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Episode details

Radio 3,06 Jan 2015,45 mins

Antonia Fraser; Eric Rohmer's The Green Ray

Free Thinking

Available for over a year

Lady Antonia Fraser talks to Matthew Sweet about her childhood in Oxford, London in the 30s and 40s, her lifelong fascination with history, and her forthcoming book, My History: A Memoir of Growing Up. But why bother to grow up at all? Matthew ponders this question and more with academics Susan Neiman and Robert Pogue Harrison, both of whom have just published books shining a spotlight on our modern day obsession with youth. And as a major retrospective of the late French director, Eric Rohmer, begins at the British Film Institute, critics Jonathan Romney and Ginette Vincendeau look at the auteur's fascination with characters in the summer of their lives. Additional information: Robert Pogue Harrison's book is called Juvenescence. Susan Neiman's book is called Why Grow Up. The BFI's Eric Rohmer season runs until the 27th of January. Image Credit: Sue Greenhill.

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