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Tracey Thorn, Rival Biographers, Image Licensing, Stormzy

Tracey Thorn's new record 'Record', what happens when two biographers go head-to-head and should we pay to use images of free museum exhibits?

Tracey Thorn describes her new record 'Record' as 'nine feminist bangers'. She talks to John Wilson about why electro-pop turns out to be her preferred style for a musical look back at various stages in her life from birth, through teenage crushes and learning to play guitar to motherhood.

The Finnish National Gallery has just become the latest institution to make digital images of works in its collection, that are no longer in copyright, freely available to the public. No major UK arts institution has taken a similar step. Art Historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor has been campaigning on this issue and explains his position.

As two biographies of Mary Shelley have been published since Christmas "In Search of Mary Shelley the girl who wrote Frankenstein" by Fiona Sampson and "Mary Shelley" by Miranda Seymour we look at the competing claims and different perspectives that biographers bring to the lives of their subjects. Biographer and critic Kathryn Hughes and critic and editor of on-line literary magazine Boundless, Arifa Akbar, discuss what "rival" biographies reveal about the process of writing biography itself.

Grime artist Stormzy took two of the top awards at the Brits and used his platform to criticise the government over its response to Grenfell Tower fire. From an interview with Front Row on the occasion of last year's awards he throws light on what motivates his rapping and his thoughts on grime's place in the awards.

Available now

30 minutes

Chapters

  • Tracey Thorn

    Duration: 08:54

  • Image licensing

    Duration: 06:36

  • Rival biographies

    Duration: 09:15

  • Stormzy

    Duration: 02:53

Tracey Thorn

Tracey Thorn

Record, Tracey Thorn's album is released on 02 March 2018, and her single, Sister, from 22 February 2018.

Images:

Main image above:

Image credit: Edward Bishop

Image to the left: Tracey Thorn

Rival biographers

Rival biographers

In Search of Mary Shelley: the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by , and

Mary Shelley by are out now.

Image: NPG 1235
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
by Richard Rothwell, exhibited 1840
漏 National Portrait Gallery, London

Stormzy

Stormzy
Image:

Broadcast

  • Thu 22 Feb 2018 19:15

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