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Episode details

Radio 3,13 Feb 2013,15 mins

SeriesListener, They Wore It

Gatsby's Suit

The Essay

Available for over a year

For a second time, five writers were invited to think about an item of clothing or an accessory that figures memorably in a work of art, be it in a book or film or painting. So Julian Barnes describes a particular hat, Daisy Goodwin thinks about diamonds, Michael Bracewell remembers a vivid suit. Then Antonia Quirke muses on a spy's coat and a white shirt sported by a rock-star is recalled by Susannah Frankel... MIchael Bracewell remembers how that 'pink rag of a suit' in The Great Gatsby suggested glamour, modernity, and romance to his sixteen year old self in 1974. Thoughts of it now still bring a tear to the eye.. Producer Duncan Minshull.

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