Hello and welcome to Life of the Week from History Extra, where leading historians delve into the lives of history's most intriguing and significant figures.

Across the 65 years of his life, John Milton packed a lot in.

Poets, polemicist, political operator, and his work often engaged with

ideas that challenge the status quo. In today's Life of the Week episode, Professor Islam

Issa speaks to Matt Elton about the life and legacy of this 17th century polymath.

So we're here today to talk about John Milton. Could you give us, before we go any about the life and legacy of this 17th century polymath.

So we're here today to talk about John Milton.

Could you give us, before we go any further,

a sort of a brief 60-second introduction to who it is we're going to be talking about today? So as you say, John Milton, most famous as a poet,

as the author of the epic Paradise Lost, but also polemicist and a statement.

And we can't talk about John Milton without thinking about the 17th century political context,

especially the civil wars of the mid-17th century.

So John Milton's a controversial man. He famously loses his sight. He publicly advocates the execution of the king, Charles I. And then he

serves in the subsequent Republican government. He's in many ways an anarchist, or at least a non-conformist, who speaks out

against the Catholic Church, doesn't believe in the Trinity, writes pamphlets about the merits of

divorce, but like I said, most famous for his poem, Paradise Lost, which makes him, I think,

certainly one of the most important literary writers in the history of the English language.

And he coins important words and phrases. And Paradise Lost is an epic about the fall of humankind and it's endured for 350 years.

And we'll talk more about that work and the way in which his life intersects, as you say,

with some of the currents of his time as we go through the conversation. Before we do that,

when and where was Milton born? John Milton's born on the 9th of December, 1608, and he's born in London,

on Bread Street, to be precise, And he's the third child of John Milton, senior, and Sarah Jeffrey.

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