John Bowen
Professor of English Literature at the University of York
6 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Rosemary Ashton
Covers topics in categories such as:
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's dystopian novel where the state rewrites history, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength - and Big Brother is watching you
15 September 2022
Also featuring: David Dwan, Lisa Mullen
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsNovels adapted into operasCensored booksNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsEnglish novelsBritish science fiction novelsDystopian novelsNovels set in LondonNovels set in fictional countriesSocial science fictionNovels about revolutionaries, Secker & Warburg books, Novels by George Orwell, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels about propaganda, British political novelsThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's story of the mysterious Helen Graham who seeks a new independent life as an artist after escaping her abusive, alcoholic husband.
30 September 2021
Also featuring: Alexandra Lewis, Marianne Thormählen
Middlemarch
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's Study of Provincial Life, set before the Reform Act 1832 in a small, fictional town in the Midlands surrounded by farmland.
18 April 2018
Also featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Kathryn Hughes
Wuthering Heights
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Bronte's story of Heathcliff and Cathy, of love, hatred, revenge and self-destruction across two generations in a remote moorland home.
28 September 2017
Also featuring: Karen O'Brien, Alexandra Lewis
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels adapted into operasVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideFrame storiesLove storiesWorks published under a pseudonymBritish Gothic novelsNovels about revengeNonlinear narrative novelsNovels set in YorkshireNovels set in the 18th century1847 British novelsFiction with unreliable narrators1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsDecline and Fall
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall, published when the author was 25.
21 February 2013
Also featuring: David Bradshaw, Ann Pasternak Slater
Dickens
Melvyn Bragg discusses the achievements of Charles Dickens What is his political and literary legacy to our age?
12 July 2001
Also featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Michael Slater
CultureWriters about activism and social changeEnglish male poetsCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male non-fiction writersBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish AnglicansBritish male essayists19th-century English poetsEnglish male novelistsVictorian novelistsLiteracy and society theoristsEnglish male dramatists and playwrights19th-century English novelists19th-century pseudonymous writersEnglish male short story writersEnglish travel writersWriters of Gothic fictionEnglish satirists19th-century English non-fiction writersBritish critics of religionsTrope theorists19th-century British short story writers19th-century British philanthropistsEnglish philanthropistsAnglican writers19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsWriters from the London Borough of CamdenBritish social reformersLecturers19th-century English essayists19th-century travel writersEnglish reformersEnglish prisoners and detaineesPeople from Somers Town, London19th-century British journalistsEnglish historical novelists, 19th-century English historians