Ronald Harwood
Monday 18 February 2008 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Matthew Sweet and three writers ask what our pets say about ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Plus Lewis Hyde's new book Trickster and the new film from Wong Kar Wai.
An English Tragedy
Richard Goulding (John Amery) and Michael Fenton-Stevens (The Major) in An English Tragedy.
Photo credit Manuel Harin.
Playlist
Pets
Award winning political cartoonist and writer Martin Rowson and the acclaimed American poet Mark Doty have both written about the complex relationship between us, our pets and our humanity. Pet keeping is something humans have sought to do since the earliest civilisations, and in Night Waves on Monday night Matthew Sweet brings them together with the novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones to work out what our pets can tell us about ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
Dog Years by Mark Doty is published by Cape.
The Dog Allusion: Pets,God and How To Be Human by Martin Rowson is published by Vintage.
Lewis Hyde
Matthew will also be talking to the MacArthur fellow and Harvard creative writing director Lewis Hyde. He first came to prominence through writing his modern classic The Gift - an examination of the relationship between creativity and money. His new book, Trickster Makes the World, takes on the subject of playfulness from the ancient world to the present. Hyde argues that Tricksters: traditionally lying, cheating and stealing their way round the edges of society are in fact also indispensable heroes of culture.
Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art by Lewis Hyde is published by North Point Press.
Wong Kar Wai
Muriel Zagha reviews the first English language film from Wong Kar Wai, My Blueberry Nights starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz David Strathairn and Natalie Portman.
My Blueberry Nights is certificate 12A and released nationwide on 22nd February
An English Tragedy
Aleks Sierz reviews An English Tragedy, a new play from Ronald Harwood, the Oscar nominated writer of the screenplay of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
An English Tragedy is on at the The Palace Theatre, Watford from 18th February till 8th March.
