Dr Orlando Reade is a writer from London and author of What in Me is Dark: The Revolutionary Life of Paradise Lost (2025), a Financial Times Book of the Year and 'the story of how a work of literature born in the ashes of a failed revolution became an indelible part of the modern imagination.'

He studied English at Cambridge and Princeton, where he received his PhD in 2020. He has written about culture and politics for publications including Frieze, the Guardian, and the White Review, where he served as a contributing editor. He is currently Assistant Professor of English at Northeastern University London.

In these clips, Orlando argues that we need Paradise Lost more than ever today. They are taken from Christ's College's 'Milton vs. Darwin' debate held in 2024. Darwin is the college's other great alumnus, so this debate was an opportunity to pit one of the greatest poets against one of the greatest scientists of all time. Orlando's comments stand on their own, however, as a reading and a defence of Milton.