The Wild Man of the West Indies, Joshua Reynolds, Polly Samson, Open Submissions

Kirsty Lang discusses the 18th Century artist Joshua Reynolds, whose portraits of actresses, child street sellers and the aristocracy are on show at the Wallace Collection.

Polly Samson discusses her new novel The Kindness, a tale weaving together love, grief and deception. Polly considers the similarities between novel-writing and creating song lyrics for Pink Floyd.

English Touring Opera director Iqbal Khan on the UK premiere of Donizetti's The Wild Man of the West Indies, his opera which depicts slavery in the Caribbean, written in 1833.

For two weeks, authors without an agent have been able to submit a manuscript directly to the publishers Tinder Press, with the promise that it will get read. This is the third such 'open submissions' scheme to be run by a mainstream publisher. Kirsty Lang talks to Mary-Anne Harrington of Tinder press and Andrea Bennett, whose novel Galina Petrovna's Three-Legged Dog Story is the first to be published through an open submission scheme.

Presenter Kirsty Lang
Producer Julian May.