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BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde

Book of the Week: Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde: Episode 1

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Life Stories

Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde, Episode 1

Following the death of her father, Constance escapes the clutches of her bullying mother.

Constance was a shy child with a bullying mother. After the death of her father she escapes to live with her grandfather and blossoms into a confident, outgoing young woman.

Written by Franny Moyle.

Constance was a shy child with a bullying mother. After the death of her father she escapes to live with her grandfather and blossoms into a confident, outgoing young woman.

In the spring of 1895 the life of Constance Wilde changed irrevocably.
Up until the conviction of her husband, Oscar, for homosexual crimes, she had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular children's author, a fashion icon, and a leading campaigner for women's rights. A founding member of the magical society the Golden Dawn, her pioneering and questioning spirit encouraged her to sample some of the more controversial aspects of her time. Mrs Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in her own right. 

But that spring Constance's entire life was eclipsed by scandal. Forced to flee to the Continent with her two sons, her glittering literary and political career ended abruptly. Having changed her name, she lived in exile until her death. 

Franny Moyle's biography tells Constance's story with a fresh eye and new material. Drawing on numerous unpublished letters, she brings to life the story of a woman at the heart of fin-de-siècle London and the Aesthetic movement. In a compelling and moving tale of an unlikely couple caught up in a world unsure of its moral footing, she uncovers key revelations about a woman who was the victim of one of the greatest betrayals of all time.


Reader: Rachel Atkins
Abridger: Libby Spurrier


Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Franny Moyle's moving biography of Constance Wilde. Read by Rachel Atkins

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Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde

Episode 1

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