The Essay

Rabbi Julia Neuberger considers the middle section of the Lord's Prayer. She reflects on the line "Give us this day our daily bread".Five brilliant voices essay on different sections of the Lord's Prayer for our time. Author Ali Smith, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies Mona Siddiqui, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch and poet and author Andrew Motion examine each thought with a modern day searchlight, bringing theological knowledge, personal memory, poetic insight and imagination to an understanding of this prayer, murmured by millions every day. In all it's not even sixty words long and, as it appears in the Gospel according to Matthew, it's introduced by Jesus as a 'how to pray' guide: 'This then, is how you should pray". Today it's bound with the need to express our longing for a better world and something we all share, but what do these short lines mean and how do they help?Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth

British Muslim Academic Mona Siddiqui explores the second section of the Lord's Prayer. She considers the lines "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".Five brilliant voices essay on different sections of the Lord's Prayer for our time. Author Ali Smith, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies Mona Siddiqui, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch and poet and author Andrew Motion examine each thought with a modern day searchlight, bringing theological knowledge, personal memory, poetic insight and imagination to an understanding of this prayer, murmured by millions every day. In all it's not even sixty words long and, as it appears in the Gospel according to Matthew, it's introduced by Jesus as a 'how to pray' guide: 'This then, is how you should pray". Today it's bound with the need to express our longing for a better world and something we all share, but what do these short lines mean and how do they help?Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Author Ali Smith begins this series of essays on the Lord's Prayer. She focuses on the first lines, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name".Five brilliant voices essay on different sections of the Lord's Prayer for our time. Author Ali Smith, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies Mona Siddiqui, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch and poet and author Andrew Motion examine each thought with a modern day searchlight, bringing theological knowledge, personal memory, poetic insight and imagination to an understanding of this prayer, murmured by millions every day. In all it's not even sixty words long and, as it appears in the Gospel according to Matthew, it's introduced by Jesus as a 'how to pray' guide: 'This then, is how you should pray". Today it's bound with the need to express our longing for a better world and something we all share, but what do these short lines mean and how do they help?Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy

Critic Martin Gayford tells the stories of his encounters and friendships with leading jazz musicians as a fan, an amateur music promoter and, latterly, as a journalist.Martin describes his encounters with "miscreant grandfather substitute" pianist Jimmy Rowles. Rowles's varied musical career saw him achieve success as a solo artist and the vocal coach at the Hollywood studios, where he taught Marilyn Monroe how to sing.

Critic Martin Gayford tells the stories of his encounters and friendships with five leading jazz musicians as a fan, an amateur music promoter and, latterly, as a journalist.Martin recalls the lessons that he learnt from his two meetings, over the space of a 12 years, with the saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins. Martin travelled to New York in 2010 to interview him on the eve of a concert celebrating his 80th birthday, his life changed by the events of September 11th, when his lower Manhattan home was destroyed.

Critic Martin Gayford tells the stories of his encounters and friendships with leading jazz musicians as a fan, an amateur music promoter and, latterly, as a journalist.The American cornettist Ruby Braff had a fierce reputation for a bad temper and his scrapping with bandmates, but from his home in Cape Cod, he used to regularly call Martin for long, revealing telephone conversations.

Critic Martin Gayford tells the stories of his encounters and friendships with leading jazz musicians as a fan, an amateur music promoter and, latterly, as a journalist.The British pianist Marian McPartland found fame across the Atlantic, spending six decades at the heart of the swinging New York jazz scene and hosting a long-running National Public Radio programme. When Martin brought her to Cambridge for a concert, he reflected on their shared suburban upbringings.ii.

Critic Martin Gayford tells the stories of his encounters and friendships with leading jazz musicians as a fan, an amateur music promoter and, latterly, as a journalist.In this first programme, Martin recalls his meetings with Doc Cheatham, a trumpeter whose lengthy career spanned almost all recorded jazz. In an attempt to befriend one of his musical heroes, Martin booked the octogenarian Doc to play a gig in Cambridge. The tactic worked, when he embarked on a tour with Doc and found himself rooming with him in Soho. Here Doc told Martin his stories of playing in bands in Nashville, accompanying Billie Holiday, deputising for Louis Armstrong and becoming a celebrated solo artist in his own right. Producer Paul Smith, for Just Radio.

This week, various authors remember a significant swimming experience:5. Author and journalist Philip Hoare would avoid the water. He overcame his fear and started to swim everywhere. But what compelled him to jump into Southampton Water?Producer Duncan Minshull.

This week, various authors remember a significant swimming experience:4. Novelist Kamila Shamsie is with friends in Byron Bay, Australia. They stay on shore, she goes for a dip and before long something starts to 'pull' at her...Producer Duncan Minshull.

This week, five authors remember a favourite swimming experience:3. Musician and author Marcus O'Dair dons his wet suit and blazes a trail across blackish Ullswater in the Lake District, thinking of his strokes and other famous swimmers, and his mother swims with him too!Producer Duncan Minshull.

This week, various authors remember a significant swimming experience:2. Antonia Quirke enjoys a gentle dip in the South Pacific, but alludes to some darker waters of her childhood and also some swims in England's gravel pits. Plus, the ocean with Spielberg's Jaws in it is 40 years old this year...Producer Duncan Minshull.

