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The State of the Art

2: A Modest and Reliable Talent

Duration: 14 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for years

Adrian Scarborough continues William Boyd's brilliantly funny short story series skewering the contemporary art world.

Giles Flint-Greenfield, a St James' art dealer with a penchant for post-war British watercolours, is finding his world rather small. But when Ludo Abernathy, an old and far more successful art dealer friend, cuts him in on the mother of a deal, new and potentially terrifying horizons open up for him in East London. All too soon Giles has swapped his tweed for black leather, and St James’ for a car maintenance shop, and is feeling very much out of his depth among the art lovers of Leyton. Not least because he isn’t quite sure how Ludo is making him so much money….

In today's story, Godfrey Wintle makes a decent living from his modest East Anglian watercolours - he's proud of this. But when he arrives at his art dealer's edgy new gallery, east of East London, he fears that Leyton's art lovers might not take to his views of Swaffham Church ...

Reader: Adrian Scarborough
Writer: William Boyd
Producer: Justine Willett Show less

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