Episodes from The Essay broadcast in 2009

2/5. James Buchan looks back at the great thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment.

1/5. Alexander Brodie examines Adam Smith's observations on morality and human behaviour.

5/5. Sandi Toksvig on the appeal of Mary Wollstonecraft's book Letters Written in Sweden.

4/5. Janet Todd traces Mary Wollstonecraft's reactions to the events of the French Revolution.

3/5. Barrister Helena Kennedy on how Mary Wollstonecraft influenced her life and work.

2/5. Janet Todd on Mary Wollstonecraft and the character and writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

1/5. Janet Todd considers Mary Wollstonecraft alongside other great Enlightenment thinkers.

5/5. Nicholas Kenyon on how Purcell's music has been preserved, revived and interpreted. (R)

4/5. Andrew Pinnock on how Purcell's skills as an entrepreneur helped enhance his reputation. (R)

3/5. Roger Savage on Purcell's musical creations for the theatre. (R)

2/5. Andrew Parrott on researching and performing Purcell's Hail! bright Cecilia. (R)

1/5. Jonathan Keates on Purcell and the different monarchs for whom he worked. (R)

5/5. Essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on an apparently banal object.

4/5. Essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on an apparently banal object.

3/5. Essayists from former Warsaw Pact nations reflect on an apparently banal object.

2/5. Furniture curator Jana Scholze on life in communist East Germany and a garden chair.

1/5. Hungarian journalist Valeria Toth measures out her life in passports.

5/5. Robert Macfarlane explores the relationship between walking, collecting and creation.

4/5. Robert Macfarlane on Eric Ravilious, who was fascinated by aerial landscapes.

3/5. Robert Macfarlane explores the Australian Aborigine idea of the songline.

2/5. Robert Macfarlane explores poet Edward Thomas' love affair with paths and tracks.

1/5. Robert Macfarlane on the link between paths and stories, and paths as ghostly spaces.

5/5. Why the medieval monk the Venerable Bede is the great Free Thinker of the North East.

4/5. Poet Sean O'Brien charts the growth of Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society.

3/5. Henrietta Heald on the achievements of inventor and industrialist William Armstrong.

2/5. Kitty Fitzgerald on the life of Gertrude Bell, author of the 1921 map of modern Iraq.

1/5. Graeme Rigby discusses T Dan Smith, former leader of Newcastle City Council.

5/5. Robert Winston explores the events surrounding the theft of Haydn's head from his grave. (R)

4/5. Stephen Johnson reflects on Haydn's sense of humour. (R)

3/5. Richard Holmes explores Haydn's reaction to the ideas of the astronomer William Herschel. (R)

2/5. David Owen Norris explores Haydn's approach to working with more unusual instruments. (R)

1/5. David Stancliffe, Bishop of Salisbury, discusses Haydn's view of the Almighty. (R)

5/5. Historian Niall Ferguson recalls his days as the double-bass player in a jazz quartet.

4/5. Jasper Rees on re-learning the French horn and playing live at the Royal Festival Hall.

3/5. Louise Doughty on how playing the piano later in life presented new challenges.

2/5. Novelist AL Kennedy describes the result of finding a neglected banjo in a shop in Glasgow

1/5. Novelist Patrick Gale recalls how he got to grips with the cello as a schoolboy.

5/5. James Campbell discusses Robert Hooke's activities after the Great Fire of London.

4/5. Lisa Jardine discusses how Robert Hooke's inventions were received in the 17th century.

3/5. Allan Chapman explores Robert Hooke's revolutionary ideas and methods.

2/5. Dr Felicity Henderson discusses Hooke's influence at the Royal Society.

1/5. Lisa Jardine on what Robert Hooke's diary says about Enlightenment scientists in general.

5/5. Professor Nicholas Cronk discusses Voltaire's legacy and his library.

4/5. Professor Simon Blackburn examines Voltaire's views on religion and belief.

3/5. Agnes Poirier asks how Voltaire would view the debate in France about banning the burka.

