Ivan Wise discusses Christmas music that should be better known.

Christmas is our most sturdily conservative tradition, and this December you will hear once again the same music that you have heard every other Christmas. The usual suspects dominate playlists in shopping malls, on radio stations and at parties. But how did we end up with this apparently immovable canon of Christmas songs? And what other Christmas music is out there that we should be listening to instead? George Ratcliffe Woodward, lyricist of Ding Dong Merrily on High, gets a rap makeover, Nikolai Gogol’s short story Christmas Eve inspired operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and Tom Lehrer arrives to throw some cynical scorn over the Christmas schmaltz.

Past Three O’Clock lyrics https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/past_three_a_clock.htm

A Night in Bethlehem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=047wQ3vgFos

Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxJRmhiOx80

December – Tchaikovsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFRtTRUz6XA

Vakula the Smith – Tchaikovsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC5GQdslXmw

Christmas Eve – Rimsky-Korsakov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpJmUBkXyM

Weihnachtsbaum – Franz Lizst https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56v4vlGUPxA

March of the gnomes – Vladimir Rebikov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmvDaclogK4

Werther – Jules Massenet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9LQi1BBF2c

A Christmas Song – Tom Lehrer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZR3lJobjw

Christmas Presents in Heaven – Solomon Burke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0DUCV-09RI

Second Christmas Concerto – Michele Corette https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9yygcNIIWI

Francis Hamel discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Francis Hamel is a British painter based in the UK with studios in Oxfordshire and Le Marche, Italy. He is known for landscapes and portraits as well as finely structured paintings of trees and flowers, paintings of the circus and theatre. In 2019 the V&A held an exhibition of his portraits, a monograph of his work was published in the same year.

Born in 1963 and trained at The Ruskin School, Oxford Francis Hamel has lived and worked in the William Kent designed gardens of Rousham in Oxfordshire for more than twenty years. The house, gardens and wider landscape are a constant source of inspiration. His work is held in public and private collections all over the world. Find out more at  https://www.jmlondon.com/artists/francis-hamel/.

1. Drawing as a form of therapy https://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/drawing-as-therapy/

2. Jane Dowling http://www.chappelgalleries.co.uk/exhibitions/jane-dowling/jane-dowling.htm

3. John Cowper Powys https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/03/28/life-in-the-head/

4. Le Marche https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/top-experiences-italy-le-marche

5. Bitter Cherries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_cerasus

6. Rousham Gardens in the winter https://rousham.org/

Louise Hare is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, the capital is the inspiration for much of her work, including This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets.

This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC TWO TV book club show, Between the Covers, and was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Louise was selected for the Observer Top 10 Best Debut Novelists list in 2020, securing her place as an author to watch. Miss Aldridge Regrets is her second novel.

1. English National Opera www.eno.org

2. The Friends by Rosa Guy https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-friends/9780440226673

3. Flamenco https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/complicated-history-flamenco-spain-180973398/

4. Sambourne House https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/sambourne-house

5. Clapham South deep level shelter https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london/clapham-south

6. Local libraries https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/health-and-wellbeing-benefits-public-libraries

For the 250th episode, Alan Rusbridger discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alan Rusbridger was Editor in Chief of the Guardian from 1995-2015. He is currently editor of Prospect Magazine and Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Until 2021 he was Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

During his time at the Guardian, both he and the paper won numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism. The Guardian grew from a printed paper with a circulation of 400,000 to a leading digital news organisation with 150m browsers a month around the world. He launched now-profitable editions in Australia and the US as well as a membership scheme which now has 1m Guardian readers paying for content.

He was born in Zambia, was educated at Cambridge and lives in London. He is the co-author of the BBC drama, Fields of Gold. He is a keen amateur musician and the author of Play it Again. His memoir of journalism and its future, Breaking News, was published in 2018. He is a member of the Facebook Oversight Board. His latest book, News and How to Use it, was published in 2020.

1. Bone-conducting headphones https://www.soundguys.com/bone-conduction-headphones-20580/

2. Audio sleep masks https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/02/best-sleep-mask-with-headphones/

3. The music of Billy Mayerl http://www.perfessorbill.com/comps/wmayerl.shtml

4. Electric bikes https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/electric-bikes/article/best-electric-bikes-aJMUp0P2yY0r

5. Why free speech matters https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/26/free-speech-bigots-no-platform

6. Prospect magazine www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

True crime writer Dean Jobb discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Dean Jobb is award-winning true crime writer and a professor in the School of Journalism, Writing & Publishing at the University of King’s College in Halifax, where he teaches in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program. His latest book, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer (Algonquin Books), won the inaugural CrimeCon Clue Award for True Crime Book of the Year in 2022 and was longlisted for the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His previous book, Empire of Deception (Algonquin Books), was the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, won the Crime Writers of Canada Award for best true crime book, and was a finalist for Canada’s Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for nonfiction. Learn more about his work at https://www.deanjobb.com. 

