Ruth Padel – författare

Ruth Padel explores Greek conceptions of human innerness and the way in which Greek tragedy shaped European notions of mind and self. Arguing that Greek poetic language connects images of consciousness, even male consciousness, with the darkness attributed to Hades and to women, Padel analyzes tragedy''s biological and daemonological metaphors for what is within.

Home is where you start from, but where is a swallow''s real home? And what does ''native'' mean if the English oak is an immigrant from Spain?In ninety richly varied poems and illuminating prose interludes, Ruth Padel''s original new book weaves science, myth, wild nature and human history to conjure a world created and sustained by migration. ''We''re all from somewhere else,'' she begins, tracing the millennia-old journeys of cells, trees, birds and beasts. Geese battle raging winds over Mount Everest, lemurs skim precipices in Madagascar and wildebeest, at the climax of their epic trek from Tanzania, brave a river filled with the largest, hungriest crocodiles in Africa. Human migration has shaped civilisation but today is one of the greatest challenges the world faces. In a series of incisive portraits, Padel turns to the struggles of human displacement - the Flight into Egypt, John James Audubon emigrating to America (feeding migrant birds en route), migrant workers in Mumbai and refugees labouring over a drastically changing planet - to show how the purpose of migration, for both humans and animals, is survival.Poignant, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, here is a magnificent tapestry of life on the move from the acclaimed author of Darwin: A Life in Poems.

Home is where you start from, but where is a swallow''s real home? And what does ''native'' mean if the English oak is an immigrant from Spain?In a selection of richly varied poems and illuminating prose interludes from her collection The Mara Crossing, Ruth Padel weaves science, myth, wild nature and human history to conjure a world created and sustained by migration. ''We''re all from somewhere else,'' she begins, tracing the millennia-old journeys of cells, trees, birds and beasts. Geese battle raging winds over Mount Everest, lemurs skim precipices in Madagascar and wildebeest, at the climax of their epic trek from Tanzania, brave a river filled with the largest, hungriest crocodiles in Africa. Human migration has shaped civilisation but today is one of the greatest challenges the world faces. In a series of incisive portraits, Padel turns to the struggles of human displacement - the Flight into Egypt, John James Audubon emigrating to America (feeding migrant birds en route), migrant workers in Mumbai and refugees labouring over a drastically changing planet - to show how the purpose of migration, for both humans and animals, is survival.Poignant, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, here is a magnificent tapestry of life on the move from the acclaimed author of Darwin: A Life in Poems.

''An immersive novel, steeped in the history and folklore of Crete: transporting, historically informative story-telling'' Sunday Times''A moving, superbly written exploration of a family with dark secrets. Crete itself becomes one of the main characters in the story'' Irish Times, Best Books 2021----------This was my home. This harbour and sea. These golden alleys. But the town I grew up in has disappeared.Broken by the death of her husband, Ri, a successful international artist living in London, returns to her ancestral home of Crete. The Greek island is known for its ancient myth and mass tourism, but when Ri returns she finds a secret, darker history. As the home she left deals with a looming Brexit, and the home she rediscovered grapples with a refugee crisis, Ri confronts her changing identity. Unearthing stories from her family''s past leaves a permanent mark on her understanding of herself, her relationship to her country, and her art. Lyrical, unsettling and evocative, Daughters of the Labyrinth explores the power of buried memory and the grip of the past on the present, and questions how well we can ever know our own family.----------''Daughters of the Labyrinth is a novel about a daughter''s passionate quest for the truth about what happened to her parents in Crete during the German occupation. It is also a sumptuous and sensuous evocation of Crete itself, its landscape and culture. Ruth Padel''s brings a poet''s eye to this world of great physical beauty and gnarled legacy'' Colm Tóibín

The complete BBC Radio 3 series exploring how great creative minds responded to the First World War in individual works of art and scholarshipWorld War I saw an unprecedented loss of life in Western Europe, and destruction on a scale no one alive had ever seen. All those who experienced it were irrevocably changed, including many writers and artists upon whose oeuvre it left an indelible mark.This captivating series examines the impact of the war on artists and thinkers through the prism of their great works. In each episode, a leading figure from the worlds of science, culture and the arts reflects on a single iconic piece, and discusses how the events of 1914-18 shaped its creation.The 29 artworks in this collection comprise paintings, plays, books, films, sculptures and cartoons. Ian Christie appraises Eisenstein''s seminal Soviet drama Battleship Potemkin; Dame Gillian Beer considers Virginia Woolf''s masterpiece Mrs Dalloway; Fintan O''Toole decodes James Joyce''s epic modernist novel, Ulysses; and Dr Heather Jones looks at the controversy and war connections around Marcel Duchamp''s notorious ''Fountain''.Key texts such as Sigmund Freud''s twin essays Thoughts for the Time on War and Death; Rabindranath Tagore''s Nobel Lectures; and Siegfried Sassoon''s celebrated 1917 protest letter to The Times are analysed by Dr Michael Shapira, Santanu Das and Joanna Bourke; and a panoply of other pieces, among them Kathe Kollwitz''s ''The Grieving Parents'', Sean O''Casey''s The Silver Tassie and Rudyard Kipling''s Epitaphs are discussed by experts including Ruth Padel, Elizabeth Kuti and Janet Montefiore.Powerful, moving, thought-provoking and often shocking, these landmark works are all, in their very different ways, a response to the horrors of World War I and its aftermath - one that vividly demonstrates the transformative effects the conflict had on the collective artistic psyche.Production creditsPresented by Allan Little, Sara LeFanu, Martin Rowson, Prof David Edgerton, Michal Shapira, Dr Heather Jones, Ian Christie, Lyse Doucet, Santanu Das, Ruth Padel, Arthur Smith, Prof Gillian Beer, Richard Cork, Sasha Dugdale, Fintan O''Toole, Gerald Dawe, John D McHugh, Elizabeth Kuti, Tarek Osman, Joanna Bourke, Elif Shafak, Dr Imaobong Umoren, Janet Montefiore, Jane Potter and Alex WaltonProduced by Beaty Rubens, Benedict Warren, Emma Kingsley, Simon Elmes and Sarah BowenEpisode list:1. Paths of Glory 2. Non-Combatants and Others 3. Der Krieg 4. The Memorandum on the Neglect of Science 5. Thoughts for the Times on War and Death 6. Le Feu 7. Battleship Potemkin 8. Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort 9. The Broken Wing 10. The Grieving Parents 11. Tagore''s Nobel Lectures 12. Tzara''s Dada Manifesto 13. Woolf''s Mrs Dalloway 14. Parade 15. Akhmatova''s July 1914 16. James Joyce''s Ulysses 17. Elizabeth Bowen''s The Last September 18. Francis Ledwidge''s poem O''Connell Street 19. Father Browne''s Photograph of a Wounded Soldier 20. Sean O''Casey''s The Silver Tassie 21. Marcel Duchamp 22. Gertrude Bell 23. Siegfried Sassoon''s Letter to The Times 24. Mata Hari''s Final Performance 25. Isaac Rosenberg''s Dead Man''s Dump 26. WEB Dubois'' Returning Soldiers 27. Rudyard Kipling''s Epitaphs 28. Mary Borden''s The Forbidden Zone 29. Isobel Rae © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd