"Mark Ball Talks About Books" is a series of half-hour talks on books, given by retired English teacher and genius from Birkenhead Sixth-Form College, Mark Ball. He talks about a variety of books on Saturdays at 8.00-8.30pm; the Sunday repeat is at 11.00-11.30am. He's got an entertaining and informative approach, and is well worth listening to.

 

Forthcoming shows will include:

205, 1st-2nd January 2022: T S Eliot's "Journey of The Magi"

204, 25th-26th December 2021: John Donne's "Nocturnal Upon St Lucy's Day"

Recent new shows have included:

203, 18th-19th December 2021:  Henry Vaughan

202, 11th-12th December 2021:  Peter Levi in Afghanistan

201, 27th-28th November 2021:  English Essays

200, 20th-21st November 2021: W B Yeats on Old Age

199, 13th-14th November 2021: Seamus Heaney's Glan Mor Sonnets:

198, 6th-7th November 2021: Iris Murdoch's "Nuns and Soldiers":

           There have been no new shows during the Covid lockdowns. 

           Repeats have been continuing at the usual times every week. Those repeated in 2021 are not detailed here.

Topics have included:

        124, 19th-20th December 2020:  Anthony Trollope  (repeat)

        123, 12th-13th December 2020: Pablo Neruda (repeat)

        122, 5th-6th December 2020: Thomas Mann (repeat)

        120, 28th-29th November 2020: 14th-Century Poetry (repeat)

        119, 21st-22nd November 2020: MacBeth  (repeat)

        118, 14th-15th November 2020:  By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept (repeat)

        117, 7th-8th November 2020: The End Of The Affair (repeat)

        116, 31st October - 1st November 2020: Tristram Shandy (repeat)

        115, 24th-25 October 2020: Elizabeth Bishop  (repeat)

        113, 17th-18th October 2020:  Bleak House  (repeat)

        111, 10th-11th October 2020: A Winter's Tale (repeat)

        110, 3rd-4th October 2020:  Billy Budd (repeat)

        109, 26th-27th September 2020: Tony Harrison (repeat)

        108, 19th-20th September 2020:  Harold Pinter (repeat)

        107, 12th-13th September 2020: Twelfth Night (repeat)

        106, 5th-6th September 2020:  The Brownings (repeat)

        105, 29th-30th August 2020:  John Betjeman (repeat)

        103, 22nd-23rd August 2020: As You Like It  (repeat)

        102, 15th-16th August 2020: Virginia Woolf (repeat)

        101, 8th-9th August 2020:  Dante and Petrarch (repeat)

        100, 1st-2nd August 2020: Alice (repeat)

        99, 25th-26th July 2020:  Oscar Wilde (repeat)

        98, 18th-19th July 2020:  Greek Tragedy (repeat)

        96, 11th-12th July 2020:  The Duchess Of Malfi  (repeat)

        95, 4th-5th July 2020:  A. E. Housman (repeat)

        94, 27th-28th June 2020:  Arthur Schnitzler  (repeat)

        93,  20th-21st June 2020:  Albert Camus (repeat)

        92,  13th-14th June 2020: Piers Plowman (repeat)

        91,  6th-7th June 2020:  The Leopard (repeat)

       90, 30th-31st May 2020:  Nostromo  (repeat)

       89, 23rd-24th May 2020: Wilfrid Owen  (repeat)

       88, 16th-17th May 2020:  Henry James  (repeat)

       87, 9th-10th May 2020:  The Earl of Rochester  (repeat)

       86, 2nd-3rd May 2020:  T. H. White  (repeat)

       84, 25th-26th April 2020:  Dostoevsky  (repeat)

       83, 18th-19th April 2020: Louis MacNeice  (repeat)

       82, 11th-12th April 2020: Arthur Miller  (repeat)

       80, 4th-5th April 2020: Beowulf (repeat)

197,  28th-29th March 2020: Graphic Novels

196,  21st-22nd March 2020: George Steiner

195,  14th-15th March 2020: Ian Fleming and James Bond

194,  7th-8th March 2020:  Samuel Johnson

193,  22nd-23rd February 2020:  Douglas Dunn

192, 15th-16th February 2020: Shakespeare's "Timon Of Athens"

       79, 8th-9th February 2020: Shakespeare's Sonnets (repeat)

191, 1st-2nd February, 2020: Thomas Hardy's "The Return Of The Native"

190, 25th-26th January 2020: Samuel Pepys's Diary

       77, 18th-19th January 2020: John Clare (repeat)

       76, 11th-12th January 2020: Noel Coward (repeat)

