John Constable painted the English landscape as no one before him had done - transforming fields, skies and the River Stour into something almost unbearably beautiful and unmistakably British. But who was the man behind the masterpieces, and what did a year in his life actually look like?
 
Art historian Susan Owens brings her meticulous research and infectious enthusiasm to this exploration of Constable's world - his daily routines, his obsessions, his friendships and frustrations, and above all the extraordinary light he chased across the Suffolk sky. With our own deep connections to Constable Country, this promised to be a very special event for East Anglian audiences and those who enjoyed the recent adaptation of Constable’s Year for BBC Radio 4.
 
Format: Interview & Q&A
Themes: Non-Fiction, Adults, Headliner, Art, History, Local Interest
Access: Hearing Loop
 
Susan Owens Books: Constable's Year: An Artist In Changing Seasons, The Story of Drawing, Imagining England’s Past, Spirit of Place,Christina Rossetti: Poetry in Art, The Ghost: Poetry In Art
Dr Susan Owens is an award-winning writer and former Curator of Paintings at the V&A. Her book Constable’s Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons (Thames & Hudson, 2026) was serialised as a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4. Her previous books include The Story of Drawing (2024) and Spirit of Place (2020). 
 
Nicola Upson Books: The Christmas Clue, Shot With Crimson, Dear Little Corpses, The Dead of Winter, Sorry for the Dead, Nine Lessons, London Rain, The Death of Lucy Kyte, Fear in the Sunlight, Two for Sorrow, Angel with Two Faces, An Expert in Murder
Nicola Upson was born in Suffolk and read English at Downing College, Cambridge. Her debut, An Expert in Murder, was the first in a series of crime novels to feature Josephine Tey – one of Britain’s finest Golden Age crime writers – and was dramatised for BBC Radio 4. Nicola is a member of the Detection Club, and several of her novels have been listed for the CWA Gold and Historical Daggers. Sorry for the Dead and her latest book, The Christmas Clue, were both Waterstones Thrillers of the Month. Nicola is an Honorary Patron of the Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival.