RADIO CHOICE

FOR THE Greeks, the blackbird, with its wonderful song, was a symbol of good, but early Christians saw the bird as a symbol of evil and temptation. These perky, bold birds crop up in songs, poems and nursery rhymes, and flit in and out of folk tales. For this week’s NATURAL HISTORIES (RADIO 4, 11AM), Brett Westwood looks at the cultural significance of a bird whose trill ushers in spring.

JON McGREGOR’S novel If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things begins in a suburban street in the North of England on a summer’s evening. People are playing cricket in the road, preparing barbecues or getting on with a bit of DIY — then, something shattering happens. Environmental journalist Gaia Vince chooses the novel as A GOOD READ (RADIO 4, 4.30PM). The

TV presenter Stacey Dooley (pictured) picks Laline Paull’s The Bees; it’s a book that’s been described as ‘Watership Down for the Hunger Games generation’.

n ‘MAYBE you’re cheatin’/ Maybe you’re lyin’/Maybe you have lost your mind.’ In the second and concluding part of RANDY NEWMAN’S AMERICA

(RADIO 2, 10PM), the songwriter revisits his 1974 song Mr President as he looks — with both pride and anger — at his homeland. He also plays some of the many fierce and witty songs he’s written over the decades about the state of his nation.