Glenny and guests discuss the earliest evidence we have of the existence of trees and how even plants we might have on windowsills or as vegetables in gardens can and do, in the right conditions, evolve into trees. 

Since their emergence around 400 million years ago after low lying plants started to develop stronger stems and grow taller and more upright, trees have transformed our planet, so creating ecosystems, altering the atmosphere and setting the stage for the world as we know it today.

With; Jenny McElwain, 1711 Chair of Botany at Trinity College Dublin and Director of Trinity Botanic Gardens, Christopher Berry, Senior Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Cardiff University, and Bill Baker, Senior Researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Produced by Conor Garrett"*

Location; BBC Radio 4

Pictures; trees wot i have liked, on the Meadows, 2020, Hough End, 2023, and Beech Road, 2026, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Evolution of Trees, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002x5jl  

The Welsh Marches .... a bit of history to listen to ..... today on the wireless

 Now this is one I listened to and enjoyed.

And of course learned a lot.   It's the latests from Radio 4's In Our Time

"At the Hay Festival, Misha Glenny and guests discuss the impact of the Norman invasion on the people and land of Wales and across the modern border with England in what became known as The Welsh Marches, march being a term for a militarized borderland. 

Hay was one of the first Marcher lordships. Even before 1066, William the Conqueror knew that he would have to subdue the Welsh if he were to control the English and he allowed more and more Norman warlords to establish virtually their own private kingdoms in these Marches. 

Later some of the Lords were to use these bases to invade Ireland rather than conquer the rest of Wales. Marcher Lords built numerous castles such as the one at Hay and many new towns would then grow up alongside these where there was one law for the English and another for the Welsh and, though the Acts of Union under the Tudors brought an end to much of the Marcher Lords' powers, the distinct identity of these Welsh Marches continued.

With Rhun Emlyn, Lecturer in the Department of History and Welsh History at Aberystwyth University, Helen Fulton

Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol, and Huw Pryce, Emeritus Professor of Welsh History at Bangor University

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; walking with the woods, RHS Bridgewater, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Welsh Marches, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002wt1v

The Garamantes ... that ancient Sahara civilization .... on the wireless today

To my shame I had never come across The Garamantes.

Ruins of the ancient city of Garma02, 2010

All of which will be put right when I listen to The Garamantes which is the latest of broadcasts from on In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 today and beyond.

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss an ancient civilisation who lived over 2000 years ago in the southwest of modern-day Libya. During prehistoric times, the Sahara Desert was greener and even had large lakes, but for the last 5000 years it has been a hyperarid environment. 

Extreme swings of temperature and limited surface water might make the Sahara seem like an inhospitable place to live, but an ancient people in North Africa known to us as the Garamantes thrived there. 

Following descriptions of the Garamantes in Roman and Greek texts, the Garamantes have often been seen as pastoral nomads, or as tribal barbarians on the periphery of the Mediterranean world. But the work of archaeologists in recent decades has revealed something different. 

Evidence suggests a society with flourishing towns and cities, complex underground irrigation systems, a key role in trade routes across the Sahara – and may give us a broader view of ancient history.

With David Mattingly, Emeritus Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Leicester, Farès Moussa, Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton and Cultural Heritage Consultant, and Josephine Quinn, Professor of Ancient History and Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge

Producer: Martha Owen"

Location; In Our Time, BBC Radio 4

Picture; Ruins of the ancient city of Garma02, November 2010, Franzfoto, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses: GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

Stories from Middle Europe in the 1920s & 30s ........ Joseph Roth ....... on the wireless

Joseph Roth was a a journalist and author and to my shame someone who I knew nothing about.

Joseph Roth, 1926

All of which meant that today's edition of In Our Time is a fascinating introduction to the man.

“Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the great writers on Central Europe after the first world war and on the dying of the old orders with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

As a German speaking Jew from Brody in the north-eastern edge of that Empire, which was then in Galicia, next in Poland and is now in Ukraine, Roth (1894 - 1939) was to spend his short life moving first to Lviv then to Vienna and finally to Paris via Berlin without ever finding a settled home.

