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Last broadcast on Mon, 27 Apr 2009, 21:15 on BBC Radio 3.
Synopsis
Matthew Sweet and Ronald Hutton, professor of History at Bristol University discuss the 2,000-year history of the Druids in Britain, looking at how they have been continually reinvented over the last 300 years by visionaries, radicals and fraudsters.
Crushed by the Romans in the first century AD, the ancient Druids left almost no reliable evidence behind. Because of this, succeeding British generations have been free to reimagine, reinterpret and reinvent them. Druids have been remembered at different times as patriots, scientists, philosophers and priests. They have been portrayed as corrupt, bloodthirsty and fomenters of rebellion. And during the 19th century, they dominated Romantic notions of British prehistory and identity.
Prof Hutton explores the evolution of English, Welsh and Scottish attitudes towards these ambiguous celtic figures and asks why the distinctive robes worn by today's Druids at Welsh Eisteddfods and Stonehenge rites were dreamt up by Hubert Herkomer - a Bavarian designer - in the 1890s.
Quentin Blake
The illustrator Quentin Blake talks to Matthew Sweet about his relationship with Roald Dahl, how he created those iconic drawings, from The Twits to Matilda, and why he was never read to himself as a child.
The Wonderful World of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake is on at the V&A Museum of Childhood from 1 May 2009 to 6 September 2009.
Buddhism
What does Hamlet and the cult film Donnie Darko have to do with Buddhism? Martin Palmer and Gaetano Kazuo Maida discuss Buddhist influences in culture and asks whether Western interpretations of the religion are simply Buddhism lite.
The International Buddhist Film Festival is on at the Barbican from 7 May to17 May 2009.
The Many Faces of Buddhism festival is on in London from 25 April to 17 May 2009.
Druids
The history of Druids. Obliterated by the Romans in the first Century AD, the ancient Druids disappeared, leaving almost no evidence of their civilisation. This left successive generations free to re-imagine and re-invent them, whether as learned seers or barbaric pagans. The historian Ronald Hutton explores the contrasting images of these most mysterious of peoples.
Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain by Ronald Hutton is published Yale University Press.
Open Veins of Latin America
Amanda Hopkinson discusses the book that Hugo Chavez presented to Barak Obama on his visit to Venezuela. The book he gave was Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano and has now become a best seller.
Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano is published by Monthly Review Press.
Broadcast
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Mon 27 Apr 200921:15
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