Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 3,21 Jun 2022,14 mins

SeriesMoments of Being

Windows

The Essay

Available for over a year

The minutiae of the everyday frame, shape and colour our lives. Joanna Robertson lives in Paris, and finds that the views from her fourth-floor flat have a real influence on her daily life. Looking out over the neighbourhood of Montparnasse, her windows let her eye and mind wander over the sites of much recent and not so recent cultural history. Former residents whose residences she can still see, range from Irish playwright Samuel Beckett to Austro-Hungarian writer Joseph Roth. And, following in the footsteps of painter John Constable, Joanna too goes "skying", as he called it: observing the sky and its cloudscapes through the window. What's beyond the glass is both separate from, yet also inextricably part of her life. Written and presented by Joanna Robertson Producer: Arlene Gregorius Editor: Penny Murphy Sound engineer: Nigel Appleton Production Coordinator: Janet Staples

Programme Website
More episodes