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Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 22 October 2009.
The book adapted from Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 show looking at the history of ideas through philosophy, literature and much, much more. A great 'dipping into' book.
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Synopsis
In Our Time by Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time series regularly enlightens and entertains substantial audiences on BBC Radio 4. For this book he has selected episodes which reflect the diversity of the radio programmes, and take us on an amazing tour through the history of ideas, from philosophy, physics and history to religion, literature and biology. We can discover the reasons for the fall of the Byzantine empire, and why women were persecuted as witches in the seventeenth century. What happened in the peasants' revolt? What shape is the origin of life? Where does our calendar come from? We can unearth the influence of great Islamic thinkers, prime numbers, Socrates and Tectonic plates. Melvyn Bragg orchestrates the ideas of leading academics in each field so that the dynamic and lively discussion from the programmes comes through vividly on the page. In Our Time brings to life the signposts of history, the moments that significantly changed the world as we know it, and the individuals and ideas that made us what we are today.
Reviews
'These transcripts select a treasure-trove of discussions from a decade of the Radio 4 jewel.'
the Independent
'there's no doubt that his broadcasting has provided an increasingly rare and valuable service in our anti-intellectual culture by supplying spaces to think. In Our Time is by far the best example of his contribution.'
Guardian
'Melvyn Bragg's matchless colloquies on Radio 4'
Stephen Fry
'The best programme coming out of the entire corporation these days'
David Sexton, Sunday Telegraph
'Melvyn Bragg's consistently superb In Our Time'
John Banville
'What might be the best radio programme ever'
Oliver Burkeman, Guardian
'Bragg's excellent radio programmes on the subject ...are the basis of this history of English over the past 1,500 years.'
Guardian on The Adventure of English
'Always readable, often thought-provoking, and consistently entertaining.'
Independent on The Adventure of English
'This is a highly readable, jargon-free treatise on a notoriously prickly subject. Bragg's affection for his subject is infectious.'
Observer on
Andrew Roberts, Spectator on The Adventure of English
'Beautifully clear and, indeed, thrilling'
Waterstone
's Books Quarterly on The Adventure of English 'Bragg's approachable account...gleams with little gems. His enthusiasm is appealing...he digs beneath modernity and examines our bedrock with a sympathetic eye. It has power and clarity...this adventure is rewarding.'
Sunday Herald on The Adventure of English
About the Author
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Melvyn Bragg's first novel, For Want of a Nail, was published in 1965 and since then his novels have included The Hired Man, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, Without a City Wall, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Credo, The Maid of Buttermere and The Soldier's Return, which was published to huge critical acclaim in 1999 and won the WHSmith Literary Award. He has also written several works of non-fiction including Speak for England, an oral history of the twentieth century, Rich, a biography of Richard Burton and On Giants' Shoulders, a history of science based on his BBC radio series. He was born in 1939 and educated at Wigton's Nelson Tomlinson Shool and at Oxford where he read history. He is controller of Arts at LWT and President of the National Campaign for the Arts, and in 1998 he was made a life peer. He lives in London and Cumbria.
Photograph © Mandy Farrar
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