Love

Available for over a year

The let downs and disappointments of romantic love, from the crushing experience of being stood up to the modern day equivalent - being left 'on read'. Taking in Sex in the City, that great chronicler of quiet heartbreak Anita Brookner and the paintings of Francis Danby, Rachel Cooke (1969-2025) surveys the perils and pitfalls of dating and argues that kissing a few frogs may not be such a bad thing after all. This series of the Essay is being broadcast again to mark Rachel Cooke’s death in November 2025.