Sedition and Satire

Ian Hislop is joined by Swift scholars Hester Grant, Professor Moyra Haslet and Fintan O'toole to tell the story of the publication of Gulliver's Travels, a complex and choreographed affair involving the invention of not just Lemuel Gulliver but also his fictional cousin. The reason Swift's name and indeed Swift himself was nowhere to be seen when it hit the streets of London in October 1726 has much to do with his growing reputation as a defender of Ireland and the high-handed treatment of the Irish by the British government.

Producer: Tom Alban