Sarah Dillon on James Joyce's epic struggle to publish his first book, Dubliners.

Sarah Dillon discovers how Jane Austen's last completed novel, 'Persuasion' was written. The novel has sometimes been viewed as Austen's valedictory novel - written while she was suffering with her final illness. But Sarah Dillon uncovers a more complex story: dates of revisions on the manuscripts in the British Library confirm her sister's story that Persuasion was completed almost a year before Austen's death, but it was only published posthumously. By talking to Dr Kathryn Sutherland from St Anne's College, Oxford, Paula Byrne, author of 'The Real Jane Austen, A Life In Small Things' and writer Margaret Drabble, we go behind the scant details of Austen's life and uncover reasons for the delay: her last illness; the possibly personal inspirations for the plot of the novel; the state of her finances; her fascinating creative process; and the radical reaches and determination of her literary ambitions.

Arnold Wesker, who died in April of this year,looking back at his life and career.

Emma Smith traces how Shakespeare's First Folio helped make our national poet

Menuhin at 100 marks the life and career of this prodigy, through the interviews he gave.

If brainwashing is a just a Cold War myth, why does it still trouble us? With Daniel Pick

Jerry Brotton travels to Venice to tell the story of the first ghetto founded in 1516.

Paul Morley on the changing world of the art galleries of Britain.

Rana Mitter finds out how South Korean culture manages to punch far above its weight

Andy Kershaw follows song collector Cecil Sharp's Appalachian trail in the spring of 1916