The Essay

Jude Kelly, the artistic director of Southbank Centre, describes how "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott mirrored her own experiences growing up in a lively Liverpool home. Like the March family, Kelly grew up surrounded by sisters, and with a father who was often absent. She was inspired by the way Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy grew throughout the novel. "Each daughter is tested against her own frailties and foibles to see if she can become a woman of substance in her own terms ... and I wanted to be a woman of substance too," she says. And the book helped her come to terms with the loss of her baby sister Caroline of multiple sclerosis. "Maybe this is the biggest influence 'Little Women' had on me. It made me think about death as an inevitable part of our lives. Producer: Smita Patel.

The legendary singer-songwriter Steve Earle describes how Truman Capote's true-life murder story, "In Cold Blood", captured his imagination as a 12-year-old boy. He first encountered the tale - a dramatic account of a multiple killing in Kansas - in the film version, shown at a local drive-in movie house. "I had to find a copy of that book and read it for myself," he says, stealing the volume from his mother's handbag and devouring it over the next couple of days. Capote's story inspired his decades-long campaign against the death penalty. And the book led him to feel empathy for the killers at the centre of the tale, thanks to "the power of intellect and humanity flowing from heart to hand to pen to page." Producer: Smita Patel.

Writer Polly Coles reads So Near to Venice, the last of her essays about some of the ways in which Venetians and others have adapted to live in 21st-century Venice. Moving to Venice with her family for several years gave her a resident's view of a city she loves and despairs of in equal measure. Once the most cosmopolitan city in Europe, nowadays it seems little more than a stage-set for the tourist industry. But Venice will always be more than the most idealized city in the world.In this edition, Polly looks at the invisible residents of Venice who service the millions of tourists who descend on the city each year.Written and performed by Polly Coles Producer: Melanie Harris Sparklab Productions.

Writer Polly Coles reads The Writing on the Wall, the third of her essays about some of the ways in which Venetians and others have adapted to live in 21st-century Venice - one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In tonight?s essay, Polly argues that the recent Biennale fashion of rigging up neon strips of random text around the city Venice is nothing new in city that has always been written upon - in every sense of the phrase.Written and performed by Polly Coles Producer: Melanie Harris Sparklab Productions.

Writer Polly Coles reads Tinseltown, the second of her essays about some of the ways in which Venetians and others have adapted to live in 21st-century Venice - one of the most acclaimed cities in the world. Moving to Venice with her family for several years gave her a resident's view of a city she loves and despairs of in equal measure. Once the most cosmopolitan city in Europe, nowadays it seems little more than a stage-set for the tourist industry. But Venice will always be more than the most idealized city in the world.In this edition, Polly looks at the impact of celebrity on Venice, suggesting it's a familiar phenomenon for Venetians down the centuries.Written and performed by Polly Coles Producer: Melanie Harris Sparklab Productions.

Writer Polly Coles reads At Home, the first of her essays about some of the ways in which Venetians and others have adapted to live in 21st-century Venice - one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Moving to Venice with her family for several years gave her a resident's view of a city she loves and despairs of in equal measure. Once the most cosmopolitan city in Europe, nowadays it seems little more than a stage-set for the tourist industry. But Venice will always be more than the most idealized city in the world.In this essay, Polly looks at what home and house mean to different types of Venetian residents in modern day Venice. From the aristocrat in her Palazzo to the stowaway Moldovan in a broom cupboard, she wonders if anyone can survive in Venice without the tourist dollar.Written and performed by Polly Coles Producer: Melanie Harris Sparklab Productions.

Tom Shakespeare challenges stereotypical ideas about creativity and disability, by celebrating a selection of disabled artists, discussing how their impairments fuelled their genius and demonstrating the variety and achievement of disabled lives.Lucy Jones may well be the best British painter you've never heard of. There is no doubt about her disability, because she was born with cerebral palsy. But she has no intention of identifying as a disabled artist. Cerebral palsy and dyslexia and depression are part of her biography, but they're not on the label for the artwork, any more than being a woman or living in Ludlow should define her or explain what she does. She wants her portraits to offer a universal comment on humanity.

Tom Shakespeare challenges stereotypical ideas about creativity and disability, by celebrating a selection of disabled artists, discussing how their impairments fuelled their genius and demonstrating the variety and achievement of disabled lives.What comes to mind when you think of disability? Perhaps the child born with a genetic condition, or the person in the prime of life who becomes spinal-cord injured. But only 5% of children and only 10% of working age adults are disabled. The majority of people become disabled in later life, and artists are no exception. In this programme,Tom Shakespeare discusses how the lives of three artists - the painters Goya, Klee and Matisse - show how restriction created by ageing or disease can open up new creative possibilities.

