TODAY’S RADIO The Reith Lectures 2017: Silence Grips The Town

9AM, RADIO 4

Hilary Mantel tells the story of a writer ‘who died of Robespierre’. Stanislawa Przybyszewska was a Polish woman who became obsessed with writing about the French Revolution. She immersed herself in the subject, living in poverty and isolation, while producing vast novels and dramas about Robespierre, Danton and other revolutionaries. Hilary, who wrote a novel about the French Revolution, A Place Of Greater Safety, wonders if Stanislawa’s sacrifice was worthwhile.

Elvis Presley (10pm, Radio 2)

mountains. They live in tropical rainforests and even the Antarctic. Here, Brett Westwood takes a close look at a tough but rather endearing-looking survivor.