2/5. Nicholas Cronk discusses the effect of Voltaire's time spent in England.

1/5. Nicholas Cronk introduces Voltaire and celebrates Candide, a satire on the human condition

5/5. Richard Mabey asks whether a sense of direction should be seen as a sixth sense.

4/5. Richard Mabey on attempts over the years to analyse and understand why birds sing.

3/5. Nature writer Richard Mabey discusses connections between scent and memory.

2/5. Richard Mabey discusses how a lens can enhance or distort our view of the natural world.

1/5. Nature writer Richard Mabey talks about his first laboratory as a young boy.

5/5. Rudrangshu Mukherjee reflects on the linguistic shadow Samuel Johnson casts over India.

4/5. Lexicographer Pam Peters discusses Samuel Johnson's impact on language in the New World.

3/5. Freya Johnston reflects on how Johnson's direct approach to language lives on even today.

2/5. Writer David Crystal wonders what Samuel Johnson's reaction would be to the internet.

1/5. Philip Hoare ponders the similarities between Melville and Johnson, and whales and words.

3/4. Looking at how tree carvings can help explain how landscapes were populated in past times. (R)

2/4. Discussing the effect of emotional reactions to the Long Kesh/Maze prison near Belfast.

1/4. Examining space archaeology's role in keeping Tranquility Base as a lunar heritage site. (R)

4/4. Craig Raine on how TS Eliot set about expressing the inexpressible in The Four Quartets.

3/4. TS Eliot's depiction in the Four Quartets of the more elusive aspects of emotion.

2/4. Craig Raine on how the 'poem of place' influenced TS Eliot's The Four Quartets.

1/4. Craig Raine visits the key locations of TS Eliot's set of poems The Four Quartets.

3/3. The threat of nuclear/environmental holocaust, explored by writers such as Neville Shute. (R)

2/3. Looking at HG Wells and Aldous Huxley's questioning whether can science mend broken dreams (R)

1/3. Contrasting future worlds in novels from the 1880s - by Edward Bellamy and William Morris. (R)

3/3. Jonathan Coe recalls his piano playing days, which led to forming a band. (R)

2/3. Poet Ruth Padel recalls her role as a viola player, which won out over piano playing. (R)

1/3. Novelist and journalist Terence Blacker discusses the guitar. (R)

4/4. Christopher discusses Daniel's work as part of the Beaux Arts Trio and on other projects.

3/4. Christopher Hope discusses the importance in his son's life of composer Alfred Schnittke.

2/4. Christopher Hope discusses his son Daniel's time spent boarding at the Menuhin School.

1/4. Christopher Hope discusses how his son learnt to play a quarter-size violin.

4/4. Kit Wright on the importance to him of Tennyson's lyric poem Tears, Idle Tears.

3/4. Brian Patten discusses the importance to him of Tennyson's poem Come into the Garden, Maud

2/4. Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis discusses the importance to her of Tennyson's poem The Kraken.

1/4. Poet Vicki Feaver explains the importance of Tennyson's long poem Ulysses to her.

4/4. Jonathan Wolff asks how the NHS should prioritise when all needs cannot be met. (R)

3/4. Prof Jonathan Wolff considers the NHS's success in combatting health inequalities. (R)

2/4. Prof Jonathan Wolff explores shift from charity to entitlement brought in by the NHS. (R)

1/4. Prof Jonathan Wolff looks at changing definitions of health, from Descartes to RD Laing. (R)

4/4. Looking at the roles different types of love played in Graves's later work. (R)

3/4. Looking at the role of Laura Riding and other women with whom Graves had an affair. (R)

2/4. Exploring Robert Graves's use of myth in understanding and reflecting the wider world. (R)

1/4. Exploring love, war and childhood imagination in the work of Robert Graves. (R)

4/4. Robert uncovers some of Mount Minya Konka's secrets as he descends. (R)

3/4. Robert Macfarlane travels to the heart of China to visit the holy peak of Minya Konka. (R)

2/4. Robert Macfarlane explores nature in China, visiting the Great Wall. (R)

1/4. Robert Macfarlane joins veteran winter swimmers in a Beijing park. (R)

5/5. Robert Winston explores the events surrounding the theft of Haydn's head from his grave.

