Podcast appearances and mentions of daisy hay

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the major figures in Victorian British politics. Disraeli (1804 -1881) served both as Prime Minister twice and, for long periods, as leader of the opposition. Born a Jew, he was only permitted to enter Parliament as his father had him baptised into the Church of England when he was twelve. Disraeli was a gifted orator and, outside Parliament, he shared his views widely through several popular novels including Sybil or The Two Nations, which was to inspire the idea of One Nation Conservatism. He became close to Queen Victoria and she mourned his death with a primrose wreath, an event marked for years after by annual processions celebrating his life in politics.WithLawrence Goldman Emeritus Fellow in History at St Peter's College, University of OxfordEmily Jones Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of ManchesterAnd Daisy Hay Professor of English Literature and Life Writing at the University of ExeterProducer: Simon TillotsonReading list:Robert Blake, Disraeli (first published 1966; Faber & Faber, 2010)M. Dent, ‘Disraeli and the Bible' (Journal of Victorian Culture 29, 2024)Benjamin Disraeli (ed. N. Shrimpton), Sybil; or, The Two Nations (Oxford University Press, 2017)Daisy Hay, Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Chatto & Windus, 2015)Douglas Hurd and Edward Young, Disraeli: or, The Two Lives (W&N, 2014)Emily Jones, ‘Impressions of Disraeli: Mythmaking and the History of One Nation Conservatism, 1881-1940' (French Journal of British Studies 28, 2023)William Kuhn, The Politics of Pleasure: A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli (Simon & Schuster, 2007)Robert O'Kell, Disraeli: The Romance of Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2013)J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli and England' (Historical Journal 43, 2000)J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli, the East and Religion: Tancred in Context' (English Historical Review 132, 2017)Cecil Roth, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (New York Philosophical library, 1952)Paul Smith, Disraelian Conservatism and Social Reform (Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1967)John Vincent, Disraeli (Oxford University Press, 1990)P.J. Waller (ed.), Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain (Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1987), especially the chapter ‘Style and Substance in Disraelian Social Reform' by P. GhoshIn Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the major figures in Victorian British politics. Disraeli (1804 -1881) served both as Prime Minister twice and, for long periods, as leader of the opposition. Born a Jew, he was only permitted to enter Parliament as his father had him baptised into the Church of England when he was twelve. Disraeli was a gifted orator and, outside Parliament, he shared his views widely through several popular novels including Sybil or The Two Nations, which was to inspire the idea of One Nation Conservatism. He became close to Queen Victoria and she mourned his death with a primrose wreath, an event marked for years after by annual processions celebrating his life in politics.WithLawrence Goldman Emeritus Fellow in History at St Peter's College, University of OxfordEmily Jones Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of ManchesterAnd Daisy Hay Professor of English Literature and Life Writing at the University of ExeterProducer: Simon TillotsonReading list:Robert Blake, Disraeli (first published 1966; Faber & Faber, 2010)M. Dent, ‘Disraeli and the Bible' (Journal of Victorian Culture 29, 2024)Benjamin Disraeli (ed. N. Shrimpton), Sybil; or, The Two Nations (Oxford University Press, 2017)Daisy Hay, Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Chatto & Windus, 2015)Douglas Hurd and Edward Young, Disraeli: or, The Two Lives (W&N, 2014)Emily Jones, ‘Impressions of Disraeli: Mythmaking and the History of One Nation Conservatism, 1881-1940' (French Journal of British Studies 28, 2023)William Kuhn, The Politics of Pleasure: A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli (Simon & Schuster, 2007)Robert O'Kell, Disraeli: The Romance of Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2013)J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli and England' (Historical Journal 43, 2000)J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli, the East and Religion: Tancred in Context' (English Historical Review 132, 2017)Cecil Roth, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (New York Philosophical library, 1952)Paul Smith, Disraelian Conservatism and Social Reform (Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1967)John Vincent, Disraeli (Oxford University Press, 1990)P.J. Waller (ed.), Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain (Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1987), especially the chapter ‘Style and Substance in Disraelian Social Reform' by P. GhoshIn Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Compiling the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was a seventy-year endeavour that called on thousands of volunteers from all walks of life. The Dictionary People, reviewed by Daisy Hay in the LRB, is a recent attempt to track down the various characters who made the OED possible. Daisy joins Tom to discuss how contributors and their enthusiasms shaped the dictionary to this day.Further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/dictionarypodLearn more about the Irish Pages Press: irishpages.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who were the Romantics? And how did they shake up society and culture at the turn of the 19th century? Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Daisy Hay answers your top questions on the rebellious literary movement whose members' lives were as unconventional as their art, touching on the intense but difficult collaboration between Wordsworth and Coleridge, the outrageous reputation of Lord Byron, and the literary significance of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (Ad) Daisy Hay is the author of Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron and Other Tangled Lives (Bloomsbury, 2011). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Young-Romantics-Shelleys-Byron-Tangled/dp/1408809729/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bookseller, publisher, Dissenter and dinner-party host, Joseph Johnson was a great enabler in the late 18th-century literary landscape . . . Daisy Hay is the author of Dinner with Joseph Johnson: Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age and Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Exeter, and Kathryn Sutherland is the author of Why Modern Manuscript Matters and Senior Research Fellow in English at the University of Oxford. Together they join the Slightly Foxed editors to discuss Joseph Johnson's life and work at St Paul's Churchyard, the heart of England's book trade since medieval times.   We listen to the conversation around Johnson's dining-table as Coleridge and Wordsworth, Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Franklin, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Blake debate the great issues of the day. And we watch as Johnson embarks on a career that will become the foundation stone of modern publishing. We hear how he takes on Olaudah Equiano's memoir of enslavement and champions Anna Barbauld's books for children, how he argues with William Cowper over copyright and how he falls foul of bookshop spies and is sent to prison. From Johnson's St Paul's we then travel to Mayfair, where John Murray II is hosting literary salons with Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott, and taking a chance on Jane Austen. To complete our tour, we glimpse the anatomy experiments in the basement of Benjamin Franklin's house by the Strand. Our round-up of book recommendations includes Konstantin Paustovsky's The Story of a Life which begins in Ukraine, Winifred Holtby's conversations with Wollstonecraft and Woolf, a fresh look at Jane Austen's Emma and an evocation of the Aldeburgh coast as we visit Ronald Blythe for tea. Books Mentioned We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Jess in the Slightly Foxed office for more information. Colin Clark, The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, Slightly Foxed Edition No. 61 (1:23) Edward Ardizzone, The Young Ardizzone, Plain Foxed Edition (2:01) Daisy Hay, Dinner with Joseph Johnson: Books and Friendship in a Revolutionary Age (2:52) Kathryn Sutherland, Why Modern Manuscripts Matter William Cowper, The Task (15:46) William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is out of print (24:09) John Knowles, The Life and Writing of Henry Fuseli is out of print (24:12) Mary Scott, The Female Advocate; a poem occasioned by reading Mr. Duncombe's Feminead is out of print (27:36) Slightly Foxed Cubs series of children's books (31:52) Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (35:53) Maria Rundell, Mrs Rundell's Domestic Cookery is out of print (46:01) Konstantin Paustovsky, The Story of a Life, translated by Douglas Smith (50:52) Joanna Quinn, The Whalebone Theatre (52:40) Jane Austen, Emma (53:16) Winifred Holtby, Women and a Changing Civilisation is out of print (54:07) Winifred Holtby, Virginia Woolf: A Critical Memoir is out of print (54:44) Winifred Holtby, South Riding (55:46) Ronald Blythe, The Time by the Sea (56:46) Related Slightly Foxed Articles Letters from the Heart, Daisy Hay on Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Issue 51 Just Getting on with It, A. F. Harrold on William Cowper, Selected Poems, Issue 23 The Abyss Beyond the Orchard, Alexandra Harris on William Cowper, The Centenary Letters, Issue 53 ‘By God, I'm going to spin', Paul Routledge on the novels of Winifred Holtby, Issue 32 Other Links Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare (11:42) Dr Johnson's House, City of London (49:52) Benjamin Franklin House, Charing Cross, London (49:56) Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable

