Marguerite Yourcenar entered the Académie Française in 1981, the first woman to be admitted. Her novel Memoirs of Hadrian, published thirty years earlier, is ‘often considered the best French novel of the 20th century’, as Joanna Biggs wrote in a recent issue of the LRB. In this episode of the podcast, Joanna joins Tom to discuss Yourcenar’s life and work, a ... Show More
Yesterday
Why should we listen to Amanda Knox?
It's nearly eighteen years since Amanda Knox was arrested on suspicion of murdering her housemate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, and more than ten since she was finally exonerated of the crime. She has just written her second book, Free, which, as Jessica Olin wrote recently in the ... Show More
44m 48s
Oct 1
On Politics: The Death of the Conservative Party?
In its nearly two hundred years of existence the Conservative Party has survived through a combination of protean adaptability and ruthlessness, not least in its willingness to change leaders. Yet under its present leader, Kemi Badenoch, the party often described (by itself, at l ... Show More
55m 22s
Feb 2025
Casanova, l'amour à Venise (1/3)
Si sa vie a tout d’une légende, Giacomo Casanova a bel et bien existé. Au XVIIIe siècle, ce libertin irrésistible partage la couche de plus d’une centaine de femmes. Mais sa destinée ne se limite pas à ses conquêtes : de conseiller d'un roi à prisonnier dans la plus cruelle des c ... Show More
34 m
Oct 2024
La légende noire de la reine Margot (2/4)
Coquette, Marguerite sait comment plaire et collectionne les amants. Sa vie sexuelle sulfureuse provoque le scandale à la cour, mais aussi en Europe. Visionnaire, la reine Margot va avoir une grande influence sur la mode de l’époque.
"Secrets d'Histoire" est un podcast d'Initial ... Show More
28m 3s
Feb 2025
La bataille d'Hernani, la pièce de Victor Hugo qui a déclenché la polémique
Stéphane Bern raconte la célèbre bataille littéraire qui a opposé les classiques « grisâtres » aux romantiques « flamboyants » venus assister à la première représentation, il y a 195 ans précisément, d’Hernani, un drame romantique écrit par un certain Victor Hugo, 27 ans et déjà ... Show More
39m 39s
Nov 2024
Harriet Constable in “les Rencontres” — CHANEL Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon
Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Harriet Constable, writer of “The Instrumentalist”, her first novel published by Bloomsbury in 2024, in which she retraces the story of musical prodigy Anna Maria della Pietà, student of Antonio Vivaldi. Through this c ... Show More
39m 45s
Oct 3
The Scandalous Royal Mistress Who Ruled France
Is this strangest threesome in royal history?!We're endlessly fascinated with the lives of royal mistresses, and this has to be one of the most notorious.It takes place in 16th century France between Henry II, his wife Catherine de Medici and his much older mistress, Diane de Poi ... Show More
37m 45s