Private Passions

Sometimes a musical work of art is so perfect, so magnificent, that it’s almost impossible to remember the work that’s gone on, behind the scenes, from the early drafts to the anxiety and relief of the first performance. That’s certainly true of a masterpiece such as Bach’s St Matthew Passion. But writer James Runcie wants us to think about what went on in Bach’s mind while he was creating that magnificent Passion, and he’s written both a play and a novel about it. The novel, his twelfth, is called The Great Passion and it was published earlier this year; it was also broadcast on Radio 4 just before Easter. James is an award-wining film-maker, playwright and artistic director who has worked at the BBC, the Bath Literary Festival and Southbank Centre. He’s also the author of the Grantchester detective novels, now filming their eighth series for television. The hero’s a young priest, who solves crimes while wrestling with problems of religious faith - and religion is something James Runcie knows all about, as