Words and Music

As David Attenborough's 100th birthday approaches, this edition features poetry, prose and music on the theme of animals, with readings by Hugh Bonneville and Anne-Marie Duff. All seven continents are visited, with extracts from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, Isabel Allende's Paradise and Kari Herbert's Antarctica, with poetry from Lorca, AA Milne and Pascale Petit. Plus, an archive recording of Attenborough reading from Life Stories, a memoir of his 70 years of world-class nature broadcasting on everything from archaeoptryx to butterflies and sloths. Music inspired by and evoking all manner of creatures and plants includes pieces by Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy and Elena Kats-Chernin, as well as George Fenton's scores for TV documentaries. Readings - In Memoriam (extract) by Alfred Tennyson. H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald. Life Stories - archaeopteryx by David Attenborough. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Life Stories - sloths by David Attenborough. Sonnet on a Monkey by Marjory Fleming. Crocodile by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Leaving Times by Jodi Piccoult. The Old Lizard (extract) by Federico Garcia Lorca. Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor. The Overstory by Richard Powers. Life Stories - monstrous flowers by David Attenborough. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. Song of Myself (extract) by Walt Whitman. Between Us And by Anne Carson. White Fang by Jack London. The Pangolin by Fleur Adcock. Life Stores, coelocanth by David Attenborough. Blueback by Tim Winton. The Explorers Daughter by Kari Herbert. At the Zoo by AA Milne. Paradise by Isabel Allende. Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban. Kindness to Animals by Wendy Cope. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. The Tyger (extract) by William Blake. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Green Bee Eater by Pascal Petit.