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Amanda Vickery - A History of Private Life

Amanda Vickery - A History of Private Life: Episode 24: Courtship and Setting Up Home

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Episode 24

Episode 24: Courtship and Setting Up Home

Courtship and Setting Up Home

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Amanda Vickery - A History of Private Life, Courtship and Setting Up Home

Two 18th-century marriages, and how the husbands prepared new houses for their bride.

Historian Amanda Vickery reveals how the preparations of two 18th-century husbands for their new wives had very different outcomes.

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.

The story of two 18th-century marriages and how the husbands prepared new houses for their bride. One got it right, the other destroyed any chance of a happy partnership.

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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