Radio is the best way to mug up on the classics

If ever I found myself at a pretentious literary party obliged to play David Lodge’s ‘Humiliation’ game and to confess to the great books I’ve never read, I’d only escape the ignominy of winning (by being the most ignorant) because of the radio and the almost weekly possibility of hearing yet another classic adapted as a drama or read at bedtime. The nuances of the novel may be lost in translation — the depth of characterisation, the complexities of the plot, its many threads and diversions — but a good adaptation will capture the essence, the true feeling of the original and take us there in our imaginations as effectively as reading from the page, if by a very different route.

Take Lucy Catherine’s The Master and Margarita, adapted from Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic for Radio 3 as a one-off drama on Sunday night and produced by Sasha Yevtushenko. To my shame, I’ve never read what many consider to be one of the great Russian novels, if not the greatest, but it’s always been on my list of must-but-probably-never-reads.