Radio 3 Essay

In a major series for Radio 3, we rediscover some of the key thinkers and achievements from the Islamic Golden Age. The period ranges from 750 to 1258 CE and in these twenty essays, we'll hear about architecture, invention, medicine, mathematics, innovation and philosophy. In today's essay, Narguess Farzad, senior fellow in Persian at SOAS (School of African and Oriental Studies), recounts the tale of two remarkable and influential women poets, Rabia Balki and Mahsati Ganjavi. Producer: Mohini Patel

Julia Bray introduces one of the more famous figures from the Islamic Golden Age - Harun, the caliph of the Thousand and One Nights.

Johnathan Bloom considers the role Muslim scholars and manufacturers played in bringing paper from the east to the west.

Baroness Warsi, the first Cabinet Minister of the Muslim faith gives a personal account of her admiration for the religious scholar, Iman Bukhari.

Robert Gleave introduces Ali ibn Abi Talib, one of the early religious leaders from the Islamic period.

Hugh Kennedy introduces this major new series for Radio 3 with the lives of Umar b. al-Khattab, called Umar or Omar I who reigned from 634 to 644 and the other Abd al-Malik the Umayyad, 685-705 . The achievements of both these men were fundamental to the development of the Islamic Golden Age.

Writer Adam Gopnik sees Cubism, far from being a premonition of abstraction, as a new form of poetic modern realism, a way of capturing the syncopated, quick paced, ecletic mix of high and low that marks our civilization. Its tragedy, he argues, is that it captured that spirit just as the civilization it celebrated was about to commit suicide. Producer: Sara Davies

4/5 Writer Michele Roberts assesses the impact of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes.

2/4 Martin Sorrell explores on Apollinaire's ground-breaking volume of poetry, Alcools.

1/5 Why Marcel Proust's Swann's Way was among highlights of a great year for Parisian culture.

'The Existential Me' is a series marking the centenary of the birth of Albert Camus and complementing Radio 3's documentary about him. Five people working in different disciplines write essays about existentialism and its impact on their work and their lives. In this final essay, psychotherapist Emmy Van Deurzen reflects on how existentialist philosophy has shaped her life and work. She grew up in the Netherlands, but went as a student to France, where she read philosophy and later studied psychotherapy. Her work in the two fields led her to want to follow an existentialist path- to pursue a form of therapy which was rooted in philosophy. She now lives and teaches in England, where she works with clients on using moments of crisis in their lives for positive action.

'The Existential Me' is a series marking the centenary of the birth of Albert Camus and complementing Radio 3's documentary about him. Five people working in different disciplines write essays about existentialism and its impact on their work and their lives. Here, film-maker Gary Walkow reflects on how existential thinking has influenced his work, with particular reference to his adaptation of Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground".

'The Existential Me' is a series marking the centenary of the birth of Albert Camus and complementing Radio 3's documentary about him. Five people working in different disciplines write essays about existentialism and its impact on their work and their lives. The novelist and poet Michèle Roberts, half French, has been considerably influenced by existentialist literature. Her essay begins with an examination of Raymond beating up his nameless girlfriend in Camus's 'L'Etranger' - and getting let off by the police - then moves on to the works of Simone de Beauvoir and a discussion of feminism as a politics. She considers, too, existentialism as it appears in Madeleine Bourdouxhe, and how she has learned from both these writers.

'The Existential Me' is a series marking the centenary of the birth of Albert Camus, complementing Radio 3's documentary about him. Five people working in different disciplines write essays considering existentialism and its impact on their work and their lives. Paul Hart is a young theatre director who last year directed Jean Paul Sartre's existentialist play 'Huis Clos' in London's West End. This year Hart was staff director of 'The Captain of Köpenick' at the National Theatre. Drawing on his experience of these productions, his other work in the theatre and his life as he establishes himself in his hazardous profession,Paul Hart considers the power and veracity of existentialist ideas.

'The Existential Me' is a series marking the centenary of the birth of Albert Camus and complementing Radio 3's documentary about him. Five people working in different disciplines write essays about existentialism, its impact on their work and their lives. As well as writing novels and short stories, Naomi Alderman is a writer of computer games. The world of computers is, she believes essentially existentialist, because nothing exists except through the will of the players, who create themselves. Within the games they exist solely through what they do. Any meaning is created by the players themselves. Alderman considers the implications of this, and the way her literary and gaming endeavours influence each other.