John Donne was controversial even in the early 17th century. He wrote some of the most sensitive and moving love poetry in the English language but also became Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. He grew up a Catholic but converted to Protestantism in an age when religion and politics were so interwoven people were burnt at the stake for their beliefs. He gave some of the greatest sermons ever, with crowds queuing to hear him, but was forever conscious of his own mortality. As Donne said, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for thee”.

This talk dramatises and explains his writing and thinking.