Radio 3 Essay

Five writers set out on foot to sample the transforming qualities of Spring. They report back with tales that are climatically confused - it could be warm or chilly out there ... Michele Roberts pounds the pavements of Poznan and is reminded of Persephone under scudding clouds.

Radio 3 presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch celebrates a composer whose music has particularly inspired her: the remarkable twelfth-century abbess and mystic Hildegard of Bingen - perhaps the earliest actual "composer" in the history of Western music.

Radio 3 presenter Martin Handley celebrates a composer whose music has particularly inspired him: Malcolm Arnold, creator of symphonies of great emotional depth and complexity.

Radio 3 presenter Lucie Skeaping celebrates Shakespeare's contemporary Thomas Ravenscroft.

Radio 3 presenter Tom Service celebrates the music of Scots-inspired composer Arnold Bax.

Sarah Walker celebrates 'English experimentalist' composer John White.

Journalist and poet Tolu Ogunlesi from Nigeria reflects on ‘Commonwealth Questions'.

The value of the Commonwealth is explored by Bangladeshi writer Farah Ghuznavi.

Writer Noah Richer examines the nature of the Canadian way of life in Commonwealth Questions.

The Commonwealth is explored from a Pakistani perspective by author Fakir Aijuzuddin.

Dr Sue Onslow, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, looks back at the colourful history of the organisation.

Lubna of Cordoba worked in the Royal Library. Writer Kamila Shamsie goes on the trail of this woman who leaves little trace in the history books.

Narguess Farzad explores the life and work of the much loved 13th-century Persian poet Al-Rumi

Salah al-Din known to us as Saladin was a hero in his own lifetime and is still revered today. Jonathan Phillips explores his eventful life and legacy.

Dr Amira Bennison examines the creation of two great cities of learning - Baghdad and Cairo