BBC

Nolan talks to Green Cllr Brian Smyth and TUV's Ron McDowell. He also chats to callers.

Widely regarded as the first professional woman writer in English literature, Aphra Behn (1640-1689) is best known for her plays and her novel Oroonoko, she's been an inspiration to countless writers across the ages.

This archive episode, first released in October 2017, was selected as part of a ten-episode series by Misha Glenny. In the episode, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and times of Behn, who made her name and her living as a playwright, poet and writer of fiction during the Restoration. Virginia Woolf wrote of her: 'All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds'. Behn may well have spent some of her early life in Surinam, the setting for her novel Oroonoko, and there are records of her working in the Netherlands as a spy for Charles II. She was loyal to the Stuart kings and refused to write a poem on the coronation of William of Orange. She was regarded as an important writer in her lifetime and inspired others to write but fell out of favour for two centuries after her death when her work was seen as too bawdy, the product of a disreputable age.

With

Janet Todd

Former President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University

Ros Ballaster

Professor of 18th Century Literature at Mansfield College, University of Oxford

and

Claire Bowditch

Post-doctoral Research Associate in English and Drama at Loughborough University

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Reading list:

Kate Aughterson, Aphra Behn: The Comedies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)

Ros Ballaster, Seductive Forms: Women’s Amatory Fiction 1684-1740 (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1991)

Aphra Behn (ed. Joanna Lipking), Oroonoko (Norton and Co, 1997)

Aphra Behn (ed. Paul Salzman), Oroonoko and Other Writings (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Aphra Behn (ed. Jane Spencer), The Rover and Other Plays (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Aphra Behn (ed. Janet Todd), Oroonoko (Penguin Classics, 2003)

Aphra Behn (ed. Janet Todd), Oroonoko, the Rover and Other Works (Penguin Classics, 1999)

Aphra Behn (ed. Janet Todd), The Complete Works of Aphra Behn:7 vols. (Pickering and Chatto, 1992-6)

Claire Bowditch, The Works of Aphra Behn (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

W. J. Cameron, New Light on Aphra Behn (University of Auckland Press, 1961)

Maureen Duffy, The Passionate Shepherdess: Aphra Behn, 1640-89 (Jonathan Cape, 1977)

Derek Hughes, The Theatre of Aphra Behn (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)

Derek Hughes (ed.), Versions of Blackness: Oroonoko, Race and Slavery (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Jane Spencer, Aphra Behn’s Afterlife (Oxford University Press, 2000)

Janet Todd (ed.), Aphra Behn Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

Janet Todd, Aphra Behn: A Secret Life (Fentum Press, 2017)

Janet Todd and Derek Hughes (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

S. J. Wiseman, Aphra Behn (Northcote House, 1996)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios production

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

Gianni Infantino has apologised for "mistakes" made in the process of his controversial proposal to sell shares in football's World Cup to private investors, but will remain Fifa president after receiving the backing of senior executives in a meeting in Morocco. Also: officials in Nigeria say more than 300 people abducted over the past few months have been freed in a security operation. In a vote with implications for the future direction of the US Democratic Party, a left-winger has defeated a centrist candidate to contest a Senate seat in Michigan. Vaccines that can be stored at room temperature have been successfully trialled in patients for the first time. A University of Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row resigns. And how against all the odds, Afghanistan's women footballers are back on the pitch.

The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.

Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Photo: File photo of FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Credit: PA Wire

In the late '90s, in daring feats of DIY networking on rooftops across Romania’s capital, Bucharest, teenagers are stringing computer cables between tower blocks to share an internet connection. This guerilla infrastructure starts out scrappy, but it sprawls into an impressive improvised network that catches the attention of telecom giants. Told by those who built it, this is the extraordinary story of how a homemade system became the backbone of a city - a reflection of what the internet was meant to be and what it became.

A former neo-Nazi, selected by the Conservatives to contest a council election, withdraws his candidacy

A prominent professor who denied claims of plagiarism has quit his role at Cambridge

Germany's Interior Minister has warned about a "new level of danger" after a drone with an explosive was found at Leipzig airport.

and we speak to the head of a Football Association backing the embattled FIFA President

FIFA's leadership is under scrutiny as Gianni Infantino hosts crisis meeting with senior officials as their are calls for him to resign. Ed Butler will be hearing what his future is looking like.

Also how a record drought is cutting rail freight in Europe and why the Saudi Crown Prince is buying one of the world's top video game developers.

Photo Credit: PA

The embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino tries to shore up support at a crisis meeting in Morocco. We hear from his critics and his fans, including the head of Malawi's football association.

Also on the programme: We speak to the Indian activist Sonam Wangchuk who went on hunger strike in solidarity with thousands of students in India as they demanded change; and what does the victory of a progressive candidate in a Democratic primary for senate say about the party, its platform and its chances in November's US midterm elections?

(Photo: FIFA's Africa regional office in Sale, Morocco Credit: Jalal Morchidi/EPA/Shutterstock)

There’s heartbreak in store for Chelsea, and Brian puts his foot down.

Scientists believe the upper section of a SpaceX rocket has crashed into the surface of the Moon at seven times the speed of sound. Also: police in Mexico are investigating why a social media influencer was shot dead during a live stream. The World Food Programme warns that the current El Niño weather phenomenon could leave nearly 50 million more people at risk of severe hunger. We hear from the 23 year old Moroccan man who crossed into the Spanish territory of Ceuta last week. Women cyclists using padded bras to get ahead in the Tour de France. And new research finds people prefer stories written by AI.

The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.

Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.

Get in touch: [email protected]

Photo: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off carrying two moon landers from the Kennedy Space Centre

Credit: Reuters

Zambia heads to the polls next week to elect a President, lawmakers and local council leaders. The election has been widely perceived as a two horse race following the emergance of an opposition coallition candidate. In an exclusive interview with President Hakainde Hichilema we ask why he is seeking another five year term in office and what he hopes to do differently if re-elected.

Also, the Ngorongoro Conservation Site in Tanzania is at the centre of a controversy as the host community is asking to be delisted from the UNESCO World Heritage site list following concerns that it is negatively affecting the lives of locals.

Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna

Producers: Bella Twine and Ayuba Iliya

Senior Producers: Keikantse Shumba and Blessing Aderogba

Technical Producer: Herbert Masua

Editors: Rhoda Odhiambo and Maryam Abdalla