Roth explored the loss of homeland and anticipated the dangers of the new nationalism through his journalism and in his novels including Radetzky March, Job, Rebellion and Flight Without End, and his books were among the first the Nazis burned.

With Helen Chambers, Emeritus Professor of German at the University of St Andrews, Deborah Holmes Associate Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Salzburg, and Jon Hughes Reader in German and Cultural Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson”

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; Joseph Roth, 1926, source, http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2006/09/, posted in Joseph Roth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Roth

*Joseph Roth, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002vyjt

Slavery by another name? .....Indian Indentured Labour .... on the wireless today

Now this is one I am listening to.

It is another in the series from BBC Radio 4's In Our Time.

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss how, after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, sugar planters recruited workers from India to replace or compete with their formerly enslaved labourers. 

Over the next 90 years, more than a million people in India travelled under five year contracts of indenture across the empire from Guyana to Trinidad to Mauritius and Fiji and colonies in between. 

These indentured labourers were to share vivid accounts of deception and abuse, especially in the early decades. 

From the outset there were critics and opposition gained pace with Gandhi and others in South Africa arguing the system was close to slavery and calling for the Indian government to stop the practice, which was to happen in 1917 with the last shipments of people in the 1920s. 

Meanwhile, rather than return after their contracts, a section of indentured labourers stayed where they were for their own reasons, negotiating their new identities alongside formerly enslaved people and the planter culture in a new Indian diaspora.

With Purba Hossain, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York, Neha Hui, Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Reading, and, Clem Seecharan, Emeritus Professor of History at London Metropolitan University

Produced by Simon Tillotson"

Pictures; Ceylon, 1944 from the collection of Bob Ward

*Indian Indentured Labour, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002vc9m

"Think therefore on revenge and cease to weep."* ...... Margaret Beaufort ... today on the wireless

Perhaps a controversial  way to sum up Margaret Beaufort the mother of Henry Tudor but then Shakespeare always has the best words.

Lady Margaret Beaufort, 1510

So I shall listen with rapt attention to BBC Radio Four's In Our Time to see how his judgement plays out against the opinion of three experts.*

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss the woman who, as a child bride, became mother to the boy who would eventually become the first king in the Tudor dynasty. Lady Margaret Beaufort (c1443-1509) was twelve when she married Edmund Tudor, half his age, and gave birth to their son Henry when she was thirteen and Edmund was already dead from the plague. 

Margaret Beaufort made it her life's work to protect Henry during the Wars of the Roses, which had begun soon before his birth and, as many more obvious successors to the crown died or were killed in the wars, she pivoted to supporting Henry when he became the strongest contender against Richard III. 

She was to survive Richard III declaring her a traitor and went on to see Henry become Henry VII the first Tudor king and herself become the King's Mother. Outliving her son by a few months, she was then to help her grandson Henry VIII succeed and the Tudor dynasty continue.

With, Joanna Laynesmith, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading, Katherine Lewis, Honorary Professor of Medieval History at the University of Lincoln and Research Associate at the University of York and David Grummitt, Staff Tutor in History at the Open University

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Location; In Our Time BBC Radio 4

Picture; English: Portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort by Meynart Weywyck circa 1510 after restoration work in 2023

*Henry VI, Part II, 4.4, William Shakespeare

**Margaret Beaufort, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002s3dq

The Columbian Exchange ..... on the wireless today

I am a great fan of BBC Radio 4's In Our Time.  

Torta di patate, 2025

It's stated intent is to "span history, religion, culture, science and philosophy" and bring interesting and thought provoking radio to the listener

And that is what I think they will do with today's offering entitled The Columbian Exchange*, in which "Misha Glenny and guests discuss the exchange of cultures and biology across the Atlantic and Pacific after 1492. 

That was when Columbus reached the Bahamas, a time when Europe had no potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers or, arguably, syphilis in its most virulent form; the Americas had no cattle, bananas, sugar cane or smallpox. 

The lists of what was then exchanged are long and as these flora, fauna and diseases moved between continents, their impact ranged from transformation to devastation. 

