
Judith Hawley
Professor of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
14 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: John Mullan, Karen O'Brien, John Mullan
Covers topics in categories such as:
Fielding'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
The Gin Craze
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the economic and social factors that led to the craze for gin in the 18th century and the moves to control it
15 December 2016
Also featuring: Angela McShane, Emma Major
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
CultureEnglish essayists19th-century English novelistsEnglish women poetsEnglish women novelistsEnglish satiristsConversationalists19th-century English women writersWriters from London19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsEnglish pamphleteersBritish women essayists18th-century English novelistsStreathamites18th-century English diarists18th-century English women writersEnglish women dramatists and playwrightsWriters from King's LynnTristram Shandy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.
24 April 2014
Also featuring: John Mullan, Mary Newbould
CultureNovels adapted into operasNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into radio programsPicaresque novels18th-century British novelsMetafictional novelsNonlinear narrative novelsBritish satirical novels1759 novelsSelf-reflexive novelsIrish novels adapted into plays, Irish novels adapted into filmsLyrical 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
CultureEnglish male poetsEnglish AnglicansEnglish male novelistsEnglish male short story writersEnglish satiristsAlumni of Trinity College DublinIrish male poetsEnglish short story writersAnglican writersEnglish fantasy writersNeoclassical writersEnglish pamphleteers18th-century pseudonymous writers18th-century English novelists17th-century Anglo-Irish peopleEnglish political writersAlumni of Hart Hall, OxfordPeople educated at Kilkenny CollegeIrish satiristsJonathan SwiftAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writers18th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish writers, 18th-century Irish male writersThe 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
CultureAnglican saintsEnglish essayistsBurials at Westminster AbbeyEnglish AnglicansEnglish travel writers18th-century English male writersConversationalistsMale essayists18th-century English writersEnglish literary criticsStreathamitesEnglish biographersEnglish sermon writersPeople with mood disorders18th-century English poets18th-century lexicographers, 18th-century writers in LatinThe 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