A History of Private Life - All My Life is A Struggle With Dirt

Historian Amanda Vickery presents a series which reveals the hidden history of home over 400 years. She draws on first-hand accounts from letters and diaries, many of which have never been heard before. Including songs which have been specially recorded for the series. The endless struggle against dirt, vermin and decay, and a song which has never been recorded before, The Housewife's Lament. How women came to see laundry and the linen cupboard as part of their moral mission, caring for their families and also keeping the household morally pure. 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.