This year sees the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of E.P. Thompson’s influential and much admired The Making of the English Working Class (Victor Gollancz, 1963).

BBC Radio Three’s The Essay this week marks the event with a series of five programmes under the title ‘The Enormous Condescension of Posterity’ – a phrase taken from Thompson’s preface.

The series runs nightly at 22:45 for 15 minutes from Monday to Friday.

Monday 4 December  – Sheila Rowbotham, who first met Edward and Dorothy Thompson the year before the book appeared, and read it in proof form, remembers their catalytic influence on her own life and work.

Tuesday 5 December  – Geoff Andrews reflects on the impact adult education encounters may have had on E.P. Thompson – learning as well as teaching.

Wednesday 6 December – Christienna Fryar remembers how Thompson’s account of Methodism resonated with her experiences growing up and becoming an historian in the US and reflects on his silence on slavery.

Thursday 7 December – David Aaronovitch explores how Thompson’s communism was essential to the writing of his great book.

Friday 8 December – Natasha Carthew draws on her own experience of growing up in rural poverty to explore the personal resonances of Thompson’s book.

The whole series will be available on BBC iPlayer at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001svy9