Judith Hawley
Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
15 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: John Mullan, Karen O'Brien, John Mullan
Covers topics in categories such as:
Oliver Goldsmith
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of She Stoops to Conquer, The Vicar of Wakefield and The Deserted Village who was a great populariser of science and history in his time.
20 February 2025
Also featuring: David O’Shaughnessy, Michael Griffin
CultureIrish AnglicansIrish male novelistsIrish male dramatists and playwrightsIrish male poetsStreathamites18th-century Irish novelists, 18th-century Irish poetsIrish essayistsAlumni of Trinity College Dublin18th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish male writersAlumni of the University of EdinburghFielding's Tom Jones
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henry Fielding's influential comic novel in which the hero Jones has such a fundamentally good nature that even his critics forgive his faults.
13 June 2024
Also featuring: Henry Power, Charlotte Roberts
John Bull
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Arbuthnot's satirical figure, created in 1712 as an anthropomorphised bull, and its role as a representation of an English or British everyman.
30 June 2022
Also featuring: Miles Taylor, Mark Knights
Coffee
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee, from its origins in Ethiopia to its role in the spread of ideas, its part in the slave trade and its social impact.
12 December 2019
Also featuring: Markman Ellis, Jonathan Morris
Fanny Burney
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the 18th-century writer Fanny Burney, also known as Frances D'Arblay and Frances Burney, best known for her novel Evelina.
23 April 2015
Also featuring: Nicole Pohl, John Mullan
CultureWriters from LondonWriters from King's LynnConversationalists19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish pamphleteersEnglish essayists18th-century English diaristsEnglish satiristsStreathamites18th-century English women writers18th-century English novelistsEnglish women poets19th-century English novelistsEnglish women dramatists and playwrights19th-century English women writersEnglish women novelistsBritish women essayistsTristram Shandy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.
24 April 2014
Also featuring: John Mullan, Mary Newbould
CultureIrish novels adapted into films, Irish novels adapted into plays18th-century British novelsMetafictional novelsNonlinear narrative novelsSelf-reflexive novelsNovels adapted into operasPicaresque novelsNovels adapted into comicsBritish satirical novelsNovels adapted into radio programs1759 novelsLyrical Ballads
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Lyrical Ballads, the 1798 volume of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
8 March 2012
Also featuring: Jonathan Bate, Peter Swaab
Robinson Crusoe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's seminal novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic adventure story.
22 December 2011
Also featuring: Karen O'Brien, Bob Owens
Women and Enlightenment Science
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the role played by women in Enlightenment science.
4 November 2010
Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Karen O'Brien
Swift's A Modest Proposal
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jonathan Swift's satirical 1729 pamphlet A Modest Proposal, which reveals much about attitudes to the Irish and the poor in 18th-Century Britain.
29 January 2009
Also featuring: John Mullan, Ian McBride
CultureIrish male poets18th-century English novelistsEnglish AnglicansPeople educated at Kilkenny CollegeAnglican writersEnglish political writersEnglish male short story writersNeoclassical writersEnglish fantasy writersAlumni of Hart Hall, Oxford18th-century pseudonymous writersEnglish pamphleteersEnglish male novelists18th-century Irish writers18th-century Irish novelists, 18th-century Irish poetsEnglish male poets18th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish male writersAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersJonathan SwiftEnglish short story writersEnglish satirists17th-century Anglo-Irish peopleAlumni of Trinity College DublinIrish satiristsThe Encyclopédie
Melvyn Bragg discusses the French encyclopédie, one of the great achievements of the Enlightenment with contributors such as Voltaire, Rousseau, D’Alembert and Dennis Diderot.
26 October 2006
Also featuring: Caroline Warman, David Wootton
Johnson
Melvyn Bragg discusses Samuel Johnson, a giant of 18th century literature, language and letters, and perhaps the most quotable Englishman to have ever lifted a pen.
27 October 2005
Also featuring: John Mullan, Jim McLaverty
English sermon writersEnglish travel writersEnglish literary critics18th-century lexicographers, 18th-century writers in LatinConversationalistsEnglish essayistsAnglican saintsStreathamitesBurials at Westminster AbbeyMale essayistsEnglish Anglicans18th-century English writersPeople with mood disorders18th-century English poetsEnglish biographers18th-century English male writersThe Scriblerus Club
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Scriblerus Club which included some of the sharpest satirists of the 18th century.
9 June 2005
Also featuring: John Mullan, Marcus Walsh
Empiricism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the development of the idea formulated by John Locke that all knowledge arises from experience, and looks at its effect on the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.
10 June 2004
Also featuring: Murray Pittock, Jonathan Rée