In which The Author catches up on four weeks’ listening
There’s a new production of Titus Andronicus at Stratford-upon-Avon at the moment. Arguably the Bard’s bloodthirstiest play, it features the (in)famous scene where the heads of two murdered boys are fed to their unfaithful mother in a pie. The Props Manager had to devise a suitably gory-looking recipe, consisting of pork loin and beetroot, for that authentic ‘just butchered’ look. He also had to come up with a Quorn-based alternative to suit a vegetarian understudy.
(Front Row, Radio 4, approx 3 weeks ago.)
According to the bestselling medical textbook Orthopaedia: or the art of correcting and preventing deformities in children (1743),
Redness is a defect of the hair, the red colour hair proceeds from it being more nourished with the red part of the blood than with any other humour. Bleeding is a great help in this cause, but we must take care not to push this method too far.
(Disability: A New History, Radio 4, 30 May.)
The music of Richard Wagner really isn’t as bad as it sounds.
(Götterdämmerung, Radio 3, 18 May.)
An Autobiography in Random Chapters 