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Amanda Vickery - A History of Private Life

Amanda Vickery - A History of Private Life: Episode 22: Taste

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Episode 22

Episode 22: Taste

Taste

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Amanda Vickery - A History of Private Life, Taste

The story of an 18th-century couple who spend life doing up their magnificent houses.

Historian Amanda Vickery follows the tale of a fashionable 18th-century couple who spent their life together doing up their magnificent houses.

Historian Amanda Vickery presents a series which reveals the hidden history of home over 400 years. She draws on first-hand accounts from letters and diaries, many of which have never been heard before. Including songs which have been specially recorded for the series. 

These days we take it for granted that the home is a place of refuge in which we express our true self; that idea was an invention of the 18th century. Prof Vickery explores the invention of taste, and the role of interior decor in creating both social prestige and a successful marriage.

Taste - and the making of a marriage. The story of an 18th-century couple, the Graftons - fashionable, rich, and deeply in love - who spend life together doing up their magnificent houses. 

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

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Historian Amanda Vickery reveals the hidden history of home over 400 years

Historian Amanda Vickery presents a series which reveals the hidden history of home over 400 years, drawing on first-hand accounts from letters and diaries

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