Precious Stones

"Some losses feel seismic. The ground shifts, familiar landscapes tilt, and nothing is the same. Dad’s death changed our world. But it also left us with a distinctly geological conundrum. What on earth are we going to do with his rock collection?" Three years after the death of Jenny Hill’s father, the family are still coming to terms not only with their grief - but a cumbersome inheritance. Arthur Hill, a much‑loved and somewhat eccentric chemistry teacher, spent a lifetime collecting rocks, minerals, fossils and gemstones. Hundreds of specimens now fill the corners and cupboards of the family’s small semi‑detached house in Jersey.

This edition of 'Illuminated' is a journey through stone, memory, and the traces we leave behind. Jenny - a former BBC foreign correspondent - returns home to explore the collection, wondering what these objects might reveal about the man who gathered, labelled, and studied them - but who never quite persuaded his family to share his passion.

Presenter: Jenny Hill Producer & Sound Designer: Phoebe McIndoe Executive Producer: Jack Howson A Peanut & Crumb production for BBC Radio 4

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(105)

The Grand North Atlantic Home Video Archive

Growing up in rural Derry, author Séamas O’Reilly and his siblings never needed to go to Blockbuster. Instead, they were enraptured by their father’s archive of hundreds of films recorded off the tele...

16 Aug 28min

James Hutton and The Restless Earth

Award winning Scottish folksinger, songwriter and storyteller, Karine Polwart celebrates the 300th anniversary of James Hutton’s birth, the Scottish scientist and philosopher known as the father of ge...

9 Aug 28min

Unreliable Narrator

How do you tell the story of your life when you have no memory of the events that shaped you? At 15, Stephen McAll was a promising musician with a head full of songs. He was booked into a studio to ...

26 Jul 28min

A Most Magickal Encounter

Writer Tim Dee is trying to make a most extraordinary Zoom Call that will transport him across the centuries to have a most magical encounter with a scholarly looking guy with a white beard who is his...

19 Jul 28min

Dear Gilbert, Dear Gordon

When museum curator Mark Hignett began buying WWII-era letters online, he believed he was piecing together the life of an ordinary soldier. At first glance, the letters looked like typical corresponde...

12 Jul 29min

Later Life Letter

This is a love letter to a special kind of letter, a 'later life letter' - a letter that can 'speak across the years', telling an adopted child where they come from, and helping them understand who t...

5 Jul 29min

July Morning

We're at the Black Sea coast on the last night of June. Everything is building up to the sunrise. This is Bulgaria’s ‘July Morning’ observance - somewhere between a counter-cultural musical festival...

28 Jun 28min