BBC Radio 4 Fairy Discussion

Have you wondered where fairies are from? Is it another dimension?

Are the Fairies spiritual not physical? Are they just close and very easy to interact with us as a distinct class of supernatural beings who inhabit a space both conceptual and physical between Gods and men, associated with places,where they have their own world which parallels the human world but where they are also associated with natural places, forests, streams and with the works of man, with bridges and orchards, where they love apple trees, the dairy, the hearth, and flowers, do they have a supernatural nature which parallels our own?  That's the really important thing, are they very ancient?.............

If you have 45 minutes to be enlightened, and wish to find out and understand the real meaning of Fairy then please click here

Melvyn Bragg presents In Our Time, a UK Radio 4 series where he and his expert guests discuss Fairies. As well as presenting for Radio 4, he is Controller of Arts for London Weekend Television and is the presenter of The South Bank Show. In 1998 he was made a life peer. He has written 19 novels, the latest of which is Crossing the Lines.

In this programme the following experts discuss the history of ideas, and explore subjects in culture and science.

Juliette Wood

Associate Lecturer in the Department of Welsh at Cardiff University and Secretary of the Folklore Society

Diane Purkiss

Fellow and Tutor of English at Keble College, Oxford

Nicola Bown

Lecturer in Victorian Studies at Birkbeck, University of London