In parts of the Americas, European viruses helped kill over 90 percent of the population. In parts of Europe, Africa and Asia populations boomed on the new American foods. Sheep from Europe grazed fertile land into deserts in some parts, while the lowered populations in others led to local reforestation which, arguably, is linked to a particularly cold period in the Little Ice Age.

With Rebecca Earle, Professor of History at the University of Warwick, John Lindo, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, and, Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London.

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios production"

Leaving me just to add that there is a purpose beihnd the image of torta di patate which for four decades I have been turning out for anyone who will eat it it.  

We simply called it Italian pie and its made from layers of cooked potato and mozzarella  cheese and topped with tomoato sauce and of course potatoes and tomotoes feature in the story.  Frivilous perhaps when set against syphilis but as the picture is mine it saves looking for a copyright free image.

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; torta di patate, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The Columbian Exchange, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002rrvz

The Code of Hammurabi ...... on the wireless today

Now, this is one I am looking forward to listening to.

Stele of Hammurabi, circa 1751 BC

It is 40 minutes of wonderful discussion on the laws of the  Babylon King of Hammurabi from the In Our Time series.*

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss the laws that Hammurabi (c1810 - c1750 BC), King of Babylon, had carved into a black basalt pillar in present day Iraq and which, since its rediscovery in 1901 in present day Iran, has affirmed Hammurabi's reputation as one of the first great lawmakers. 

Visitors to the Louvre in Paris can see it on display with almost 300 rules in cuneiform, covering anything from ‘an eye for an eye’ to how to handle murder, divorce, witchcraft, false accusations and more. 

The Code of Hammurabi, as it became known, made such an impression in Mesopotamia that it was copied and shared for a millennium after his death and, since its reemergence, Hammurabi and his Code have been commemorated in the US Capitol and the International Court of Justice.

With Martin Worthington, Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin, Frances Reynolds, Shillito Fellow and Associate Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at The Queen’s College and, Selena Wisnom, Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Stele of Hammurabi, circa 1751 BC, Department of Near Eastern Antiquities of the Louvre Museum, Photo created by Mbzt, I the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses:

GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 

*The Code of Hammurabi, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002r4v1

Henry IV Part 1 .... the discussion on the wireless about a favourite play

 I enjoyed this edition of  In Our Time, which discussed Shakespeare's Henry 1V Part 1.

Falstaff

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most successful of Shakespeare's plays in his own time. Written with no Part 2 in mind as 'Henry the Fourth', the play explores ideas about who can be a legitimate ruler and why, and how anyone can rightly succeed to the throne. 

This was an especially pressing question for his Tudor audience as Elizabeth I had named no successor. Playwrights, banned from openly discussing the jeopardy her subjects faced, turned to these themes of power, legitimacy and succession in distant and recent history. 

When Shakespeare combined this relevance with the vivid characters of Falstaff, Hotspur and Hal and with the tensions between noble fathers and sons, he had a play that fascinated well into the Jacobean era and has been revived throughout the centuries.

With; Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford, Lucy Munro, Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at Kings College London, and Laurence Publicover, Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Bristol

Producer; Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Falstaff, 1906, Eduard von Grützner 1846–1925

*Henry IV Part 1, BBC Radio 4, In Our Time, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002qth3

The Roman Arena ..... on the wireless today

This is another bit of history I enjoyed today.

It comes from that excellent series In Our Time and is free to listen to long after the first broadcast. 

"Misha Glenny and guests discuss the countless venues across the Roman Empire which for over five hundred years drew the biggest crowds both in the Republic and under the Emperors. 

The shows there delighted the masses who knew, no matter how low their place in society, they were much better off than the gladiators about to fight or the beasts to be slaughtered. 

Some of the Roman elites were disgusted, seeing this popular entertainment as morally corrupting and un-Roman. Moral degradation was a less immediate concern though than the overspill of violence. 

There was a constant threat of gladiators being used as a private army and while those of the elite wealthy enough to stage the shows hoped to win great prestige, they risked disappointing a crowd which could quickly become a mob and turn on them.

