12Review - British Museum

Media and
publications
Shakespeare’s
Restless World
The latest BM/BBC
Radio 4 series examines
20 objects from
Shakespeare’s time,
including an apprentice’s
cap and designs for
a united Scottish and
English flag prepared for
James I in 1603–4.
The BM’s national and international presence
is supported by film, radio, television and
publications. The BM online is an important
focus, providing new types of access to the
collection, research and events. With increasing
digital participation, the BM is bringing
people from around the world into its cultural
conversation.
A History of the World wins the Art Fund Prize
The BM/BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World
in 100 Objects continued its international success
in 2011/12. The overall programme, including
events and displays with 550 museums around the
UK, won the 2011 Art Fund Prize for ‘Museum
of the Year’.
Michael Portillo, chair of the judges, said:
‘We were particularly impressed by the truly
global scope of the British Museum’s project,
which combined intellectual rigour and openheartedness,
and went far beyond the boundaries
of the museum’s walls. Above all, we felt that
this project, which showed a truly pioneering use
of digital media, has led the way for museums
to interact with their audiences in new and
different ways. Without changing the core of
the British Museum’s purpose, people have and
are continuing to engage with objects in an
innovative way as a consequence of this project.’
The 100-part radio series journeyed across
the world’s cultures, starting with a two-millionyear-old
stone chopping tool and finishing with
a solar-powered lamp made in 2010. It was
rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra, and in 2012
was broadcast in the USA on New York-based
WNYC, part of the National Public Radio group.
There have been over 27.5 million downloads of
the series worldwide.
The book is being published in ten countries
including Russia, China, South Korea, Japan,
Italy and Spain. It has already appeared in the
USA, and in Dutch and German translations,
earning enthusiastic reviews. As Die Welt put it,
‘Man liest dieses lehrreiche Buch mit Staunen
und Vergnügen. Ein famoses Werk’ (‘A learned
book you read with amazement and amusement.
A splendid opus’). The two British editions
became the top-selling history book in the UK for
the period, selling over 220,000 copies. It has sold
over 350,000 copies worldwide.
A new BM/BBC Radio 4 collaboration was
recorded in 2011/12 for broadcast in April and
May 2012. In Shakespeare’s Restless World, BM
Director Neil MacGregor explores the political,
religious and social debates at the heart of
Shakespeare’s world, when the globe was first
circumnavigated and public theatres like the
Globe in Southwark first emerged.
39 Media and publications
A History of the World in
100 Objects
The book to accompany
the award-winning radio
series has been translated
into German, Dutch and
Chinese.