A History of Private Life - Into the Closet

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. By the 17th century, privacy meant withdrawing into a closet - a tiny private space in the corner of a room. There people could pray, read, play music and escape from the rest of the household. For women, it was often their only private space, as revealed by the shocking diary of a woman married to a psychopath, who managed to lock herself into her closet to escape from him. 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.