Audio of the BBC Radio 4 program "In Our Time." This forty-three minute episode discusses the epic through the history of literature. Experts discuss the evolution and impact of the form. Listening requires RealPlayer.

Audio of the BBC Radio 4 program "In Our Time." This forty-three minute episode is about the legend of Faust. Experts discuss the real Faust and the evolution of the myth.

Audio of the BBC Radio 4 program "In Our Time." This forty-three minute episode is about classical Greek comedy. Experts discuss its evolution and legacy. Listening requires RealPlayer.

Create your own electronic composition using the effects in the sound kit. If you like your creation then send it to the gallery to share with others.

This site contains the poem "Homecoming: Anse la Raye" by Derek Walcott. You can read and follow along as Walcott recites his work.

Listen and follow along as British author Adrian Mitchell recites his poem "Bessie Smith in Yorkshire."

Listen as this contemporary British author recites her poem "Love in the Lab." You can read and follow along.

Cats get nasty in this poem loved by both children and adults. Watch as the author recites this work. You can follow along with the printed words.

Life in an English church is seen from an unusual angle in this poem by Britian's Poet Laureate, from 1972 until his death in 1984, Sir John Betjeman.

A poem on the values and practices of rural Australia. Listen and follow along as the author recites this work of poetry.

This Rasta poet has a word or two about beauty contests. Listen and follow along as the author recites this poem about true beauty.

Gender differences are exposed with humour and a sharp knife in this poem by Wendy Cope. Listen and follow along as she recites her work.

A traditional Irish ballad about the Irish Potato Famine and the mass migration that resulted therefrom.

Selections from interviews with the acclaimed John Gielgud, English actor, producer, and director, including his take on playing the lead in Hamlet.

This ornate Egyptian coffin holds secrets to the understanding of their priests' religion, Egyptian society and its connections to the rest of the world. At the age of eight, Neil MacGregor visited the British Museum for the first time...

A simple chipped stone from the Rift Valley in Tanzania marks the emergence of modern humans. Faced with the needs to cut meat from carcasses, early humans in Africa discovered how to shape stones into cutting tools. From that one...

Found in France and dating back 13,000 years, this is a carving of two swimming reindeer. The creator of this carving was one of the first humans to express their world through art. But why did they do it? Neil MacGregor, Director of the...

This sharp spearhead helps us understand how humans spread across the globe. By 11,000 BC humans had moved from north-east Asia into the uninhabited wilderness of north America. Within 2,000 years they had populated the whole continent....

At the end of the Ice Age, one of the most important parts of human existence was finding enough food to survive. Taking a pestle from Papua New Guinea as an example, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, asks why our ancestors...

A palm-sized stone sculpture made in Northern Israel 12,000 years ago clearly shows a couple entwined in the act of love. Sculptor Marc Quinn responds to the stone as art, and archaeologist Dr Ian Hodder considers the Natufian society...

Four frail-looking cows were made from Nile mud in Egypt 5,500 years ago, long before the time of the pyramids or the pharaohs. They show the major changes that early man was undergoing at the end of the Ice Age. Why did the Egyptians...

This stone Maize God was discovered on the site of a major Mayan city in present-day Honduras and is wearing a headdress in the shape of a giant corn cob. Maize was not only worshipped at that time but the Maya also believed that their...

A 7,000-year-old Japanese clay pot has managed to remain almost perfectly intact. Pots began in Japan around 17,000 years ago and by the time this pot was made had achieved a remarkable sophistication. This simple clay object makes a...

A small label, made from hippopotamus ivory and attached to the sandals of one of the earliest known kings of Egypt. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at what this label, with its hieroglyphs describing the king and...