Welcome to another episode of Past Loves - the history podcast that explores affection, infatuation and attachment across time.This week I am joined by author and Associate Professor in English Literature and Life Writing at the University of Exeter, Daisy Hay, to discuss the love story between Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli.Daisy's research into the lives and love of Benjamin and Mary Anne is rooted in extensive archival work in the Reading Room at the Bodleian Library where Mary Anne's remarkable collection of letters is held. Benjamin and Mary Anne wrote their love story into being, weaving romantic ideals into their correspondence. As Mary Anne most famously said: “Dizzy married me for my money. But if he had the chance again he would marry me for love.”  Benjamin's political career is also woven into the very fabric of their relationship. Their love story existed within the political sphere as Mary Anne helped Benjamin with his campaigns. On the night of the passing of the 1867 Reform Act, rather than celebrating with supporters at the Carlton Club, Benjamin would return home to Mary Anne who was waiting for him with a bottle of champagne and a raised pie from Fortnum and Mason. Together, they would cultivate their romance over the years which resulted in a relationship based in deep respect, admiration and love. It was a true union.Where To Find UsRead Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Daisy-Hay/Mr-and-Mrs-Disraeli--A-Strange-Romance/16489550 Follow Daisy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daisy.hay/ Follow Past Loves on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pastlovespodcast/Join the Past Loves newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/d293dd27393a/past-loves-newsletterIf Past Loves has become your current love, you can email me at pastlovespodcast@gmail.com

