Episode 5: Life and Death

Award-winning writer Rebecca Stott likes to unearth the overlooked and the forgotten.

While taking a long walk in Sussex to mark the first anniversary of her mother’s death, Rebecca’s focus shifts to the mud all around her. Noticing it for the first time in detail, she sets off on a journey to discover its hidden depths and meanings. She finds herself peeling back layers of literature, culture, science and geology; she discovers the rich literary history of marsh monsters, dips her toes into Darwin’s mud experiments, treads in the footsteps of soldiers in the trenches during World War One and finds out how mud cores extracted from the seabed can shed light on the planet’s past and future.

In the fifth and final episode, Rebecca traces Darwin’s fascinating experiments with owl pellets, stork poo, and a breakfast cup of mud. Darwin - and Rebecca - find their answers and admire the astonishing, life-giving quality of mud.

Finally, through her examination of mud’s multi-layered meanings across the series, Rebecca comes to an understanding about her mother’s death - and life.

Written and narrated by Rebecca Stott
Producer, Lisa Lipman
Editor, Kirsten Lass
Sound engineer and mix, Jon Calver
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4