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A Box of Wittgensteins

A Box of Wittgensteins: Episode 2: The Moody Genius

Factual: Life Stories

Episode 2

Episode 2: The Moody Genius

The Moody Genius

BBC Radio 4 Extra - A Box of Wittgensteins, The Moody Genius

Margaret Stonborough investigates the life of her great-uncle through the family archive.

Margaret Stonborough investigates the life of her great uncle, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, through the family archive.

Margaret Stonborough, the great-niece of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, talks to artist and historian Michael Huey as she delves into six boxes of newly-inherited family archives. As she digs deeper into the talented but tortured lives of the Wittgensteins she finds her cramped London house becoming ever more crowded with her larger-than-life forbears. 

At the end of the First World War, letters and artefacts show that the surviving Wittgensteins were attempting to pick up their lives but they are rarely far from tragedy. Within a few years, the family history of suicide loomed over them once again. 

The readers are Sarah Finch, Nicholas Rowe and Dan Starkey.

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The great-niece of Ludwig Wittgenstein investigates the lives of her forbears.

The great-niece of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Margaret Stonborough, talks to the artist and historian Michael Huey as she delves into six boxes of newly inherited family archives.

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