Inventories for Life

It could be said that humans are list-making beasts. Life is filled with them - shopping lists, to-do lists, guest lists, resolutions, inventories of things we desire, categories of favourite books or songs, tenets of faith, catalogues of things we want to do before we die.

Samira Ahmed delves into the secret life of lists and reflects on what they reveal about ourselves.

She takes her inspiration from a masterwork of list-making - the Pillow Book by Sei Shonagan, written in 11th century Japan - and considers how this writer's drive to itemise her cloistered world in minute detail reveals startling psychological depths that still resonate down the centuries.

Drawing on writers as diverse as Nora Ephron, Woody Guthrie and Michael Ondaatje, Samira considers the magic of a great list, where each individual item enhances the others - whether in a poignant list of longing written at the end of a foreshortened life, a jaunty jumble of new year's resolutions or a heap of entertaining insults.

Lists can also have a dark side - the focus of obsession, anxiety or regret. Samira considers how Erik Satie's compulsive list making might be reflected in his music. Lists can also be a source of pleasure, as can be heard in an archive interview with Judi Dench about her devotion to to-do lists.

There are readings from writers including Michael Donaghy, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Umberto Eco, with music by Artie Shaw, Nina Simone and The Divine Comedy.

Produced by: Caroline Hughes
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.