An essential toolkit for understanding the modern world, by the Director of London's Design Museum, Deyan Sudjic.

Not a dictionary, though it attempts to tell you all you need know about everything from Authenticity to Zips. It's not an autobiography either, though it does offer a revealing and highly personal inside view of contemporary culture.

It's about what makes a Warhol a genuine fake, the creation of national identities, the mania to collect. It's also about the world seen from the rear view mirror of Grand Theft Auto V, and digital ornament and why we value imperfection. It's about drinking a bruisingly dry martini in Adolf Loo's American bar in Vienna, and about Hitchcock's film sets. It's about fashion and technology, about politics and art.

Born in London, Deyan Sudjic studied architecture in Edinburgh, edited Domus in Milan, was the director of the Venice architecture biennale, and a curator in Glasgow, Istanbul and Copenhagen. He's the author of The Language of Things and The Edifice Complex.

Episode 1:

A is for Authentic but how do we decide exactly what that means? C is for Car which perhaps more than any other consumer object, has shaped the texture and shape of modern life. Deyan Sudjic considers both.

What makes an object authentic? Are artists good at designing cars?
Deyan Sudjic considers both.

Read by Deyan Sudjic
Abridged by Polly Coles

Produced by Clive Brill
A Pacificus Production for BBC Radio 4. Show less