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Episode 4

Today - a relationship that fuelled some of the most desire-filled poetry in English in Katherine Rundell鈥檚 lively new biography of John Donne. Read by Blake Ritson.

Katherine Rundell鈥檚 biography of the poet and "alchemist" of words John Donne. Today 鈥 a runaway wedding and an inauspicious start to a relationship that fuelled some of the most desire-filled poetry in English.

This prize-winning new biography of John Donne reveals him as an 鈥渋nfinity merchant鈥, a man whose preaching could make his congregation weep, a poet whose 鈥渂eauty deserved walk-on music鈥.

Rundell's engaging, witty and often thrilling book champions an impossible to categorise man: pirate, soldier, scholar, priest, inventor of new words and author of some of most intensely and intimately passionate poetry in English. Donne was a Catholic who lost - or left - his faith, from a family of martyrs, whose career led him to become Dean of Saint Paul鈥檚 Cathedral.

Read by Blake Ritson
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Allegra McIlroy

14 minutes

Last on

Fri 24 Feb 2023 00:30

Broadcasts

  • Thu 23 Feb 2023 09:45
  • Fri 24 Feb 2023 00:30