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Small town life inspires today's selection of music alongside readings performed by Jemma Redgrave and Sushil Chudasama. We celebrate the pleasures of quirky neighbours in EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia, the benefits of the community grapevine in Kiran Desai’s Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard and the joy of close connection in Emily Dickinson's poetry. We won’t ignore the downsides, whether that’s the gossiping ladies of Middlemarch, the fear of outsiders in Daljit Nagra’s poem Our Town or the pain of everybody knowing your business in Paul Murray’s Booker winner, The Bee Sting. There is music inspired by all aspects of small town life, from Carl Davies’ theme for the TV series Cranford to Amy Beach’s Secrets as well as Grieg, Verdi and more.

Producer: Olive Clancy

Readings:
A Town - Jane Taylor
Our Town - Thornton Wilder
Mapp and Lucia - EF Benson
South Shields Town Hall in Snow - James Kirkup
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
Middlemarch - George Elliot
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
A Poison Tree - William Blake
A Town Called Solace - Mary Lawson
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard - Kiran Desai
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
I Put A Spell On You - John Burnside
At Stafford Services - Wendy Cope
Our Town - Daljit Nagra
Never Can Say Goodbye - Sean O'Brien
I Went To Heaven - Emily Dickinson