PODCASTS — LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE

The Art Detective www.historyhit.com/podcasts/the-art-detective Janina Ramirez lectures at Oxford University, presents documentaries for the BBC and HistoryHit.TV, and recently published her first children’s novel, The Riddle of the Runes. Here, she is the Art Detective, leading forays into art history, closely analysing specific works of art via wide-ranging discussions with chatty experts, and expounding on the cultural and historical context in each case.

You don’t need to be an art buff to enjoy this. Any passing interest in history and society will do, because ‘work of art’ is loosely defined. So you have historical novelist Kate Mosse (The Burning Chambers, The Taxidermist’s Daughter) talking about a church, the Notre-Dame du Taur in Toulouse; writer and consultant historian Rebecca Rideal discussing the plague (via pictures); and Neil Gaiman on the Victorian painter Richard Dadd, and Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley on the art of the Ladybird books.

Bryony Gordon’s Mad World bryonysmadworld.telegraph.co.uk Bryony Gordon, who has been open about her struggles with depression, here talks to other people — mainly celebs — about their mental health. The very first episode was the interview with Prince Harry, in which he admitted: “I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but also my work as well,” adding: “I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.”

Since then, Gordon has spoken to Frank Bruno, Stephen Fry, Jade, Mel C, Will Young and many more, all of whom have honest and interesting things to say about mental wellness and illness.