This year's Reith lecturer is the Booker prize-nominated author Marina Warner. A writer of fiction, criticism and history, her works include novels and short stories as well as studies of art, myths, symbols, and fairytales. Her series of Reith Lectures, entitled 'Managing Monsters', explores how myths express and shape our attitudes.

In the first of six lectures, Marina Warner examines the role of the bad mother in myth. From Medea to Jurassic Park, she looks at how the 'she-monster' has been depicted in fiction and the effect of those myths on society today.