With Kathleen Coleman, James Loeb Professor of the Classics at Harvard University, John Pearce, Reader in Archaeology at King’s College London and, Matthew Nicholls, Fellow and Senior Tutor at St John’s College, Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson"*

Picture; mosaic depicting a gladiatorial fight  from the villa Nennig,** dating from the first century AD, 2021, https://www.flickr.com/photos/168399512@N02/51134391753/ Author TimeTravelRome, Licensing w:en:Creative Commons attribution This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.***

*The Roman Arena BBC Radio 4, In Our Time, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002qj85

**Nennig is a village in the Saarland, Germany, part of the municipality of Perl. It is situated on the river Moselle, opposite Remich, Luxembourg.

***Roman Villa Nennig, https://www.visitsaarland.co.uk/poi/detail/roman-villa-nennig-c859e1607c

Sonnets ..... wot Shakespeare wrote .... today on the wireless

Now, this is one I enjoyed.

Shake-Speare's Sonnets, 1609

It is another in the In Our Time series, has a bonus few minutes, from Historian and broadcaster Simon Schama who has selected the episode on Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

"In 1609 Thomas Thorpe published a collection of poems entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets, “never before imprinted”.

Yet, while some of Shakespeare's other poems and many of his plays were often reprinted in his lifetime, the Sonnets were not a publishing success. 

They had to make their own way, outside the main canon of Shakespeare’s work: wonderful, troubling, patchy, inspiring and baffling, and they have appealed in different ways to different times. 

Most are addressed to a man, something often overlooked and occasionally concealed; one early and notorious edition even changed some of the pronouns.

With: Hannah Crawforth, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at King’s College London, Don Paterson, Poet and Professor of Poetry at the University of St Andrews and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Locatiob; BBC Radio 4

Picture; Shake-Speare's Sonnets, quarto published by Thomas Thorpe, London, 1609

*Shakespeare’s Sonnets, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live/bbc_radio_fourfm

Margery Kempe and English Mysticism .... on the wireless today

This is one I enjoyed listening to, and of course learned a lot about the Middle Ages, the status of women in Medieval society,and the ferment of religious ideas in the time before the Reformation. 

A page from Margery Kempe's autobiography

It is one of the repeated episodes from BBC Radio 4's In Our Time series.*  

"Margery Kempe (1373-1438) produced an account of her extraordinary life in a book she dictated, 'The Book of Margery Kempe."'

She went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to Rome and Santiago de Compostela, purchasing indulgences on her way, met with the anchoress Julian of Norwich and is honoured by the Church of England each 9th November. 

She sometimes doubted the authenticity of her mystical conversations with God, as did the authorities who saw her devotional sobbing, wailing and convulsions as a sign of insanity and dissoluteness. 

Her Book was lost for centuries, before emerging in a private library in 1934.

This In Our Time episode was first broadcast in June 2016. 

With Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, Katherine Lewis, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Huddersfield and Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Location; Radio 4

Pictures; The only known copy of the mystic, Margery Kempe's autobiography, telling of her life and travels in England and on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Santiago de Compostela. The original was dictated by her to a priest of Lynn and this is probably a copy made from the original, perhaps under Margery's supervision. Courtesy British Library

*Margery Kempe and English Mysticism, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4,     https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07cyfkg  

Feathered Dinosaurs ..... on the wireless today

Now this is one I enjoyed listening to today.*

It is from the In Our Time series and was first broadcast on October 26th in 2017.

"After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects he and his experts have tackled. In this sixth of his choices, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests in 2017 discussing new discoveries about dinosaurs.

Their topic is the development of theories about dinosaur feathers, following discoveries of fossils which show evidence of those feathers. 

All dinosaurs were originally thought to be related to lizards (the word 'dinosaur' was created from the Greek for 'terrible lizard') but that now appears false. 

In the last century, discoveries of fossils with feathers established that at least some dinosaurs were feathered and that some of those survived the great extinctions and evolved into the birds we see today. 

There are still many outstanding areas for study, such as what sorts of feathers they were, where on the body they were found, what their purpose was and which dinosaurs had them.

With Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol, Steve Brusatte, Reader and Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, and, Maria McNamara, Senior Lecturer in Geology at University College, Cork

Producer: Simon Tillotson"

Picture; Doris the Dinosaur, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Feathered Dinosaurs, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b099v33p

Visiting the Moon ....... across the centuries

 I can never quite get to like the final scene from the silent film, A Trip to the Moon which was released in 1902 but it fits well with the first of a series of reissued programmes from In Our Time.

A Trip to the Moon, 1902

In Our Time has been running since 1998 and remains one of the jewels of Radio 4.

"After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. 

With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects he and his experts have tackled. 

In this first pick, we hear Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins, science and mythology of the moon.

Humans have been fascinated by our only known satellite since prehistory. In some cultures the Moon has been worshipped as a deity; in recent centuries there has been lively debate about its origins and physical characteristics. 

Although other planets in our solar system have moons ours is, relatively speaking, the largest, and is perhaps more accurately described as a 'twin planet'; the past, present and future of the Earth and the Moon are locked together. Only very recently has water been found on the Moon - a discovery which could prove to be invaluable if human colonisation of the Moon were ever to occur.

Mankind first walked on the Moon in 1969, but it is debatable how important this huge political event was in developing our scientific knowledge. The advances of space science, including data from satellites and the moon landings, have given us some startling insights into the history of our own planet, but many intriguing questions remain unanswered.

With; Paul Murdin, Visiting Professor of Astronomy at Liverpool John Moores University, Carolin Crawford, Gresham Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge,Ian Crawford

Reader in Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck College, London.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Earthrise, 1968

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world".

Leaving me just to add that my Wikipedia tells me that Trip to the Moon "is a 1902 French science-fiction adventure trick film written, directed, and produced by Georges Méliès. Inspired by the Jules Verne novel 

From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and its sequel Around the Moon (1870), the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. Méliès leads an ensemble cast of French theatrical performers as the main character Professor Barbenfouillis.".

And that pretty much covers all bases.

Pictures; Screenshot from A Trip to the Moon), 1902, Georges MélièsEarth,  Earth Rise, as photographed by Bill Anders 110 km above the Moon, on 24 December 1968 during Apollo 8

*The Moon, Radio 4, In Our Time, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b016lh15

**A Trip to the Moon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon

Dragons .....on the wireless today

BBC Radio 4's In Our Time never disappoints and today I am listening to an exploration of Dragons.*

So here is one I will be listening to later today because later today the broadcast gets some added bits.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests explore dragons, literally and symbolically potent creatures that have appeared in many different guises in countries and cultures around the world.

Sometimes compared to snakes, alligators, lions and even dinosaurs, dragons have appeared on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia, in the Chinese zodiac, in the guise of the devil in Christian religious texts and in the national symbolism of the countries of England and Wales.

They are often portrayed as terrifying but sometimes appear as sacred and even benign creatures, and they continue to populate our cultural fantasies through blockbuster films, TV series and children’s books.

With: Kelsey Granger, Post Doctoral Researcher in Chinese History at the University of Edinburgh, Daniel Ogden, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter and Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at the University of Wales.

Producer: Eliane Glaser"

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; Doris the Dragon or Doris the Dinosaur, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Dragons, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dzy4

When the poem becomes the history ....... stories of Robert the Bruce ... today

This is one I shall listen to today. 

Penny of Robert the Bruce, circa 1320s

On BBC Radio 4 in the series In Our Time, Barbour's Brus': epic of Bannockburn, chivalry and freedom

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Barbour's epic poem The Brus, or Bruce, which he wrote c1375. The Brus is the earliest surviving poem in Older Scots and the only source of many of the stories of King Robert I of Scotland (1274-1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce, and his victory over the English at Bannockburn in 1314. 

In almost 14,000 lines of rhyming couplets, Barbour distilled the aspects of the Bruce’s history most relevant for his own time under Robert II (1316-1390), the Bruce's grandson and the first of the Stewart kings, when the mood was for a new war against England after decades of military disasters. 