189, 4th-5th January 2020:  The lyrics of Cole Porter

188, 28th-29th December 2019:  Edgar Allan Poe

187, 21st-22nd December 2019: David Jones's "The Anathemata"

186, 14th-15th December 2019: David Mercer (playwright)

185, 7th-8th December 2019:  Peter Levi

184, 30th November - 1st December 2019: Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowles"

183, 23rd-24th November 2019:  Herman Melville's Poetry

182, 16th-17th November 2019:  John Buchan's "The Dancing Floor"

         75, 9th-10th November 2019:  Philip Larkin (repeat)

181, 2nd-3rd November 2019:  Roy Fuller

180, 26th-27th October 2019:  Clive James

179, 19th-20th October 2019:  Simenon (Maigret)

178, 12th-13th October 2019: Kingsley Amis

177, 5th-6th October 2019:  Hiawatha

176, 28th-29th September 2019: George Bernard Shaw

175, 21st-22nd September 2019:  George Seferis

174, 14th-15th September 2019: Joyce Cary

         69, 7th-8th September 2019:  Ted Hughes (repeat)  

         68, 31st August - 1st September 2019:  Patrick Leigh Fermor  (repeat)

         67, 24th-25th August 2019:  Sir Walter Scott (repeat)

173, 17th-18th August 2019: Rainer Maria Rilke

172, 10th-11th August 2019: Brooklyn Bridge (Hart Crane and Arthur Miller)

       73, 3rd-4th August 2019: Seamus Heaney (repeat)

       72, 27th-28th July 2019: Romeo and Juliet (repeat)

171, 20th-21st July 2019: John Braine and Friends

170, 13th-14th July 2019: Three Post-War Plays

169, 6th-7th July 2019:  John Fuller

168, 29th-30th June 2019: Francis Parkman

167, 22nd-23rd June 2109:  Robert Herrick

166, 15th-16th June 2019:  Mrs Gaskell's North And South

165, 8th-9th June 2019: Michelangelo's Poetry

164, 1st-2nd June 2019:  comparing Wordsworth and Yeats

       71,  25th-26th May 2019:  Robert Burns  (repeat)

163, 18th-19th May 2019: "Blood and Thunder" Histories

162, 11th-12th May 2019: Flaubert, "Madame Bovary"

161, 4th-5th May 2019:  Geoffrey Hill's Final Poems

160, 27th-28th April 2019: Shakespeare's Problem Plays

         70, 20th-21st April 2019:  Henrik Ibsen (repeat)

159, 13th-14th April 2019: Robert Graves and Laura Riding

158, 6th-7th April 2019:  John Ruskin

         63,  30th-31st March 2019: Walt Whitman  (repeat)

157, 23rd-24th March 2019: Lytton Strachey

156, 16th-17th March 2019: Geoffrey Household's "Rogue Male"

155, 9th-10th March 2019: Larry McMurtry's Biography of Crazy Horse.

154, 2nd-3rd March 2019: Alexander Pope's "Rape Of The Lock"

153, 23rd-24th February 2019:   Rudyard Kipling's Puck Of Pook's Hill

152, 16th-17th February 2019:  Aeschylus's Agamemnon

       62, 9th-10th February 2019:  62, Ernest Hemingway (repeat)

151, 2nd-3rd February 2019:  Edgar Wallace

150, 26th-27th January 2019:  T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

149, 19th-20th January 2019: Sorley MacLean

148, 12th-13th January 2019: Wallace Stevens

147, 5th-6th January 2019: The Third Man (Greene) and A Perfect Spy (Le Carr'e)

          30th December 2018:  60, Jonathan Swift  (repeat)

146, 22nd-23rd December 2018: Dickens's Christmas book, The Cricket and The Hearth

145, 15th-16th December 2018: Danny Abse

144, 8th-9th December 2018: Zola's Germinal

       1st-2nd December 2018: 57, Jane Austen  (repeat)

143, 24th-25th November 2018: Shakespeare's King John

142, 17th-18th November 2018: William Hazlitt

       10th-11th November 2018: 56, Daniel Defoe  (repeat)

141, 3rd-4th November 2018: William Blake's Jerusalem

140, 27th-28th October 2018: Shakespeare's Wars Of The Roses Plays

139,  20th-21st October 2018:  Edgar Lee Masters and The Spoon River Anthology

138,  13th-14th October 2018:  John Wyndham

137,  6th-7th October 2018:  The Ancient Mariner

136,  29th-30th September 2018:  Venus and Adonis (Ovid, Shakespeare and Ted Hughes)

135,  22nd-23rd September 2018:  Charles Causley

134, 15th-16th September 2018:  Mr Micawber

        8th-9th September 2018:  55, George Eliot (repeat)    

