Amanda Vickery - A History Of Private Life

Together they look at the concerns which have dominated life inside the home for hundreds of years. Why are tussles over who rules the roost a persistent theme? Are modern homes increasingly atomised, separated from local communities and housing an army of home-workers and divorcing couples unable to afford to sell their houses? Or are they predominantly a safe refuge from which householders can show off their exquisite taste and treasured possessions, while leading harmonious and socially integrated lives?

The panel examine which of these and many other views might shape how historians of the future will view the private lives we lead at the beginning of the 21st century.

Tom Sutcliffe chairs a discussion programme about the meaning of home today.

From rabies to madness and piles, the housewives of the past were expected to concoct medicines which would cure any condition.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Historian Amanda reveals housewives were once expected to concoct cure-all medicines.

When we think of the history of home, the cosy experiences of the nuclear family spring easiest to mind. But what of those who had no family or home of their own?

Probably as many as one in five women never married in 18th-century England. What about their story? What did the comforts of home mean for them? Prof Vickery tells the story of one admirable and disabled spinster, whose letters she discovered in a record office in Reading.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

What 18th-century home life held for spinsters. As many as one in five women never married

When we think of the history of home, the cosy experiences of the nuclear family spring easiest to mind. But what of those who had no family or home of their own?

Widows had enormous status and power in the 18th century. And for some women, the death of a spouse was a fairytale release. This programme tells the story of the richest widow in England, Elizabeth Montagu, and how she spent her late husband's coal fortune.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

How the richest widow in 18th-century England spent her late husband's coal fortune.

When we think of the history of home, the cosy experiences of the nuclear family spring easiest to mind. But what of those who had no family or home of their own?

The story of two different widowers and their desperate search for a new wife, based on original material from two unusual sets of diaries which Prof Vickery found in Lincoln.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

The story of two different widowers and their desperate search for a new wife.

These days we take it for granted that the home is a place of refuge in which we express our true self; that idea was an invention of the 18th century. Prof Vickery explores the invention of taste, and the role of interior decor in creating both social prestige and a successful marriage.

The story of a celebrity divorce - a huge scandal, because the husband was the prime minister. The question then, as now, was what was the woman going to walk away with?

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

One celebrity divorce was quite the scandal, because the husband was the prime minister.

These days we take it for granted that the home is a place of refuge in which we express our true self; that idea was an invention of the 18th century. Prof Vickery explores the invention of taste, and the role of interior decor in creating both social prestige and a successful marriage.

Taste - and the making of a marriage. The story of an 18th-century couple, the Graftons - fashionable, rich, and deeply in love - who spend life together doing up their magnificent houses.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

The story of an 18th-century couple who spend life doing up their magnificent houses.

These days we take it for granted that the home is a place of refuge in which we express our true self; that idea was an invention of the 18th century. Prof Vickery explores the invention of taste, and the role of interior decor in creating both social prestige and a successful marriage.

A room constructed entirely of feathers, a hermitage in the garden of a Lincolnshire vicarage, Alexander Pope's grotto - how eccentric homes reflected wider 18th-century ideas about science and nature.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

These days we take it for granted that the home is a place of refuge in which we express our true self; that idea was an invention of the 18th century. Prof Vickery explores the invention of taste, and the role of interior decor in creating both social prestige and a successful marriage.

The story of two 18th-century marriages and how the husbands prepared new houses for their bride. One got it right, the other destroyed any chance of a happy partnership.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Two 18th-century marriages, and how the husbands prepared new houses for their bride.

These days we take it for granted that the home is a place of refuge in which we express our true self; that idea was an invention of the 18th century. Prof Vickery explores the invention of taste, and the role of interior decor in creating both social prestige and a successful marriage.

Moving into the 19th century, Prof Vickery explores the homes of people lower down the social scale and their ideas about how they wanted them to look. She draws on a series of funny and revealing letters which she discovered in the archive of a wallpaper company.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

How people lower down the social scale responded to the idea of taste.

Homes were exposed to huge forces of change in the 19th and 20th century, responding to industrialisation, pollution, and the imperial mission. Prof Vickery explores how they remained idealised havens in a heartless, dirty world.

Until the late-19th century, home was the only schoolroom many British children were to experience, especially if they were girls. But was domestic education really so inferior to formal schooling? Drawing on diaries she has discovered, Prof Vickery explores home education from the perspective of both mother and child.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Amanda Vickery assesses 19th-century learning at home through both mother and child.

Homes were exposed to huge forces of change in the 19th and 20th century, responding to industrialisation, pollution and the imperial mission. Prof Vickery explores how they remained idealised havens in a heartless, dirty world.

By the mid-19th century, the majority of the British population lived in filthy polluted towns. Yet the Victorians contrived increasingly ingenious ways to domesticate nature, capturing ferns and sea anemones under glass in their parlours.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

The Victorians contrived increasingly ingenious ways to domesticate nature.

Homes were exposed to huge forces of change in the 19th and 20th century, responding to industrialisation, pollution and the imperial mission. Prof Vickery explores how they remained idealised havens in a heartless, dirty world.

Prof Vickery explores the kind of homes the British struggled to create in India, using the diaries and letters of colonial settlers.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Exploring the homes the British struggled to create in India during the age of empire.

Homes were exposed to huge forces of change in the 19th and 20th century, responding to industrialisation, pollution and the imperial mission. Prof Vickery explores how they remained idealised havens in a heartless, dirty world.

The roots of the suburb lie very deep; but for snobs and bohemians, the adjective 'suburban' has always been the ultimate put-down. Prof Vickery listens to the experiences of those who moved there.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Historian Amanda Vickery listens to the experiences of those who moved out of the cities.

Homes were exposed to huge forces of change in the 19th and 20th century, responding to industrialisation, pollution, and the imperial mission. Prof Vickery explores how they remained idealised havens in a heartless, dirty world.

Home means a place to go to when you are in trouble. A place sadly altered by war. A place to glorify when away and rely on always...' So reported one woman to the Mass Observation survey. Prof Vickery explores the enduring pull of a home of one's own.

Readers: Deborah Findlay, John Sessions, Madeleine Brolly and Simon Tcherniak.

Singers: Gwyneth Herbert and Thomas Guthrie, with David Owen Norris at the keyboard.

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

Historian Amanda Vickery reflects on the enduring pull of a home of one's own.