A beginning on the Isle of Skye: a house discovered by chance, a landscape that never holds still, and a conversation that unfolds across eighteen parts.

Welcome to The Master Betrayed. In this first episode, we travel to the Isle of Skye in Scotland to meet philosopher Iain McGilchrist. After living for years in South London, McGilchrist came across his current home, Talisker House, whilst on a trip with his then wife to explore Skye. Stumbling across the house, he was captivated by the beauty of the setting and the history of the house itself (writers Johnson and Boswell stayed in 1773 on their trip to the Highlands). A fortuitous search for homes for sale in Scotland brought him back to Talisker some years later, and this is where we now find him.

McGilchrist and his brother decided many years ago that one of them must live on a Scottish island and the other a Greek one, the two most magical places to live, they believe. Some might say Iain pulled the short straw, but he is happy with his lot, content with observing a landscape that is ever‑changing.

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Iain McGilchrist read English at Oxford. After graduation he became a Fellow at All Souls College, spending the next seven years in research. It was here that he first engaged with the mind‑body problem in relation to literary criticism, often done in a “too disembodied way”, he would later say. His time at Oxford was marked by gladiatorial debates and life‑long friendships. His three children now live across California, London and Brighton. Music runs through his work: Renaissance church music and rock both find a place in his week, echoing the centrality of music to The Master and His Emissary.

The Master Betrayed is a multimedia story spanning eighteen episodes, built around a 10 hour conversation with Dr Iain McGilchrist. It explores the tension between tidy, mechanistic attention and a more grounded, organic disposition - a theme at the core of McGilchrist’s work.