Open Book Radio 4
Wild North and Warming Radio Ulster
They call them Easter Eggs. Gaming world fans know them well – they’re hidden messages for dedicated players – in-jokes that are there to be picked up by only the best, most diligent of fans.
You can pick up Easter Eggs in fiction too.
Mariella Frostrup delved into the mysteries of in-jokes in literature with John Mullan and James Smythe.
Genre fiction often lends itself to this kind of skulduggery. Get it and you are an insider.
Take the horror writer Stephen King – lots of writers make little allusions to him in their work.
So imagine a character in a novel rocks up at a hotel and is given the key to Room 237.
If you’ve never read The Shining, then the room’s just a room. If you’ve read The Shining, then Room 237 is THAT ROOM forever haunted by the vision of a mad Jack Nicholson with an axe.
Even Milton came down from his literary high horse for a small trick, we heard. In Book 9 of Paradise Lost when Satan as a serpent is winding his way towards Eve, there’s more to it.
If you pick out the initial letters in the lines, they spell out SATAN .. you should see it, but like Eve with the serpent, you just don’t until it’s too late.
On Radio Ulster, Tessa Fleming is addressing the impact of global warming on home.
There’s time to look at the wealth and health of our animal population – think sleek backed seals in Portaferry... and explore our wild open green spaces.
But she also asks why so many of us choose to ignore climate change ... as if it’s not happening.
Also in the series, 15-year-old Dara McAnulty speaks about how the natural world has helped him through a very dark period in his life.
It was the natural health service that proved his lifeline, he said.
It’s not a cure, but walking through woodland, listening to bird song or climbing the Mournes, made a big difference, he said.
It is true soul food.
