Richard Mabey on Trees
Monday 24 September 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Gabriel Gbadamosi joins one of Britain's foremost nature writers, Richard Mabey, on a journey to explore society's long-standing relationship with its trees. Mabey believes Britain has changed its understanding of trees ever since the great storm of 1987 and to prove his case takes Gabriel to visit an ancient Queen Beech tree in Hertfordshire.
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson 
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Jeanette Winterson
The writer Jeanette Winterson discusses her new novel, 'The Stone Gods'. Her new book takes place on Easter Island in the course of one of Captain Cook's 18th century voyages of discovery, the search for a new Southern continent; the last trees have been cut down, the islanders have destroyed their habitat building and toppling their stone idols and are now fighting amongst themselves. Or rather, it all happens in the future.
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson is published by Hamish Hamilton
The Sacrifice
The Welsh National Opera premiered James McMillan's new opera 'The Sacrifice' in Cardiff this weekend. Poet Gwyneth Lewis gives Night Waves her verdict on a tale which draws parallels between contemporary conflicts and the ancient Welsh poem cycle, the Mabinogion.
The Sacrifice runs at the Wales Millennium Centre until 6 October 2007
Richard Mabey
Gabriel Gbadamosi goes for a walk in the woods with Richard Mabey, one of our foremost nature writers.
Richard Mabey's oeuvre includes classics like 'Food for Free' and 'Flora Britannica' - his latest is 'Beechcomings'. The book is a personal investigation into the relationship between two of the major organisms of our islands: humans and trees, focusing on the nature and history of Mabey's favourite, the Beech tree. Deep in a forest on Berkhamsted common, Richard Mabey introduces Gabriel to what he calls an 'extraordinary creature', a giant, ancient Beech - and argues for new ways of seeing and treating trees.
Beechcombings: The Narrative of Trees by Richard Mabey is published by Chatto & Windus
Brussels
There's a sidelong look at a question-mark at the heart of Europe - whither Belgium? As the country passes a hundred days without a government, Night Waves asks what role have the arts played - or failed to play - in forging a national identity from this country of ten million people, three languages, and at least two distinct cultures? Gabriel talks to Pierre-Philippe Fraiture, senior lecturer at Warwick University and Xavier Goossens, London correspondent for La Libre Belgique
