Mary Beard returns with the topical, cultural discussion programme.

As anticipation mounts around the publication of David Cameron’s memoir, Mary and her panel, including writer and art historian Germaine Greer, Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with the Topknot, and journalist and author Peter Hitchens, discuss the art of the memoir.

Can we can rely on public figures to tell the truth about their lives or are autobiographies always self-justifying attempts to create a positive legacy? Can the first person narrator ever be trusted? Are the best memoirs written by minor figures who observe leaders from the sidelines? And do we perhaps learn more from a critical biography or a long-read by a journalist than we do from a self-penned perspective?

Mary and her panel also explore the art of the self-portrait and discuss whether this, too, is often used to project a positive image. And she visits painter Raqib Shaw to ask why artists are so often self-absorbed? Show less