The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh
Matthew Sweet talks to historian Linda Colley about her new book which takes an innovative approach to the global upheavals of the eighteenth century by observing them through the eyes of one woman.
The acclaimed author of Captives, which followed the lives of Britons enslaved by non-Christians, tells the story of Elizabeth Marsh born in 1735, who narrowly escaped becoming a slave in Morocco and wrote a popular account of her ordeal. She later compiled detailed diaries of her extensive travels around India to which she emigrated with her family. Matthew discusses with Colley the benefits of using biography to examine world history in particular the growing influence of the British in India and the West Indies, and the status of eighteenth century women.
Ten Canoes
A new film out this week Ten Canoes explores another form of storytelling, reflecting the oral traditions of the Aboriginal community in Australia's Northern Territory.
Director, Rolf de Heer, talks to Night Waves about how he worked closely with Aboriginal clans in many different languages to create a film in which a tribe elder tells a cautionary tale set in mythic times during a goose-egg hunting expedition, and how he hoped to achieve a unique kind of cinema.
Ten Canoes is Certificate 15 and on general release in London and key cities from Friday 1st June
Dickensworld
Matthew ventures into Dickensworld - a new indoor theme park in Chatham in Kent. The theme park promises to take visitors on a "fascinating journey through Dickens lifetime" - but does it live up to Victorian standards of entertainment? And does it reinforce a confused vision of "Dickensian England", in which the novelist's imagination obscures the realities of the past?
Extreme Green
In the second of the Night Waves series looking at Extreme Green issues, Matthew Sweet speaks to journalist Nick Rosen about Britain's "off-gridders"; individuals and communities who have divorced themselves entirely from mains water and power. Nick travelled the length and breadth of Britain in an off-grid camper van, in search of his own patch of land to build an off-grid house, and he describes the philosophy that's driving the growth of this unusual community.
Ten Canoes directed by Rolf de Heer
Ten Canoes 
