Arts & Ideas Folgen

Matthew Sweet talks to Booker-nominated novelist Julia O’Faolain about her new memoir and growing up with her father, a celebrated writer and a radical dissident. Helen Wallace reviews George Benjamin’s and Martin Crimp’s new opera, ‘Written on Skin’. Professor Nora Crook explains how she discovered who really censored Shelley’s notorious poem, ‘The Revolt of Islam’. Marcus Chown reviews The Challenger, a new docu-drama about the investigation into the 1986 space shuttle disaster. And we debate whether the use of words like ‘unacceptable’ and ‘inappropriate’ are part of a tendency to avoid casting strong moral judgements.

Anne McElvoy meets Hilary Mantel, the winner of the David Cohen Prize for literature. Mantel also defends her comments about the Duchess of Cambridge. The writer and former priest Mark Vernon discusses his latest book on love with the philosopher and economist Jamie Whyte, and the novelist and academic Eva Hoffman. The artistic team that created War Horse re-unite for Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream which opens this week at the Bristol Old Vic. Anne McElvoy discusses the new production with co-director Tom Morris. Revolutionary Iran - a new book explores the unique history of the Islamic republic. Anne McElvoy speaks to Michael Axworthy, one of the world's principle experts on the country.

The Olympics ceremony master Danny Boyle joins Rana Mitter to discuss the British film industry and what he thinks is the role of creativity in boosting the economy. As we approach the 200th anniversary of Dr David Livingstone's birth, Rana discusses the man and reassesses his legacy in today's Africa, with John MacKenzie and Kit Davis. Ruth Ozeki talks about her new novel "A Tale for the Time Being". And Rana along with Dr Olga Dmitrieva visits a new exhibition on early relations between the Tudors and early Stewarts with the courts of the Russian Tsars.