4/5. Stephen Johnson reflects on Haydn's sense of humour.

3/5. Richard Holmes explores Haydn's reaction to the ideas of the astronomer William Herschel.

2/5. David Owen Norris explores Haydn's approach to working with more unusual instruments.

1/5. David Stancliffe, Bishop of Salisbury, discusses Haydn's view of the Almighty.

5/5. Susannah Clapp looks over her postcards she has received from photo editor David King.

4/5. Susannah Clapp looks over her postcards from novelist Alan Hollinghurst.

3/5. Susannah Clapp looks over the postcards she received from author Bruce Chatwin.

2/5. Susannah Clapp looks over the postcards she received from Angela Carter.

1/5. Susannah Clapp ponders what a postcard archive can say about relationships and writing.

5/5. Virologist John Oxford looks at the struggle to beat the deadly Spanish Flu.

4/5. Engineer Basil Mahon on the young genius Heinrich Hertz.

3/5. Jennifer Rohn on biologist Peyton Rous, who showed that viruses can cause tumours.

2/5. Astronomer Stuart Clark recalls The Great Solar Storm of 1859.

1/5. Biologist Matthew Cobb considers the quest for spontaneously-generated life.

5/5. Antony Gormley explores the impact of sculptor Richard Serra's work The Matter of Time.

4/5. Artist Antony Gormley explores Joseph Beuys' 1985 installation Plight.

3/5. Artist Antony Gormley explores Alberto Giacometti's sculpture La Place.

2/5. Artist Antony Gormley explores Brancusi's 100-foot tall Endless Column.

1/5. Artist Antony Gormley discusses Jacob Epstein's Rock Drill sculpture.

5/5. John Walsh walks the streets of the City of London and crosses the 'wobbly bridge'. (R)

4/5. Novelist and journalist Kamila Shamsie walks the big boulevards of Paris. (R)

3/5. Novelist and short story writer Janice Galloway walks the shore at Saltcoats, near Glasgow (R)

2/5. Poet Owen Sheers walks through North Manhattan at night. (R)

1/5. Novelist Nicholas Shakespeare visits a Tasmanian beach at night. (R)

5/5. Adam Thorpe on pride and how it can switch between being a valuable and corrosive feeling. (R)

4/5. Novelist Naomi Alderman discusses bitterness and how we are all prey to it. (R)

3/5. Playwright John Godber discusses what courage means to him and his family. (R)

2/5. Novelist Meg Rosoff asks what, if anything, is wrong with being ambitious. (R)

1/5. Richard Mabey considers how looking at nature can be a way to cope with loss. (R)

5/5. Michael Goldfarb visits Rachel Whiteread's Holocaust memorial in Vienna.

4/5. Michael Goldfarb visits Frankfurt to learn about writers Ludwig Boerne and Heinrich Heine.

3/5. Michael Goldfarb learns about Gabriel Riesser, who was the first Jewish judge in Germany.

2/5. Michael Goldfarb travels to Berlin and retraces the steps of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn

1/5. Michael Goldfarb visits Amsterdam to learn more about the philosopher Spinoza.

5/5. Fred D'Aguiar talks about Wilson Harris, a Guyanese-born poet, essayist and novelist. (R)

4/5. Menna Elfyn discusses T Gwynn Jones, who wrote in the strict metres of Welsh poetry. (R)

3/5. WN Herbert explores the work of Edwin Morgan, regarded as Scotland's national 'makar'. (R)

2/5. Alison Brackenbury explores the impact the poet John Clare has had on her writing. (R)

1/5. Author Michael Symmons Roberts describes the influence of poet David Jones on his work. (R)

5/5. Novelist David Park gives his thoughts on the arts in Northern Ireland since 1998.