Anna Barbauld's Lessons for Children (1778-79) set off a new conversational style in books aimed at teaching children. She was just one of the female authors championed by Joseph Johnson, who was also responsible for publishing Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women and her first book Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787). Daisy Hay has written a history of the publisher and she joins New Generation Thinker Louise Creechan to chart changes in ideas about education from Rousseau to Dickens. Julian Barnes' latest novel depicts an inspirational teacher Elizabeth Finch. Lisa Mullen presents. Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes is out now Professor Daisy Hay is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Exeter. Her latest book is called Dinner with Joseph Johnson. She has also written about Frankenstein and you can hear her discussing that in an episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m1dvh She has also written on Disraeli and recorded a Radio 3 essay about him https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n5st9 Dr Louise Creechan was chosen as a 2022 New Generation Thinker. She lectures at Durham University focusing on Victorian Literature with specific interests in neurodiversity, illiteracy, education, and Disability Studies. Lisa Mullen is a New Generation Thinker and has presented a short feature for Radio 3 about Mary Wollstonecraft called The Art of Rowing https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00061ly Producer: Robyn Read

‘Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, my readers must decide for themselves.' It's a scorching St Valentine's Day in 1900 when three boarding-school girls and a teacher disappear during a day-trip to Hanging Rock in the arid Australian outback. Fact or fiction? Misadventure or murder? Accident or assassination? Join us on our latest literary podcast adventure as we delve into the mystery, history and hysteria of Joan Lindsay's classic Australian Gothic novel with Kate Young, author of The Little Library Cookbook. From the slow-seeping horror of Hanging Rock to coming-of-age tales of tuck boxes and midnight feasts, high jinks and humour, Kate guides the Slightly Foxed magazine team through the school-story tradition and asks why it's such fertile ground for fiction. On the way we visit the Chalet School, Malory Towers and St Trinian's, and slip into darker territory with Decline and Fall, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. In this month's literary expedition, we take a peek inside Quentin Blake's House of Illustration, and to finish there's the usual wide-ranging round-up of current reading featuring: Anthony Buckeridge's classic Jennings series of prep-school stories; Emily Danforth's romp, Plain Bad Heroines, inspired by Shirley Jackson; and Tsitsi Dangarembga's tale of a young girl from a rural village in Zimbabwe, Nervous Conditions.Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: 44 minutes; 24 seconds)Books MentionedWe may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Jess in the Slightly Foxed office for more information. Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay (2:02) The Little Library Cookbook, The Little Library Year and The Little Library Christmas, Kate Young The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark (14:14) The Naughtiest Girl in the School, Enid Blyton (15:14) Malory Towers is a series of six novels by Enid Blyton. The first novel is First Term at Malory Towers (15:21) The Chalet School is a series of 64 novels by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (15:51) Frost in May, Antonia White (20:37) The St Trinian's books by Ronald Searle are out of print (22:53) Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh (23:44) Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (25:17) The Secret History, Donna Tartt (27:06) Murder Most Unladylike, Robin Stevens (28:37) An Experiment in Love, Hilary Mantel (30:17) Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls' Boarding-Schools, 1939–1979, Ysenda Maxtone Graham (30:55) The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy (31:49 Our Lady of the Nile, Scholastique Mukasonga (33:43) Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M. Danforth (38:53) The Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge are out of print (40:11) Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga (41:53) Related Slightly Foxed Articles Hazy Memories of Hanging Rock, Kate Young on Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Issue 64 (2:02) Chalet Girls, Daisy Hay on Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet School books, Issue 56 (16:07) Once a Catholic . . ., Melissa Harrison on Antonia White, Frost in May, Issue 54 (20.37) Old Girls and Very Old Girls, Nicola Shulman on Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Terms & Conditions, Issue 52 (30:55) C. T. Jennings and the Problem of Evil, Robin Blake on Anthony Buckeridge, the Jennings books, Issue 17 (40:11) Educating Ulyth, Ysenda Maxtone Graham on the girls' school stories of Angela Brazil, Issue 44 Other Links The Little Library Cafe: food inspired by literature from Kate Young Leave No Trace, Madeleine Watts on lost-children narratives in Australia, The Believer (8:36) Friends of the Chalet School (15:51) House of Illustration, London (36:24) Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable

