The Essay: The Meaning of Beaches

RADIO 3, 10.45PM

 There’s nowhere like the seaside in summer, and even if you’re listening to a radio far from the coast, the lap of waves will be palpable in this week’s series of evening meditations on specific British beaches. Tonight’s edition begins with Dover beach, as Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, considers its history as a landscape of smugglers, war, romance and poetry. Other beaches in focus this week include The Giant’s Causeway and the beaches at Barra, Scarborough and Crosby.