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Episode details

Radio 4,04 Jun 2018,30 mins

David Edgar, Women's non-fiction writing, Art in the aftermath of World War One

Front Row

Available for over a year

Playwright David Edgar is 70 this year. He was 20 in 1968 coming of age, in Bob Dylan's words, when 'there was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air'. In a revolutionary move for him David Edgar is taking to the stage himself in the latest of his many theatre pieces. In his one man show, Trying it On, Edgar reflects on the political eruptions of his lifetime and his engagement with them. Why did some revolutionaries embrace Thatcherism? What has his generation achieved? Viv Albertine, author of two bestselling autobiographies, and former member of The Slits, joins literary historian Rebecca Stott, whose ground breaking memoir The Days of Rain won the Costa Biography prize this year, to discuss women's non fiction writing. Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One at Tate Britain marks 100 years since the end of the war, and reflects on how artists responded to the physical and psychological effects of the fighting. Co-curators Emma Chambers and Rachel Smyth consider how art changed from the middle of the war in 1916 to the 1920s and early '30s. TV Critic Emma Bullimore on the British Soap Awards which took place on Saturday. Is there a greater appetite for dark themes?

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