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7. Life-Changing News

Episode 7 of 10

While the commune is beginning to fragment, Gerty’s life changes forever. Supernatural mystery read by Barbara Flynn.

While the commune starts to fragment, Gerty’s life changes forever.

Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war.

Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Charlotte Hobson's novel abridged by Jeremy Osborne.

Read by Barbara Flynn.

Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2020.

14 minutes

Last on

Wed 25 Jun 202503:30
BBC Radio 4 Extra

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6. Socialisation Capsule

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8. Dramatic End

See all episodes from The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson

Broadcasts

  • Tue 29 Sep 202012:04
    BBC Radio 4
  • Tue 29 Sep 202022:45
    BBC Radio 4
  • Tue 24 Jun 202508:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 24 Jun 202513:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Tue 24 Jun 202519:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 25 Jun 202503:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra