Belief - Sara Maitland

Joan Bakewell explores the beliefs of artists, thinkers, religious leaders and other public figures in a returning series of programmes on Radio 3. Tonight Joan Bakewell's guest is Sara Maitland, a ground-breaking Christian feminist. Her first novel Daughter of Jerusalem won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1978. She is a writer of novels and short stories, many of which interweave ancient myths and truths with contemporary, especially women's, experience. She has also written on theology. Most recently she has written of her journey into quietness and solitude in A Book of Silence. She now lives in prayerful isolation in a cottage on the Scottish moors. Belief returns to Radio 3 each evening this week as Joan Bakewell discusses their beliefs with artists, thinkers and public figures. Junaid Bhatti bridges the worlds of finance and Islam; Emma Restall Orr practises and teaches about Druidry, a branch of Paganism; Mark Haddon is "an atheist in a religious mould", and the author of the best-selling The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night; and James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, is an evangelical who engages with major issues of social justice, urban planning and the environment. Tonight Joan Bakewell's guest is Sara Maitland, a ground-breaking Christian feminist whose first novel Daughter of Jerusalem won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1978. She is a writer of novels and short stories, many of which interweave ancient myths and truths with contemporary, especially women's, experience. She has also written on theology. Most recently she has written of her journey into quietness and solitude in A Book of Silence, and now lives in prayerful isolation in a cottage on the Scottish moors.