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Charles Byrne was an 18th-century \\u201cIrish giant\\u201d whose skeleton was stolen and put on display against his wishes. 240 years after his death, he is being remembered in a new electro acoustic opera rather than as a museum-piece curiosity. Dawn Kemp of the Hunterian Museum discusses removing the famous skeleton from their collection, and composer, musician, and robotic artist Sarah Angliss tells us about her new opera, Giant, which celebrates Byrne on stage, and is opening the Aldeburgh Festival.

The Irish writer Maggie O\\u2019Farrell\\u2019s last novel \\u201cHamnet\\u201d is now playing on stage at the Globe Theatre and won the 2020 Women\\u2019s Prize for Fiction. Her latest \\u201cThe Marriage Portrait\\u201d has made it onto the 2023 shortlist, and was an instant Sunday Times Bestseller. Both focus on the lives of women hidden in history behind men of influence. In the next of our series meeting the Women\\u2019s Prize finalists, we\\u2019ll be finding out what it is about these stories that inspire her, and how it feels to make the shortlist for a second time.

It is commonly accepted, including here at Front Row, that creativity is a good thing. But two new books: Samuel. W. Franklin\\u2019s The Cult of Creativity and Against Creativity by Oli Mould, challenge that view, arguing that creativity is a recent invention and that the artistic impulse has been co-opted by the capitalist military industrial complex. Both authors discuss their ideas with Tom Sutcliffe.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe\\nProducer: Julian May