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This week, we hear how the music-hall star Josephine Baker became a secret agent; and we talk to Simon McBurney of Complicité theatre company, about their haunting audio production of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.

'The Flame of Resistance' by Damien Lewis

'The Dark Is Rising' by Susan Cooper, BBC World Service, December 20

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Alan Forrest on Napoleon’s enemies at home and abroad.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/napoleon-michael-broers-napoleon-at-peace-william-doyle-book-review-alan-forrest/

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This week, Breeze Barrington takes us through a history of art with a difference - there are no men; and Larry Wolff talks us through the diva-rich operatic event of the season, the world premiere of The Hours at the Met in New York.

'The Story of Art Without Men' by Katy Hessel

'The Hours' by Kevin Puts

Metropolitan Opera, New York, until December 15. Live transmission in various cinemas, December 10

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Anna Reid on the improbable rise of Volodymyr Zelensky

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/volodymyr-zelensky-biographies-book-review-anna-reid/

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This week, Mary Beard talks us through coins and emperors, real and fake, and the hidden networks beneath the Roman Empire; and Norma Clarke discusses the life and work of Rosa Bonheur, a celebrated female artist who kept her radical private life to herself.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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Michele Pridmore-Brown on the troubled dreams of the gods of the digital universe

https://www.the-tls.co.uk./articles/survival-of-the-richest-douglas-rushkoff-book-review-michele-pridmore-brown/

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This week, Baillie Gifford Prizewinner Katherine Rundell describes how John Donne’s life force captivated her; and celebrated actor and playwright Wallace Shawn surveys a lifetime of writing essays.

Produced by Charlotte Pardy.

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George Berridge on Cormac McCarthy’s long-awaited diptych of conspiracy and nuclear anxiety

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-passenger-stella-maris-cormac-mccarthy-book-review-george-berridge/

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This week, we discuss Emmanuel Carrère’s incisive account of France’s judicial response to the Bataclan attacks; and a host of TLS contributors on their favourite books of 2022.

‘V13: Chronique judiciare’ by Emmanuel Carrère

Books of the Year 2022

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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