The Essay Episodes Available now
Tracy Chevalier—Listener, They Wore It
1/5 Tracy Chevalier on the fate of some sparkling stones in de Maupassant's The Necklace.
AC Grayling—Montaigne
5/5 Philosopher AC Grayling reads an essay on the life and work of Michel de Montaigne.
Sarah Bakewell—Montaigne
4/5 Montaigne biographer Sarah Bakewell on the writer's cat, scepticism and animal souls.
Jonathan Bate—Montaigne
3/5 Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate on the relationship between Montaigne and the Bard.
Theodore Zeldin—Montaigne
2/5 Philosopher Theodore Zeldin considers to what extent Montaigne's outlook holds true today.
Alain de Botton—Montaigne
1/5 Alain de Botton reads an essay on the life and work of scholar Michel de Montaigne.
Audience Choice—North East Free Thinkers
5/5 Why the medieval monk the Venerable Bede is the great Free Thinker of the North East.
Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society—North East Free Thinkers
4/5 Poet Sean O'Brien on Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society or Lit and Phil.
William Armstrong—North East Free Thinkers
3/5 Henrietta Heald on the achievements of inventor and industrialist William Armstrong.
Gertrude Bell—North East Free Thinkers
2/5 Kitty Fitzgerald on the life of Gertrude Bell, author of the 1921 map of modern Iraq.
