Radio Gorgeous

Ariadne and her sister Phaedra were pivotal footnotes in the heroic stories of men with the exception of the letters Ovid wrote in their name. It was these passionate but powerless voices that sparked Jennifer Saint’s debut novel Ariadne. Ariadne is a vibrant retelling and imagining of their stories as well as a story of sisters, growing up…

Alison Weir: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets Persistent rumours swirled around Anna of Kleve… Alison Weir introduces us to a fresh version of Henry VIII’s fourth wife who is mostly famous for not living up to her flattering portrait. On the other hand, Anna of Kleve was popular and spirited and she had the…

Dynasty by Christina Oxenberg with Josephine Pembroke Your Mother is a princess and your uncle should be the Serbian king. You are born in New York and raised in the UK. You think having your own palace, servants and being surrounded by antiques is normal. Meet Christina Oxenberg she tells us the true story about…

West London Walks with Caroline MacMillan with Josephine Pembroke on Radio Gorgeous How well do you know your area? No I mean REALLY know – not just the place names and the shops and where to get the best cup of coffee? Last week I went on a walk with local historian Caroline MacMillian of West…

Alison Weir –  Anne Boleyn A King’s Obsession GORGEOUS READS with Donna Freed on Radio Gorgeous Back on Radio Gorgeous Alison Weir talks about her second in her Six Tudor Queens series. The joyful historian Alison expounds on what we can and can’t know about the queen Anne Boleyn who forever changed England. One thing…

Do you know your HOUSE HISTORY? Angela Lownie THE House Detective on Radio Gorgeous with Josephine Pembroke Angela started out by being interested in her own family history. Then as her passion for history and social history grew, she went on a course and is now a house detective. She finds out secrets and stories of…

  ALISON WEIR Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen: Six Tudor Queens, Author of Week on Radio Gorgeous with Donna Freed   Alison Weir may have been led to her love of history by her mother but it ignited a fire in her like the Olympic torch whose beam has illuminated English royal history and…

  Fashion on the Ration JULIE SUMMERS Part 2 on Radio Gorgeous with Josephine Pembroke  The second part of this informative podcast about FASHION in the Second World War. Julie tells Josephine about living with out lipstick, stockings and make do and mend. Fashion on the Ration has just come out in paperback my dear. Do…

Fashion on the Ration JULIE SUMMERS Author of the Week PART ONE  In part one of this two part interview, Julie Summers covers what the middle-aged woman was wearing. Was it mutton dressed as lamb, or just mutton? Fashion on the Ration has just come out in paperback do buy it! Listen to Part 2…

  Keiko Itoh MY SHANGHAI Author of The Week Keiko Itoh’s grew up listening to her mother’s magical stories of Shanghai and it was only later that she realised that these were the war years. Her mother, a debutante who came out in the last London season, moved to Shanghai as a young wife and…

  The Story of Women of  1950s – Careers, Class & Beauty Pageants  While women were educated and working in the 1950’s, one was expected – and in some cases, forced – to stop working after marriage to busy oneself with the home and children, a hot meal and slippers for the husband, etc. Meanwhile, much…

Butlins Holiday Camp & Teddy Girls – Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes by Virginia Nicholson Length 12.37 Tenerife was not yet on the horizon and Butlin’s offered something for everyone in the family and a true holiday from the drudgery of the possibly still bombed out home. Meanwhile, the first teenagers were born and not…

Ingrid von Oelhafen, Hitler’s Forgotten Children: My Life inside the Lebensborn with Donna Freed The Nazis didn’t invent genocide but their clinical approach is enduringly horrifying. Less known but perhaps even more chilling was the Lebensborn project founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1935 to create an Aryan super race. When the programme of racially pure…

We Ain’t Got No Drink, Pa Hilda Kemp  A Little Girl’s Struggle to Survive in the Slums of 1920s South East London. This book is true story written by Cathryn Kemp with the voice of her matriarchal Nan in her head.  ‘We Ain’t Got No Drink, Pa’ by Hilda Kemp. Cathryn Kemp channels the voice…

Betty May the Musical on That’s Entertainment on Radio Gorgeous  Betty started to take cocaine on her honeymoon, cabaret danced drunkenly her way to notoriety, hung out at the Cafe Royal was a true Soho bohemian. Playwright, musician and performer Celine Hispache was inspired by Betty May, the “Tiger Woman” and wrote Betty May the…

Journalist and author Valerie Grove delved into the correspondence and diaries of beloved author Laurie Lee. Lee created many myths about himself and Grove reveals, the sometimes more fascinating truths beneath the legend. Want more Author of the week? Join our mailout www.radiogorgeous.com  

Josephine talks to YOUNG FEMINIST Charlie Brades Also, Can we have it all? Do we even want it? Josephine and Donna discuss Nathalie Loiseau’s new book: Choissez Tout! She is under the impression that women, in trying to be the perfect wives and mothers, are holding back their careers. Stop helicoptering, enough with the breast…

Best of Radio Gorgeous You are in for a treat we have created an easy to digest ‘Best of Radio Gorgeous’ for you to enjoy. Firstly you will hear perky Jo Wood talking about hanging out with the Rolling Stones and then the happiness that came from getting of their cloud. Then meet Harriet Sergeant…

As TS Learner, Tobsha Learner writes blockbuster conspiracty thrillers that span the globe and history. The Stolen is her latest thriller after Sphinx and The Map. The Stolen takes on the legacy of the Nazis on the gypsy community. Among other topics she takes on are super conductivity, Swiss complicity with the Nazi regime and Roma history and origins. She…

Podcast length: 27:37 Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play: drumroll please!: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Southwest Africa from the German Sudwest Afrika Between the Years 1884 – 1915 is on at the Bush Theatre until April 12, 2014. The first documented genocide of the 20th Century was perpetrated…