        1st-2nd September 2018:  54, John Milton (repeat)

133, 25th-26th August 2018:  Abelard and Eloise

132, 18th-19th August 2018: John P. Marquand

        11th-12th August 2018:  51, John Buchan (repeat):

131, 4th-5th August 2018: Michel de Montaigne

130, 28th-29th July 2018: Franz Kafka

129, 21st-22nd July 2018: W H Auden

128, 14th-15th July 2018: Lady Chatterley's Lover

127, 7th-8th July 2018: Joan Didion

126, 30th June-1st July 2018: Seven Dark Strangers

125, 23rd-24th June 2018: Larry McMurtry

124, 16th-17th June 2018: Anthony Trollope

         2nd-3rd June 2018: 50, John Keats (repeat)

123,  26th-27th May 2018: Pablo Neruda

122,  19th-20th May 2018: Thomas Mann

121,  12th-13th May 2018: Norman Nicholson

120,  5th-6th May 2018: Fourteenth-Century Poetry

         28th-29th April 2018: 46, Othello  (repeat)

119, 21st-22nd April 2018: Macbeth:

118, 14th-15th April 2018: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept

       7th-8th April 2018:  45, The Tempest (repeat):

117, 31st March - 1st April 2018: The End Of The Affair (Graham Greene)

116, 24th-25th March 2018: Tristram Shandy

       17th-18th March 2018:  44, Wordsworth  (repeat)

115, 10th-11th March 2018: Elizabeth Bishop

114, 3rd-4th March 2018: Virginia Woolf's "Between The Acts"

        24th-25th February 2018:  43, Mark Twain (repeat)

113, 17th-18th February 2018: Dickens's "Bleak House"

112, 10th-11th February 2018: Allen Tate and Robert Lowell

111, 3rd-4th February 2018: A Winter's Tale

110, 27th-28th January 2018: Herman Melville's "Billy Budd"

109, 20th-21st January 2018: Tony Harrison

108, 13th-14th January 2018: Harold Pinter

107, Twelfth Night, 6th-7th January 2018: Twelfth Night

106, 30th-31st December 2017: Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning

          23rd-24th December 2017:  12, A Christmas Carol (repeat)

         16th-17th December 2017: 41, Kit Marlowe (repeat)

105, 9th-10th December 2017: John Betjeman

104, 2nd- 3rd December 2017: Daphne Du Maurier and Mary Webb

         25th-26th November 2017: 40, Anton Chekhov (repeat)

103, 18th-19th November 2017: As You Like It

102, 11th-12th November 2017:  Virginia Woolf

          4th-5th November 2017: 39, Emily Dickinson  (repeat)

101, 28th-29th October 2017: Dante and Petrarch

100, 21st-22nd October 2017: Alice In Wonderland

99, 14th-15th October 2017:  Oscar Wilde

98, 7th-8th October 2017: Greek Tragedy

       30th September-1st October 2017:  Hawthorne (repeat)

97, 23rd-24th September 2017: Geoffrey Hill

96, 16th-17th September 2017: The Duchess of Malfi

95, 9th-10th September 2017: A. E. Housman

94, 2nd-3rd September 2017: Schitzler's "La Ronde" and Vienna in c.1900

93, 26th-27th August 2017: Albert Camus

92, 19th-20th August 2017: Piers Plowman

91, 12th-13th August 2017: The Leopard (Lampedusa)

90, 5th-6th August 2017: Nostromo (Joseph Conrad)

89,  29th-30th July 2017:  Wilfred Owen

88,  22nd-23rd July 2017:  Henry James

87,  15th-16th July 2017: Earl of Rochester

86,  8th-9th July 2017: T. H. White

85, 1st-2nd July 2017: R. S. Thomas

84, 24th-25th June 2017: Fyodor Dostoevsky

      17th-18th June 2017: 36, Geoffrey Chaucer (repeat)

83, 10th-11th June 2017: Louis MacNeice

82, 3rd-4th June 2017: Arthur Miller

81, 27th-28th May 2017: C. V. Cavafy

80, 20th-21st May 2017: Beowulf

      13th-14th May 2017: 34, Anthony and Cleopatra (repeat)

      6th-7th May 2017 : 33, T. S. Eliot and the Four Quartets (repeat)

      29th-30th April 2017: 32, Wind In The Willows (repeat)