What sparks a lifelong love of reading? Francis Spufford, author of The Child that Books Built, and Emily Drabble of the children’s reading charity BookTrust, delve into bookshelves past and present with the Slightly Foxed Editors to understand the alchemy that ignites the spark. From books as seductive objects, the haphazardness of alphabetical organization and disappearing libraries to the joys of cover-to-cover reading and books being doorways to new worlds, the conversation reveals what a passion for reading can bring to our lives. In this month’s dip into the magazine’s archives Ysenda Maxtone Graham gives tried and tested tips for reading aloud, grappling with Tolkien pronunciations along the way, and there’s the usual round-up of recommendations for reading off the beaten track. Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: 36 minutes; 57 seconds) Books Mentioned We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch (mailto:anna@foxedquarterly.com) with Anna in the Slightly Foxed office for more information.  - Golden Hill (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/francis-spufford-golden-hill/) , Francis Spufford (2:23) - The Child that Books Built (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/francis-spufford-child-books-built/) , Francis Spufford (2:50) - The Hobbit (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/tolkien-the-hobbit/) , J. R. R. Tolkien (3:58) - The Jinny books by Patricia Leitch are out of print (4:46) - Swallows and Amazons (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/arthur-ransome-swallows-and-amazons/) , Arthur Ransome (5:36) - High Rise Mystery (https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book/h/high-rise-mystery/) , Sharna Jackson (16:35) - Burglar Bill (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/janet-and-allan-ahlberg-burglar-bill) , Janet & Allan Ahlberg (19:50) - So Much (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/trish-cooke-helen-oxenbury-so-much/) , Trish Cooke, illus. Helen Oxenbury (20:04) - The Boy in the Black Suit (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/jason-reynolds-the-boy-in-the-black-suit) , Jason Reynolds (32:45) - The Cazalet Chronicles (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/the-cazalet-chronicles/) , Elizabeth Jane Howard (33:27) - The Gate of Air, James Buchan is out of print (34:16) - Wave Me Goodbye: Stories of the Second World War (https://foxedquarterly.com/shop/anne-boston-wave-me-goodbye/) , ed. Anne Boston (35:21) Related Slightly Foxed Articles - Laura, Louisa and Me (https://foxedquarterly.com/daisy-hay-childhood-reading-literary-review/) , Daisy Hay on her childhood reading and The Child that Books Built in Issue 31 (2:50) - Three in a Bed (https://foxedquarterly.com/ysenda-maxtone-graham-reading-aloud-literary-review/) , Ysenda Maxtone Graham on reading aloud in Issue 40 (25.18) Other Links - BookTrust (https://www.booktrust.org.uk/) is the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. They are dedicated to getting children reading, and each year they reach 3.9 million children across the UK with books, resources and support to help develop a love of reading (3:00) Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach Reading music: The Bluff Trail by Chad Crouch, from Album Field Report Vol 1, made available as Creative Commons thanks to http://www.freemusicarchive.org The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable (https://www.podcastable.co.uk/)

