TODAY’S RADIO

SCALA RADIO BOOK CLUB 10.30AM, SCALA RADIO

★★★ Rachel Walsh ran amok in

New York City, taking too many drugs and living the high life. Her sister forced her into rehab, and Rachel cleaned up her act. All this happened 25 years ago in Marian Keyes’s international bestseller Rachel’s Holiday. Marian joins Mark Forrest to talk about Again, Rachel, which takes up the story when a face from the past

threatens Rachel’s future.

THE JESTER OF ASTAPOVO 2.15PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★

In the late autumn of 1910, the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy disappeared. Journalists tracked him down and followed him on a mysterious journey, which came to an end when Tolstoy made a stopover at Astapovo. Crowds

gathered there as Tolstoy, already seriously ill, died of pneumonia in the station master’s house. This drama, by Rose Tremain, tells the story of Tolstoy’s last journey.

RAMBLINGS 3PM, RADIO 4

★★★

The limestone rocks and cliffs of World’s End in north Wales are full of fossils, and the views from the valley’s heights are spectacular. It’s good walking country, though the going can be muddy. Clare Balding is joined by Hussein and Guy, who are related by marriage, as they struggle in the World’s End mud and try to get a glimpse of the scenery through the sleet.

THE CLASSIC FM CONCERT 8PM, CLASSIC FM

★★★

Water flows through John Suchet’s programme – he opens with the Czech composer Smetana’s emotional and patriotic tribute to his country’s great river,

Vltava, which is followed by the Kanneh-masons playing Samuel Coleridge-taylor’s arrangement of Deep River. The waves are gentle in Helen Habershon’s Far Out In The Ocean, and Handel’s Water Music closes the show. SJ

Leo Tolstoy (2.15pm, Radio 4)