Childhood faces and fears

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2019

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A history of orphans in Britain, fears about post war brainwashing, childrens' letters to C19 newspapers and portraits on show at Compton Verney. Anne McElvoy presents.

New Generation Thinker and historian Emma Butcher is researching writing from children about the trauma of war. She visits Compton Verney. Jeremy Seabrook is researching the treatment of orphans from the 17th century onwards. Historian Sian Pooley reveals what children were writing to local papers about in the late 19th century and artist Emma Smith describes the post-war anxieties about children being brainwashed that inform her exhibition Wunderblock.

Painting Childhood: From Holbein to Freud runs at Compton Verney from March 16th to June 16th 2019. Emma Smith's exhibition Wunderblock is at the Freud Museum in London until 26th May Orphans: A History by Jeremy Seabrook is out now.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:37.2	Hello, I'm Anne McHalevoy, and this is BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas podcast, bringing together leading artists, writers and thinkers, in discussions which try to answer a range of questions, from should we keep pets to what does it mean to belong, or what can Nietzsche teach us.
0:55.6	So stay with us for one of those conversations coming up right after this short message.
1:02.7	Hello, just butting in. I'm Ellen and Rosamond Barraclough and I'm here to tell you about
1:08.1	time travellers, the BBC Radio 3 podcast that's packed full of
1:12.4	quirky stories from the corners of history. If you'd like to know how a polar bear ended up
1:18.1	catching its dinner in the Thames, why Poldark was much loved in post-fascist Spain, what happens
1:24.6	if you give a spider too much caffeine, how the suffragettes weaponised
1:28.5	roller skating and what any of this has to do with anything, then you'll have to subscribe
1:34.1	to the Time Travelers podcast. Find us on BBC Sounds.
1:42.1	Hello, grab your bat and your ball, your whip and top. It's playtime.
1:46.5	Yes, we're looking at younger members of society. How have our thoughts about children and childhood changed
2:02.2	over time and have children themselves shifted in the way that they view the curious ways of
2:07.4	the adult world? I'm joined by the historians Emma Butcher and Sean Pooley, writer Jeremy Seabrook and artist
2:14.4	Emma Smith. Before we delve into history, I'd like to get a quick insight into the child's mind
2:19.8	by asking you all what your childhood selves
2:23.0	thought you might be doing when you were grown up.
2:26.8	Shan, what about you?
2:28.5	So my answer is really dull.
	...

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