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Reading Between the Lines

When does the ability to read between the lines become vital? From codes in Shakespeare to modern surveillance states, Mark Tully seeks out the secret messages of everyday life.

When does the ability to read between the lines become vital? From codes in Shakespeare to modern surveillance states, Mark Tully seeks out the secret messages of everyday life.

Shakespeare scholar Clare Asquith has witnessed the secret dissident propaganda that flourished in Soviet Russia and she has also written a book about hidden political and religious allegories in the plays of Shakespeare. Mark discusses her approach to reading between the lines and the techniques she has learnt to help her interpret literary codes.

In the light of this, he considers the symbols and subtexts that exist all around us - through culture, literature and music, touching on the work of Alban Berg, Sergei Prokoviev and Barrington Pheloung and the writing of Queen Elizabeth I, World War Two cryptographer Leo Marks and poet Theodore Weiss.

The readers are Claire Vousden and Vincent Ebrahim.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

A Unique production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 12 Feb 2017 23:30

Music Played

  • Emerson String Quartet

    Lyric Suite for String Quartet (1926), II. Andante amoroso Emerson String Quartet (feat. Alban Berg)

    • Decca.
  • Royal Scottish National Orchestra

    Symphony no. 6 in E flat minor, Op. 111 (feat. Sergey Prokofiev)

    • Chandos.
  • The Police

    Every Breath You Take

    • Synchronicity.
  • Barrington Pheloung

    Inspector Morse Theme

    • VTCD-62.

Readings

Title: The Life That I Have

Author: Leo Marks

Published in Between Silk and Cyanide, by The Free Press (Simon and Schuster)

Title: Psalter听

Author: Elizabeth I

Title: Edouard Glissant and Post Colonial Theory听

Author: Celia Britton听

Published by University Press of Virginia

Title: The Dancing Men听

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle听

Published by Dover Publications

Title: Today Was The Absolute Worst Day Ever听

Author: Chaney Gorkin听

Unpublished, found on Twitter

Title: Between The Lines听

Author: Theodore Weiss听

Published by the Poetry Foundation

Broadcasts

  • Sun 12 Feb 2017 06:05
  • Sun 12 Feb 2017 23:30