4/5. Poet Leontia Flynn gives her thoughts on the arts in Northern Ireland since 1998.

3/5. Composer Philip Hammond's thoughts on the arts in Northern Ireland since 1998.

2/5. Artist Rita Duffy gives her thoughts on the arts in Northern Ireland since 1998.

1/5. Playwright Damien Gorman gives his thoughts on the arts in Northern Ireland since 1998.

5/5. Adam Nicolson and Sarah Raven explore the buildings and life of Crete's coastal towns.

4/5. Adam Nicolson and Sarah Raven explore Crete's villages.

3/5. Sarah Raven explores Crete's hillsides and the lush valley floor, looking for wild tulips.

2/5. Adam Nicolson and Sarah Raven explore Crete's gorges.

1/5. Adam Nicolson and Sarah Raven explore Crete's mountains.

5/5. San Francisco street poet Jack Hirschman reflects on his time as the city's laureate.

4/5. Gillian Clarke on being the first poet writing in English to be laureate of Wales.

3/5. Keorapetse Kgositsile discusses the role of poet laureate in South Africa.

2/5. Poet Michele Leggott recalls her first year as New Zealand's laureate.

1/5. Poet Charles Simic, a former American laureate, reveals how he came to love the job.

5/5. Suzannah Lipscomb on what happened to make the public see Henry as a tyrant.

4/5. Dr Tom Betteridge examines the various depictions of Henry VIII in stage plays.

3/5. Geoffrey Moorhouse examines some of the achievements that resulted from Henry's warfare.

2/5. Prof Peter Marshall examines Henry VIII's fickle and fragile relationship with God.

1/5. Lucy Wooding goes behind Henry VIII's grand image, revealing fears about losing the throne

5/5. Suzanne Aspden explores Handel's uncanny ability to absorb musical and cultural influences

4/5. Derek Alsop explores ways in which Handel related his music to the texts he was setting.

3/5. Donald Burrows asks what Handel's manuscripts tell us about his working practices.

2/5. Ellen T Harris explores some of Handel's relationships - social and professional.

1/5. Jonathan Keates focuses on Handel's early years spent in Italy.

5/5. Celebrated poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch on friendship, ageing and fear of death.

4/5. Baroness Julia Neuberger on how attitudes to death vary across faith and culture.

3/5. Baroness Mary Warnock on what we can learn from the Romantics when it comes to dying well.

2/5. Celebrated writer Beryl Bainbridge on how the idea of death has shaped her life and work.

1/5. Mary Beard asks what the ancient Romans and Greeks can teach us about the art of dying.

5/5. While male workers have mostly achieved a work/leisure balance, women are still struggling

4/5. Hugh Cunningham tells the story of great Victorians such as William Morris and Karl Marx.

3/5. Hugh Cunningham looks at the Victorian 'leisure classes' and middle-class 'brain workers'.

2/5. Hugh Cunningham explores the battle for leisure during the Industrial Revolution.

1/5. Exploring the transition in work from the 'leisurely' hours of the 18th century.

5/5. Nicholas Kenyon on how Purcell's music has been preserved, revived and interpreted.

4/5. Andrew Pinnock on how Purcell's skills as an entrepreneur helped enhance his reputation.

3/5. Roger Savage on Purcell's musical creations for the theatre.

2/5. Andrew Parrott on researching and performing Purcell's Hail! bright Cecilia.

1/5. Jonathan Keates on Purcell and the different monarchs for whom he worked.

5/5. Helen Macdonald talks about rearing and training a female goshawk.

4/5. Helen Macdonald talks about rearing and training a female goshawk.

3/5. Helen Macdonald talks about rearing and training a female goshawk.

2/5. Helen Macdonald talks about rearing and training a female goshawk.

1/5. Helen Macdonald talks about rearing and training a female goshawk.

5/5. Historian Jonathan Ree explores Hazlitt's relationship with Coleridge and Wordsworth.

