Featuring Doris Lessing, Paula Rego, Sir David Attenborough, Patti Smith, Susan Sontag, Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, Peter Blake and more.

In this episode, we celebrate creativity in all its forms. From visual art and poetry to diaries and performance, we journey through the rich archive of Charleston’s annual Festival, exploring how artists, writers and makers have pushed boundaries, experimented boldly and found joy in the act of creation. 

Featuring:

Writer Doris Lessing recorded in 1999 talking about the domestic interruptions that shape many women’s working lives.Legendary visual artist Paula Rego talks with Vanessa Bell’s grandson, Julian Bell, about drawing as a conversation through time.Musician and poet Patti Smith reads ‘The Writer’s Song’, a poem that really evokes the intensity and devotion that drives a creative life.Writer Margot Jefferson reads Virginia Woolf’s diaries, which capture the immersive intensity of her creative process.Richard E. Grant reflects on how writing his own diary helped him make sense of his life from a young age.Writer Zadie Smith and critic Merve Emre explore the remarkable fluidity and freedom that Virginia Woolf’s diaries reveal.Artist Sarah Lucas speaks with artist Maggi Hambling and art critic Louisa Buck about the intimate dynamics of creative collaboration.  Journalist Shon Faye reflects on how lived experience has shaped her work. The late great American writer Susan Sontag speaks on the role of deep knowledge in creativity back in 2001.One of the greatest war photographers Don McCullin in conversation with Sean O’Hagan, reflecting on the personal toll that can come with making art.Trailblazing writer Margaret Atwood in conversation with writer Naomi Alderman.The godfather of pop art, Peter Blake, shakes up received ideas of what subjects are worthy of being depicted in art.Writer and theatre-maker Travis Alabanza reflects on the pressures placed on marginalised artists, and the freedom - and provocation - of making work on their own terms.Filmmaker Topher Campbell, novelist Tony Peake and director Dexter Fletcher on another creative outsider, the late artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. Food writer Nigel Slater speaks to visual artist and potter Edmund de Waal about utility and aesthetic beauty.Naturalist Sir David Attenborough reminds us that art is nothing without the viewer. 

Credits

A Peanut & Crumb production for Charleston

Presented by Claire Ratinon

Produced by Nada Smiljanic

Executive producers: Jack Howson, Jane Gerber and Melissa Perkins, Head of Programme and Events at Charleston

Thanks to Darren Clarke, Head of Collections and Research at Charleston and all the featured guests.

If this episode whets your appetite, why not join us at Charleston Festival this year!

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Id. d’épisode : 1000747000979

GUID : 696e605036ab0b5268b06df0

Date de publication : 28/1/2026 à 11:55:46