Tom Shakespeare challenges stereotypical ideas about creativity and disability, by celebrating five disabled artists, discussing how their impairments fuelled their genius and demonstrating the variety and achievement of disabled lives.The visionary Brazilian sculptor Arthur Bispo do Rosario spent fifty years of his life on a Rio de Janeiro psychiatric ward, and did not even think of himself as an artist. Born in Japaratuba on the east coast of Brazil, the descendent of African slaves, he was exposed to a strongly religious culture and to the hybrid traditions of folk art. He'd been a sailor and an odd-job man when, in 1938, he had a vision of angels bathed in light. He felt that the Virgin Mary had guided him to record the universe in visual form, in preparation for the Day of Judgement. The same year, he was hospitalized for treatment for paranoid schizophrenia. For Bispo do Rosario, this creative outpouring was a spiritual, not an artistic task: he saw it as his duty to prepare for the Last Judgement. Bisp

Tom Shakespeare challenges stereotypical ideas about creativity and disability, by celebrating five disabled artists, discussing how their impairments fuelled their genius and demonstrating the variety and achievement of disabled lives.Bryan Pearce, a painter from St Ives in Cornwall, was one of the very few people with learning disability who has achieved fame in their own right. He was born with the metabolic disorder Phenylketonuria. Today, all children are tested at birth for PKU, and if they have the genetic mutation, are placed on a special diet, and so grow up unaffected. In 1929, the condition was unknown, and as a result, Bryan Pearce experienced intellectual impairment and other health problems. As a teenager, Bryan was encouraged by his mother and other artists to paint. His obvious talent meant that he attended the St Ives School of Painting during his twenties. Although he painted slowly, producing perhaps one picture a month, he had a long and very successful career, exhibiting throughout the UK

Tom Shakespeare challenges stereotypical ideas about creativity and disability, by celebrating five disabled artists, discussing how their impairments fuelled their genius and demonstrating the variety and achievement of disabled lives.Abul 'Ala Al-Ma'arri became visually impaired in childhood and went on to become the most famous poet in the Arab world, but is still barely known in Britain. He was born near Aleppo in the year 973. Although welcomed in the literary salons of Baghdad, al-Ma'arri became an ascetic, who avoided other people, and refused to sell his poetry. Al-Ma'arri was notable as a religious sceptic; he deemed it a matter of geographical accident what faith people adopted, and rejected the idea that Islam had a monopoly on truth. He opposed all violence and killing, becoming a vegan and avoiding the use of animal skins in clothing and footwear. Al-Ma'arri is a distinguished, if rare, example of a rationalist in the Islamic world, and one who was writing half a millennium before the Enlightenme

One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service. Herlinde Koebl, is an artist and photographer known for her in-depth, political and thematic work. In this essay she draws on the experience of her latest project 'Targets' which was a series of documentary photographs of the targets used for training by soldiers in 30 countries. Contrasting accounts of First World War training, and quoting from contemporary soldiers, Herlinde Koebl asks what makes a soldier able to kill? The essay is performed in front of an audience at the Bundeswehr Military Museum in Dresden.

One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service. Haris Pasovic lived through the Siege of Sarajevo and was the producer of Susan Sontag's legendary 1993 'Waiting for Godot', produced in the city during the war. Since then he has developed theatrical spectaculars with a special focus on the impact of war including The Red Line (11,500 chairs representing those killed in the siege) and 'The Conquest of Happiness' (a massive open-air theatre event for Derry Year of Culture based on the works on Bertrand Russell). His essay 'Divine Uncertainty' is a personal take the war in Bosnia and the First World War. In this essay, re

One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service. Joanna Bourke stunned academics and the reading public alike with her extraordinary study 'An Intimate History of Killing', since which she has written studies of Fear, Rape, Pain and Humanity. Shell Shock and the Shock of Shells draws on the letters and diaries of soldiers and their families. In this essay she returns to the First World War to reflect not only on shell shock, but also on the actual shells themselves, presenting her latest research into their physical impact and the language which evolved to describe them. Her essay was recorded with an audience at the I

One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service. Tatyana Tolstaya is an internationally acclaimed Russian novelist and broadcaster, and well known in Russia as a scion of the country's most famous literary family. In this essay 'White Flowers', she tells a moving story from her own family, the story of her grandmother's chance encounter with British journalist William Stead. This is a poetic story about revolution, ideology and the individual, through which we glimpse a different future for Russia and for Europe. It is recorded with an audience at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, which was known as the Winter Palace whe

Christian Carion, Heroism and the Christmas TruceChristian Carion, Heroism and the Christmas TruceOne hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service. Christian Carion is the director of the French film 'Joyeux Noël' shortlisted for an Oscar in 2006. He is a child of farmers of the fields of northern France and grew up among the battlefields of the First World War. He has lost friends to the live ordnance which is still being ploughed up every year. This is a war which still claims lives. For this Christmas edition of The Essay, recorded with an audience at Hotel National des Invalides, in Paris - the historic and ceremoni

Oscar-winning screen writer Frederic Raphael reads the final essay in his new series about living abroad across Europe, this time in Greece.It's the early 1960s, and the country is as yet undisturbed by mass tourism. As Raphael travels to a remote island, echoes of the classical world rub up against the realities of post civil war division, and a village life which has barely changed for centuries.

Part four sees the writer journey to early 1960s Italy, where he mixes ancient Roman history, with a very personal experience of some of the key players in the Italian film industry.

Oscar-winning screen writer Frederic Raphael continues his essay series about living abroad across Europe.In programme three Raphael gives an off-the-beaten-track perspective on Franco's Spain, during the late 1950s, where he lived in a small artistic community and witnessed the impact of grand politics on Spanish village life.

'Every man has two countries, his own and France' says Frederic Raphael, quoting Thomas Jefferson, as he begins part two of his essay series about living abroad across Europe.In this programme he explores his life as a young writer in the post-war Paris of Jean-Paul Sartre, and remembers his time living in the Cote d'Azur before it was a popular tourist destination.