Sunday Feature: The Gospels Come Home

As the Lindisfarne Gospels visit Durham for a new exhibition after four centuries' absence, author David Almond explores what they mean to his fellow North-Easterners. Made by an artist monk in the early eighth century, these religious manuscripts are said to be among the UKs greatest artistic and religious treasures. The programme features a sequence of lyrical, location-based meditations in which David reflects about the ways in which the Gospels, and their creation on Lindisfarne during the Anglo-Saxon era, laid the foundations for what it means to come from the North East today. David visits the British Library, Durham, Newcastle and Lindisfarne itself to explore the meaning of the Gospels to himself and to people from the region. He talks with experts in early books and local people on the island to find out more about the making of the Gospels, the unique place they hold in terms of art, religion and literature