Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Colm Tóibín, David Cohen winner, Dullness

Colm Tóibín, David Cohen winner, Dullness

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Colm Tóibín, David Cohen winner, Dullness

Is it a good thing to stand out? Anne McElvoy and guests explore the virtue of being dull.

Jane Ridley's biography of George V is called Never a Dull Moment. What does he tell us about the virtues of being unflamboyant? Plus Colm Tóibín wins a literary lifetime award.

Sticking in stamps and killing animals were the main achievements of King George V - according to his biographer Harold Nicholson. Now Jane Ridley has written a new book about him subtitled "Never a Dull Moment" so can dullness be a virtue. Anne McElvoy chairs the discussion, which also looks at the history and image of Roundheads and Cavaliers with New Generation Thinker Tom Charlton and the appearance of dullness in political theory with Jonathan Floyd, associate professor at the University of Bristol. Plus Anne talks to Colm Tóibín, the winner of the David Cohen Prize for Literature - biennial British literary award given to acknowledge a whole career. 

Professor Jane Ridley's biography George V: Never a Dull Moment is out now.  

You can hear Colm Tobin talking to Anne McElvoy about his fictional account of the life of Thomas Mann, The Magician here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001025h; discussing The Testament of Mary at the 2012 Free Thinking Festival: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p2shp; and talking about the writing of former American poet laureate Elizabeth Bishop:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vh8sp. 

Producer: Ruth Watts

Image: Colm Tóibín
Image credit: Reynaldo Rivera

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Colm Tóibín, David Cohen winner, Dullness

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