1. Jakob Dylan https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/a-wounded-jakob-dylan-bares-his-scars-in-a-new-album-20210718-p58any.html

2. How to pronounce Newfoundland https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/the-crime-scene/stranger-than-fiction-september-2022/

3. Joseph Bell https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/b/josephbell.html

4. Where the Cajuns came from https://www.nps.gov/jela/learn/historyculture/from-acadian-to-cajun.htm

5. How to tell a pearl is fake https://www.worldsultimate.net/arthur-barry.htm

6. The first Ponzi https://www.chicagotribune.com/history/ct-opinion-flashback-leo-koretz-ponzi-scheme-20210305-bsqzjlztlrbg5afozquk6ccksm-story.html

Duncan Larkin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Duncan Larkin has covered the sport of running for more than a decade. He’s a certified Army Master Fitness Trainer and was a top-300 American marathoner back in 2006. He has won the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race and the Mohawk-Hudson Marathon. His books include Run Simple and The 30-Minute Runner. Duncan writes about fitness for Outside Magazine, Competitor Magazine, Runner’s World, ESPN, and Running Times. Find out more at https://roadsmillslaps.tumblr.com/ and at https://www.instagram.com/dunlar/.

1. How the last-place finisher of the NYC Marathon feels in the last mile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YrlVSOB4-s

2. Silas Soule and Mochi https://www.colorado.com/life-chronicles-sand-creek-massacre

3. The concept of cognitive dissonance https://www.healthline.com/health/cognitive-dissonance-examples

4. Time will Reveal by DeBarge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_988-cpiG94

5. Keith Douglas’ poem Vergissmeinnicht https://interestingliterature.com/2017/08/a-short-analysis-of-keith-douglass-vergissmeinnicht/

6. The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/05/10/ambrose-bierce-one-americas-best/

Travel writer Tim Hannigan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Tim Hannigan was born and brought up in the far west of Cornwall, but he now lives in Ireland. After leaving school he trained as a chef. He later studied journalism and began his writing career as a journalist and guidebook writer, based in Indonesia. He is the author of a number of nonfiction books, including Murder in the Hindu Kush, which was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize, and Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, which won the John Brooks Award. His most recent book is The Travel Writing Tribe, about a quest to answer the trickiest questions about the travel genre. His next book, The Granite Kingdom, is an exploration of his own homeland, Cornwall, and is due out in May 2023.

1. Indonesia https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1966/05/26/in-search-of-indonesia/

2. The 1811 British invasion of Java https://www.thehighlandersmuseum.com/?p=30029

3. Cornwall is one of the poorest regions in western Europe https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/02/real-cornwall-county-poorer-lithuania-and-hungary

4. The Cornish language https://omniglot.com/writing/cornish.htm

5. The public footpaths of England and Wales https://footpathmap.co.uk/

6. Eland Books https://www.travelbooks.co.uk/

Dan Schreiber discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Dan Schreiber is a writer, stand-up comedian, TV presenter, producer and podcaster. He is co-host of the UK’s most streamed podcast, No Such Thing As A Fish, which has had over 350 million downloads and has played to sell-out audiences in iconic venues such as the London Palladium and the Sydney Opera House. Dan is also a member of the ‘QI Elves’ and co-creator of the Rose d’Or award-winning BBC Radio 4 panel show The Museum of Curiosity. His new book, The Theory of Everything Else, is now out.

1. The science writer Ann Druyan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFebYBARdPs

2. The front cover of Jim Carrey’s novel https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/books/jim-carrey-memoirs-and-misinformation.html

3. The Cantonese word Aiyah http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/814/

4. Watkins Bookshop https://www.thebookseller.com/author-interviews/watkins-books-soho-london

5. The power of monks https://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/29/football/leicester-city-buddha-monks-karma/index.html

6. Neil Armstrong’s favourite footstep https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/neil-armstrong-walks-on-jerusalem

Five years after the first episode of Better Known, Ivan Wise talks again to previous guests Richard Elwes, Wasfi Kani and Kerry Shale. They discuss previous choices that they agree (and disagree) with and new choices which they think should be better known.

Richard Elwes is a Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds, where he has taught courses on Geometry, Number Theory, Algebraic Topology, Combinatorics, Logic, History of Maths and Computational Mathematics. Find out more at http://www.richardelwes.co.uk.

Wasfi Kani is the founder of Grange Park Opera. Wasfi is an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA and St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She received a CBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours list for services to music. She received an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2002 for her work in bringing her second opera company, Pimlico Opera, into prisons. Find out more at www.grangeparkopera.co.uk.

Kerry Shale’s theatre appearances include Frost/Nixon, His Girl Friday, The Normal Heart and six self-written solo shows. Television work includes The Sandman, Dr. Who and The Trip. Films include Batgirl and Angel Has Fallen. For BBC radio, he has won three Sony Awards for acting and writing. His latest play, an adaptation of Yentl The Yeshiva Boy, will be broadcast early in 2023. He co-presents the podcast Is It Rolling, Bob? Talking Dylan: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/is-it-rolling-bob-talking-dylan/id1437321669. Find out more at www.kerryshale.com.

Mark Sykes and the exhumed coffin http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7617968.stm

The Minoan civilisation https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/08/13/knossos-fakes-facts-and-mystery/

Steven Appleby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Appleby

Anna Ploszajski discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known.

Dr Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, comedian and storyteller based in London. She’s a materials generalist, equally fascinated by metals, plastics, ceramics, glasses and substances from the natural world. Anna channels her passion for storytelling about materials through writing, podcasting, presenting and training scientists and engineers in the art of storytelling. Her first book, Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through Making, is out now. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and is an ultra-endurance open water swimmer.

1. Materials science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_science 

2. Into the Woods by John Yorke https://www.waterstones.com/book/into-the-woods/john-yorke/9780141978109 

3. Ultra-swimmer Sarah Thomas https://sarahthomasswims.com/. 

4. Trumpets can play quietly! https://www.alisonbalsom.com/

5. Barberette https://www.barberette.co.uk/

6. IFIXIT https://www.ifixit.com/