4/5. A talk on on how Hazlitt spent much of his 20s leading a life as a 'solitary thinker'.

3/5. Talk exploring how Hazlitt came to question all the main tenets of 'modern philosophy'.

2/5. A talk about how Hazlitt's intellectual career can be seen as a dialogue with his father.

1/5. A talk on how the young Hazlitt devoted himself to becoming a serious philosophical writer

5/5. Architectural historian Mark Dorrian discusses the fascination with cloud-like buildings.

4/5. Writer, critic and translator Professor Esther Leslie examines the image of the clouds.

3/5. Cultural historian Steve Connor on the depiction of clouds in the popular imagination.

2/5. Architectural historian Robert Harbison on the interest in clouds in the baroque period.

1/5. Mark Dorrian on the influence of the cloud as a metaphor and a vehicle for meaning.

5/5. Actor and director Harry Burton traces Pinter's life-long love of cricket.

4/5. Film historian Ian Christie explores Harold Pinter's work as a screenwriter.

3/5. Writer Lisa Appignanesi explores Harold Pinter's political activism.

2/5. Critic Michael Billington explores Harold Pinter's changing use of dramatic language.

1/5. Theatre director Michael Colgan looks at Harold Pinter's long association with Ireland.

5/5. Professor James K Galbraith describes early efforts to make economics more Darwinian.

4/5. Art historian Diana Donald describes the impact of Darwin on art and aesthetic theory.

3/5. Douglas Davies charts the birth of anthropology and the idea of an evolution of religion.

2/5. Judith Donath describes the link from Darwin to online social networks such as Facebook.

1/5. Jonathan Gottschall describes the use of evolutionary analysis in literary interpretation.

5/5. Edmund de Waal considers two European emigre potters, Hans Coper and Lucie Rie. (R)

4/5. Art historian Tanya Harrod on how the Arts and Crafts Movement moved over to Africa. (R)

3/5. Alan Crawford on Godfrey Blount and Maude King, who said the countryside was 'God-given'. (R)

2/5. Fiona MacCarthy on the life of Edward Carpenter, who chose a life of self-sufficiency. (R)

1/5. Fiona MacCarthy discusses the Arts and Crafts Movement's belief in making things by hand. (R)

5/5. A portrait of Marietta Pallis, by David Matless. (R)

4/5. A portrait of Ludwig Koch and bird song, by Hayden Lorimer. (R)

3/5. A portrait of animal-lover James Wentworth Day by David Matless. (R)

2/5. A portrait of reindeer herders in the Cairngorms, by Hayden Lorimer. (R)

1/5. A look at Ted Ellis, champion of the Norfolk Broads. (R)

5/5. Douglas Dunn discusses how Burns's influence changed during the 20th Century.

4/5. Kathleen Jamie on how Burns changed himself into whatever his audience required of him.

3/5. Robert Crawford on using Burns as a touchstone for the humanity of his own poetry.

2/5. Liz Lochhead discusses her education in a Motherwell state school.

1/5. David Kinloch discusses his attitude to Robert Burns' 'womanising'.

5/5. Kim Newman discusses Poe, the man and his alter-ego, looking at his story William Wilson.

4/5. Mark Lawson on the influence of The Murders In The Rue Morgue on modern crime fiction.

3/5. Louise Welsh exposes and dissects Edgar Allan Poe's gothic heart.

2/5. Joanne Harris discusses the women in Poe's life and the influence they had on his stories.

1/5. Andrew Taylor explores Poe's childhood in England and the inspiration behind his own novel

5/5. The Rev Canon Dr Jane Shaw of Oxford University explores utopias that work.

4/5. Jane Shaw of Oxford University explores artists' attempts to create utopian communities.

3/5. Jane Shaw explores the uses of eugenics and genetics in the quest for perfection.

2/5. Jane Shaw explores the pursuit of harmony by political regimes and religious communities.

1/5. Jane Shaw explores the viability of utopian communities.