79, 22nd-23rd April 2017:  Shakespeare's Sonnets

78, 15th-16th April 2017:  Graham Greene and John Ford

77, 8th-9th April 2017: John Clare

76, 1st-2nd April 2017: Noel Coward

75, 23rd-24th March 2017: Philip Larkin

74, 16th-17th March 2017, Dennis Potter and the 5 Marlowes

73, 9th-10th March 2017: Seamus Heaney

72, 2nd-3rd March 2017, Romeo and Juliet

71, 25th-26th February 2017:  Robert Burns

70, 18th-19th February 2017: Henrik Ibsen

69, 11th-12th February 2017: Ted Hughes

68, 4th-5th February 2017: Patrick Leigh-Fermor

67, 28th-29th January 2017: Sir Walter Scott

66, 21st-22nd January 2017: Dickens's "The Signalman"

65, 14th-15th January 2017: Lord Byron

64, 7th-8th January 2017: John Fowles

63, 31st December 2016 - 1st January 2017: Walt Whitman

[24th-25th December 2016, repeat of no.12, A Christmas Carol]

62, 17th-18th December 2016: Ernest Hemingway

61, 10th-11th December 2016: Gerard Manley Hopkins

60, 3rd-4th December 2016: Jonathan Swift

59, 26th-27th November 2016: Willa Cather and Truman Capote

58, 19th-20th November 2016: The Two Noble Kinsmen

57, 12th-13th November 2016: Jane Austen

56, 5th-6th November 2016: Daniel Defoe

55, 29th-30th October 2016: George Eliot

54, 22nd-23rd October 2016: John Milton

53, 15th-16th October 2016: Ford Madox Ford and Evelyn Waugh

52, 8th-9th October 2016: Virgil, Ovid and Catullus

51, 1st-2nd October 2016: John Buchan

50, 24th-25th September 2016: John Keats

49, 17th-18th September 2016: Elizabeth Bowen's "The Heat Of The Day"

48, 10th-11th September 2016: Othello

47, 3rd-4th September 2016: Cormac McCarthy

46, 27th-28th August: Lawrence Durrell

       [20th-21st August 2016: repeat of no.16, Don Quixote]

45, 13th-14th August 2016: Shakespeare's The Tempest

     [6th-7th August 2016: repeat of no.15, W. B. Yeats]

44, 30th-31st July 2016: William Wordsworth

43, 23rd-24th July 2016: Mark Twain

42, 16th-17th July 2016: Malory's Mort d'Arthur

41, 9th-10th July 2016: Christopher Marlowe

40, 2nd-3rd July 2016: Anton Chekhov

39, 25th-26th June 2016: Emily Dickinson

38, 18th-19th June 2016: The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)

37, 11th-12th June 2016: George Herbert

36, 4th-5th June 2016: Geoffrey Chaucer

35, 28th-29th May 2016: Andrew Marvell

34, 21st-22nd May 2016: Anthony And Cleopatra

33, 14th-15th May 2016: T. S. Eliot and "The Four Quartets"

32, 7th-8th May 2016: "Wind In The Willows"

31, 30th April-1st May 2016: Edward Thomas and Adlestrop

30, 23rd-24th April 2016: James Joyce's "Dubliners"

29, 16th-17th April 2016, A Midsummer Night's Dream

28, 9th-10th April 2016: John Donne

27, 2nd-3rd April 2016: Robert Louis Stevenson

26, 26th-27th March 2016: The Great Gatsby

25, 19th-20th March 2016: Ben Jonson

24, 12th-13th March 2016:  Homer's Iliad and Odyssey

23, 5th-6th March 2016:  Dylan Thomas

22, 27th-28th February 2016: D. H. Lawrence

21, 20th-21st February 2016: Kubla Khan

20, 13th-14th February 2016: The Last Of The Mohicans and The Western Genre

19, 6th-7th February 2016: Rudyard Kipling

18, 30th-31st January 2016: Wuthering Heights and The Bronte Sisters

17, 23rd-24th January 2016: Sherlock Holmes and the Detective Genre

16, 16th-17th January 2016: Don Quixote

15, 9th-10th January 2016: W. B. Yeats

14, 2nd-3rd January 2016: Karen Blixen and Orson Welles

13, 26th-27th December 2015: Falstaff

12, 19th-20th December 2015: A Christmas Carol

11, 12th-13th December 2015: War And Peace

10, 5th-6th December 2015: William Blake

9,  28th-29th November 2015: Great Expectations

8,  21st-22nd November 2015: King Lear

7,  14th-15th November 2015:  Thomas Hardy

6,  7th-8th November 2015: John Le Carr'e and the Spy Novel

5,  31st October 2015: Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

4,  24th October 2015: Sir Thomas Wyatt and Wolf Hall

3,  17th October 2015: Herman Melville and Moby Dick

2,  10th October 2015: Hamlet

1,  3rd October 2015:  Joseph Conrad