Fiona Sampson, Daisy Hay, Christopher Frayling and David H. Guston join Matthew Sweet to discuss Mary Shelley's story in film, fiction and the view of AI scientists now.In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by the poet and writer Fiona Sampson is out now.Christopher Frayling has published Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred YearsDr Daisy Hay is Senior Lecturer, English Literature and Archival Studies at the University of Exeter and a BBC Radio 3 and AHRC New Generation Thinker who will be publishing later this year a book on The Making of Frankenstein. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Annotated for scientists, engineers and creators of all kinds edited by David H. Guston, Ed Finn and Jason Scott Robert Late Junction tonight is looking at music and AI, asking can we create a digital version of the ideal Late Junction collaborator using computer code alone?The Radio 3 Sunday feature Select, Edit, Paste presented by Clemency Burton-Hill has been exploring new technologies and the arts. Producer: Zahid Warley

From Thomas De Quincy via Coleridge to Berlioz, a second-generation opium addict, Daisy Hay and Richard Davenport-Hines discuss why drugs were thought integral to creativity first in England and later in France. They tell Matthew Sweet and an audience at Imperial College London about opium as pain relief and creator of dreams and constipation, why arsenic was the Viagra of its day, and why it's just possible that Paris was as revolutionary as it was in the 19th century because it was full of drug-taking rebels.

Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, William Wordsworth and Thomas Paine were amongst the guests invited to the dinner table of publisher Joseph Johnson. Daisy Hay explores the pivotal role played in the early history of English Romanticism by a maker of books who was also a maker of dreams, who invited his workers to eat alongside leading thinkers of the day, and whose publication The Analytical Review set out significant new ideas. New Generation Thinker Daisy Hay is a Senior Lecturer in Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Archival Studies at the University of Exeter and has written about the tangled lives of the Young Romantics as well as Mr and Mrs Disraeli. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio. The Essay was recorded in front of an audience at the Festival of Ideas run by the University of York in 2017. You can rewatch and listen to events from this year's online Festival http://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2020-online/ Producer: Jacqueline Smith.Image: Daisy Hay. Credit: Ian Martindale.