Barbour’s battle scenes are meant to stir in the name of freedom, and the effect of the whole is to assert Scotland as the rightful equal of any power in Europe.

With Rhiannon Purdie, Professor of English and Older Scots at the University of St Andrews, Steve Boardman, Professor of Medieval Scottish History at the University of Edinburh and Michael Brown, Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews, Producer: Simon Tillotson"*

Location; BBC Radio 4

Pictures; Penny of Robert the Bruce, Museums Liverpool , Heather Beeton

*Barbour's 'Brus': epic of Bannockburn, chivalry and freedom, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dpm8

Who stole my words and pictures? ……..on the wireless today

 I don’t make any great claims to my stories, pictures and research.

Be Happy, Manchester, 1979

Mr. Shakespeare, Bill Brandt, and Edward Gibbon outshine me but when I write and publish a book or post a photograph these are works which are mine and mine alone.

All Saints, Manchester, 1981

So, what follows is that I should be asked before they are reproduced in a format and in a context which I approve of, let alone the basic one of being offered payment.

And this led me to listen with great interest to today’s edition of In Our Time, which was on  Copyright.*

In the early 18th century the British Parilament passed the first copyright law, officially known as  An Act for the Encouragement of Learning and popularly as the  Statute of Anne.

To quoute the BBC's footnotes "Copyright protects and regulates a piece of work - whether that's a book, a painting, a piece of music or a software programme. It emerged as a way of balancing the interests of authors, artists, publishers, and the public in the context of evolving technologies and the rise of mechanical reproduction".

Before the Rush, The Loyds, Chorlton, 2024

The programme offered up stories about writers and artists such as Alexander Pope, William Hogarth and Charles Dickens and the heated debates about ownership and originality which continue to this day.

All of which today is reinforced by the emergence of artificial intelligence.

Hot days in a garden, Chorlton, 2025

The contributors included Lionel Bently, Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Cambridge, Will Slauter, Professor of History at Sorbonne University, Paris and Katie McGettigan, Senior Lecturer in American Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London and was produced by  Eliane Glaser.

The broadcast ranged over the history of copyright, the complicated question of what constitutes originality and to what extent protecting someone’s work restricts the development of art and technology.

All good stuff but doesn’t detract from that simple observation that copyright exists to protect the work of any author who has invested time labour and their imagination and wants to do so again.

So, often on social media people lift material, repost it without any acknowledgement, gratuity and often in an inappropriate context.

And use that simple excuse that “I saw it and thought it was alright to use”, an excuse made absurd if instead of a piece of writing or a picture, it was a bike left outside a shop.

My River, London, 1979

Location; Radio 4

Pictures; Manchester, Chorlton, London, 1979-2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Copyright, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002c3bm

The Antikythera Mechanism …… that ancient Greek astronomical analogue computer ......on the wireless ... today

It's the stuff of science fiction and pop history, and I might have turned my back on it, but the discovery of an ancient Greek, astronomical analogue computer is true

And the rest is a fascinating wireless programme on Radio 4.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2000-year-old device which transformed our understanding of astronomy in ancient Greece. In 1900 a group of sponge divers found the wreck of a ship off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. 

Among the items salvaged was a corroded bronze object, the purpose of which was not at first clear. It turned out to be one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology. 

Over time, researchers worked out that it was some kind of astronomical analogue computer, the only one to survive from this period as bronze objects were so often melted down for other uses. 

In recent decades, detailed examination of the Antikythera Mechanism using the latest scientific techniques indicates that it is a particularly intricate tool for showing the positions of planets, the sun and moon, with a complexity and precision not surpassed for over a thousand years.

With, Mike Edmunds, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Cardiff University ,Jo Marchant, Science journalist and author of 'Decoding the Heavens' on the Antikythera Mechanism, and, Liba Taub, Professor Emerita in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Scholar at the Deutsches Museum, Munich

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production"

And like all the programmes in the series it is available now and when ever you want to listen, by just following the link.

Pictures; The Pictorial History Book, 1952

*The Antikythera Mechanism, In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024x0g