This week, various authors remember a significant swimming experience:1. Novelist Christopher Hope describes a Pretoria swimming pool of his youth, where, if things got too much, he'd happily sink to the bottom and stay there a while. Letting things pass over him...Producer Duncan Minshull.

In the week leading up to our celebration of International Women's Day, a series of The Essay celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. Each of these women overcame societal expectations or personal adversity to have real influence on the music of their day, and subsequently ours.Betty Freeman was possibly the most influential patron of twentieth century classical music. From 1964 onwards, she gave a total of 413 grants and commissions for living expenses, compositions, recordings, performances and librettos to 81 artists. These include John Cage, Steve Reich, Robert Wilson and Peter Sellars and also younger composers such as Olga Neuwirth and Hans Peter Kyburz. An editor of BBC Music Magazine, Helen Wallace looks for the woman behind the list of names and discovers what drove her to play so formative a role in the lives of these great musicians.Produced by Simon RichardsonTo find out more about Radio 3's International Women's Day pro

In the week leading up to our celebration of International Women's Day, a series of The Essay celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. Each of these women overcame societal expectations or personal adversity to have real influence on the music of their day, and subsequently ours.We tend to remember William Ewart Gladstone as a reformer who wanted to pacify Ireland. We know that Queen Victoria preferred Disraeli's flattery to Gladstone's earnest lectures. And we've heard that this long-serving Prime Minister relaxed by cutting down trees on the Hawarden estate. What we don't imagine about this Grand Old Man is his sensuality. In fact, W.E. Gladstone was passionately musical and he owed much of the pleasure he gained from exploring his musical tastes, as well as the moral purpose he derived from it, to the influence of his daughter Mary. As Dr Phyllis Weliver explains, Mary was a pioneering Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, one

In the week leading up to our celebration of International Women's Day, a series of essays celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. Each of these women overcame societal expectations or personal adversity to have real influence on the music of their day, and subsequently ours.Leopoldine Wittgenstein is someone it's easy to overlook. Neurotic and shy, she stands in the shadow not just of her extraordinarily talented children, who include that giant of twentieth century philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein, but also of her overwhelming and dominant husband, Karl, who built himself up to become one of the wealthiest and most successful industrialists of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire. But Leopoldine, or Poldy, as she was known in the family, was an exceptionally gifted pianist. And she presided over one of the most important and glittering musical salons in fin de siècle Vienna, attended not just by Hanslick, but by Brahms, Mahler and Rich

In the week leading up to our celebration of International Women's Day, a series of essays celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. Each of these women overcame societal expectations or personal adversity to have real influence on the music of their day, and subsequently ours.Lady Maud Warrender was a respected performer, and one of the most influential patrons of music in the early twentieth century, all while living with her lesbian lover, the opera singer Marcia Van Dresser. Her life, lived very much in the public gaze, but with whole areas that were kept so discreetly private that it is hard to find any concrete information, was an example of a tightrope successfully and deftly trodden - a perilous path between respectability and scandal.Dr Kate Kennedy tells the story of this extraordinary woman who wielded more power in the musical world than many male professional concert promoters put together.Produced by Simon RichardsonTo f

In the week leading up to our celebration of International Women's Day, a series of essays celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. Each of these women overcame societal expectations or personal adversity to have real influence on the music of their day, and subsequently ours.Nadezhda von Meck was 46 and had recently lost her husband when she first wrote to Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky, who was in his mid-thirties, asking the rising star for some pieces to be played at her country house. Money followed in a registered envelope - an amount so big that it slightly embarrassed - but also dazzled - him. And that payment was only the start. For the 13 years that followed, Madame von Meck kept the composer in grand style.But the money came, and kept coming, on one condition: that the composer and his benefactor should never meet.Author and journalist Vanora Bennett, the eldest daughter of the flute player William Bennett and the cellist Rhuna M

Fear is one of the six basic universal emotions (the others are anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) and like all human emotions not easy to understand. Fear can be played upon, enjoyed, conquered. It is an obstacle to progress ("the only thing to fear is fear itself") and, as we stand at the kerb, it saves our lives every day. This series of The Essay brings you five essays on different aspects of fear.At first sight it appears that fear can be understood in a straightforward way as an adaptive response, promoting behaviour to protect us from threats to life and limb. In humans, however, the biological givens are invariably transformed and serve ends not envisaged in biology.Physician and philosopher Raymond Tallis explores the uniqueness of human fear, how it is rooted in the distinctive nature of human as opposed to animal consciousness, and how it is often led by thought and imagination. He considers why, seemingly perversely, we might enjoy cultivating fear through stories and games.Producer

Fear is one of the six basic universal emotions (the others are anger, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) and like all human emotions not easy to understand. Fear can be played upon, enjoyed, conquered. It is an obstacle to progress ("the only thing to fear is fear itself") and, as we stand at the kerb, it saves our lives every day. This series of The Essay brings you five essays on different aspects of fear.Author and animal scientist Temple Grandin tells the story of how, in 1949, she was diagnosed with autism at aged two. Autism was not always well understood at the time, but Grandin's mother refused to accept the notion that her daughter could never participate in mainstream society. Grandin has since become a leading advocate for autistic people, explaining the role fear and anxiety plays in their condition and how they those feelings can be managed. Her experience of fear has also given her a unique insight into animal welfare, and led her to campaign for improved animal rights and care of livest