Adrian Bell came from London, but he lived, and wrote about, Suffolk for 60 years in a way that made the countryside live for people who would never see it — and some who did, having made a sort of pilgrimage to what became known as Adrian Bell Country (there’s a walk you can do from Brampton to Beccles, details on www.eastsuffolklinewalks.co.uk ). He died in 1980, loved and mourned by all, not least his son, the MP Martin, who here takes a stirring journey home. Listen out next week, too, for Bell pére’s Corduroy, the Book at Bedtime from Monday.

AFTERNOON PLAY
Radio 4, 2.15pm

Colin has a radio play playing constantly in his head. It’s about the history of the mouth organ. Then he meets Beth, who is the only person in the world who can also hear the play in Colin’s head. But she is sure it’s about the balalaika, not the mouth organ. There, if you need any greater invitation to listen to The Receptionist, by Ali Smith, then you’re a hard listener to entice. Perhaps you need to be reminded that Smith is also a Booker prize- nominated novelist when she isn’t writing surreally hilarious radio plays.

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