As I imagine most any biographer will tell you, one of the great joys and privileges of biographical research is using archives. This is where one encounters tangible pieces of the subject's life- letters, diaries, receipts, knick-knacks; one never knows what one will find. But how to incorporate that experience into a book? This is one of many compellingly original angles that Daisy Hay brings to the story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli in her new book, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015) The story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli occurs in a moment of changing attitudes towards marriage, celebrity and love- a moment more often seen through the eyes of men and viewed in terms of “history.” Using the Mary Anne Disraeli archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford- assembled by Mrs. Disraeli herself- Hay opens up this story in two ways: by bringing the voices and experiences of women into it, and by considering the Disraeli's as “born storytellers” in 19th century world that was “thick with stories. “They themselves spun stories around their partnership,” Hay writes, “but they also made the tales they spun come true.” It's an illuminating perspective from which to write a biography of public figures, and also one which highlights the vital importance of archives in the preservation of stories of the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I imagine most any biographer will tell you, one of the great joys and privileges of biographical research is using archives. This is where one encounters tangible pieces of the subject’s life- letters, diaries, receipts, knick-knacks; one never knows what one will find. But how to incorporate that experience into a book? This is one of many compellingly original angles that Daisy Hay brings to the story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli in her new book, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015) The story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli occurs in a moment of changing attitudes towards marriage, celebrity and love- a moment more often seen through the eyes of men and viewed in terms of “history.” Using the Mary Anne Disraeli archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford- assembled by Mrs. Disraeli herself- Hay opens up this story in two ways: by bringing the voices and experiences of women into it, and by considering the Disraeli’s as “born storytellers” in 19th century world that was “thick with stories. “They themselves spun stories around their partnership,” Hay writes, “but they also made the tales they spun come true.” It’s an illuminating perspective from which to write a biography of public figures, and also one which highlights the vital importance of archives in the preservation of stories of the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I imagine most any biographer will tell you, one of the great joys and privileges of biographical research is using archives. This is where one encounters tangible pieces of the subject’s life- letters, diaries, receipts, knick-knacks; one never knows what one will find. But how to incorporate that experience into a book? This is one of many compellingly original angles that Daisy Hay brings to the story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli in her new book, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015) The story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli occurs in a moment of changing attitudes towards marriage, celebrity and love- a moment more often seen through the eyes of men and viewed in terms of “history.” Using the Mary Anne Disraeli archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford- assembled by Mrs. Disraeli herself- Hay opens up this story in two ways: by bringing the voices and experiences of women into it, and by considering the Disraeli’s as “born storytellers” in 19th century world that was “thick with stories. “They themselves spun stories around their partnership,” Hay writes, “but they also made the tales they spun come true.” It’s an illuminating perspective from which to write a biography of public figures, and also one which highlights the vital importance of archives in the preservation of stories of the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I imagine most any biographer will tell you, one of the great joys and privileges of biographical research is using archives. This is where one encounters tangible pieces of the subject’s life- letters, diaries, receipts, knick-knacks; one never knows what one will find. But how to incorporate that experience into a book? This is one of many compellingly original angles that Daisy Hay brings to the story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli in her new book, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015) The story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli occurs in a moment of changing attitudes towards marriage, celebrity and love- a moment more often seen through the eyes of men and viewed in terms of “history.” Using the Mary Anne Disraeli archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford- assembled by Mrs. Disraeli herself- Hay opens up this story in two ways: by bringing the voices and experiences of women into it, and by considering the Disraeli’s as “born storytellers” in 19th century world that was “thick with stories. “They themselves spun stories around their partnership,” Hay writes, “but they also made the tales they spun come true.” It’s an illuminating perspective from which to write a biography of public figures, and also one which highlights the vital importance of archives in the preservation of stories of the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I imagine most any biographer will tell you, one of the great joys and privileges of biographical research is using archives. This is where one encounters tangible pieces of the subject’s life- letters, diaries, receipts, knick-knacks; one never knows what one will find. But how to incorporate that experience into a book? This is one of many compellingly original angles that Daisy Hay brings to the story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli in her new book, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015) The story of Benjamin and Mary Anne Disraeli occurs in a moment of changing attitudes towards marriage, celebrity and love- a moment more often seen through the eyes of men and viewed in terms of “history.” Using the Mary Anne Disraeli archive at the Bodleian Library in Oxford- assembled by Mrs. Disraeli herself- Hay opens up this story in two ways: by bringing the voices and experiences of women into it, and by considering the Disraeli’s as “born storytellers” in 19th century world that was “thick with stories. “They themselves spun stories around their partnership,” Hay writes, “but they also made the tales they spun come true.” It’s an illuminating perspective from which to write a biography of public figures, and also one which highlights the vital importance of archives in the preservation of stories of the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daisy Hay from Exeter University explores the way in which Disraeli invented the modern politician as a man or woman of feeling, and asks whether the image he projected as an emotionally in-touch everyman stemmed from fact or fiction? Recorded in front of an audience at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage, Gateshead. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the AHRC to find the brightest academic minds with the potential to turn their ideas into broadcasts.

Claire Tomalin and Daisy Hay discuss the life of Mary Shelley

Daisy Hay studied at Cambridge and currently holds the Alistair Horne Fellowship at St Antony’s College, Oxford. I interviewed Daisy recently about her first book, Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron and Other Tangled Lives, which has recently won the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize. You can hear the interview by clicking here. Here are Daisy’s summer reading suggestions: My summer holiday usually takes me to the same spot each year: the house in the South of France which has been in my family since before I was born. Each year I take with me a new novel, something meaty and absorbing, which is much more satisfying to read in long shady sessions on the terrace than in the snatched minutes available in the working week. Last year I packed A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book, and spent several glorious afternoons utterly engrossed in it. This year I took David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, which I’ve brought home to finish. I’d be further through it were it not for the fact that one of …