A Gothic Cathedral

Simon Fanshawe tells the story of Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases - the retirement project of an eminent Victorian with a passion for order, organisation and classification.

Roget was like a George Eliot character - and having been to Edinburgh Medical School, he felt entitled to just pitch in. He was involved with the first uses of electricity, worked with Humphrey Davey and Sir James Watt and Jeremy Bentham on major projects of the time. He even tried to build a computer.

Interviewees: Jim Crace, Betty Kirkpatrick, Philip Hobsbawn, David Crystal, John Vincent, Lawrence Norfolk and Tom Sutcliffe

Reader: Bill Wallis

Producer Paul Dodgson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1998.