5. Punishing Weather

Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has ingrained itself into our culture.

Punishing weather: do we deserve the weather we get?

Weather and time have often been twinned. They are linked by one word in Latin, tempus. “Quel temps fait-il?”, ask the French. Proust's time regained is also the weather of memory revisited.

In English the connection is less clear because our word for weather is from Norse 'weder', but still there is a long and potent tradition of thought that links the passing of time with the mobile, changeful, ever-passing weather. In this tradition time and weather began together when Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden into an imperfect and impermanent world.

Music by Jon Nicholls.

Producer: Tim Dee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.