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In Need of Modernisation

Margaret Forster's journey through houses she has lived in and how a wreck turns into a family home. Read by Sian Thomas.

The wreck that becomes the family home.

I was born on May 25, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.'

So began Margaret Forster's journey through the houses she's lived in, from the sparkling new council house, built as part of a utopian vision by Carlisle City Council, to her beloved London house of today, via Oxford, Hampstead and the Lake District. Forster's houses aren't just bricks and mortar, but homes which have all meant something to her and which have all had a profound effect on her - from her writer's 'room of one's own', to the family hub and finally a sanctuary in times of illness. It is also a sideways look at the life of one of the greatest contemporary British novelists.

Read by Sian Thomas.

Writer: Margaret Forster
Abridger: Sally Marmion

Producer: Justine Willett

First broadcast on BBC Radio in November 2014.

15 minutes

Credits

RoleContributor
ReaderSian Thomas
AuthorMargaret Forster
AbridgerSally Marmion
ProducerJustine Willett

Broadcasts

  • Wed 26 Nov 201409:45
  • Thu 27 Nov 201400:30
  • Wed 8 Feb 201714:45
  • Thu 9 Feb 201702:45
  • Wed 28 Aug 201914:45
  • Thu 29 Aug 201902:45

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