A Place of Greater Safety

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and a striking picture emerges of the exhilaration, dynamic energy and stark horror of those fearful days. The interleaved stories of Hunter and his Giant tell us of the horror, rather than the wonder, of life. With Carl Prekopp as Camille; Mark Stobbart as Danton; Sam Troughton as Robespierre; Chloe Pirrie as Lucile; Sarah Thom as Gabrielle; Sam Dale as Mirabeau; Alex Tregear as Adele; Jessica Turner as Annette; Stephen Crtichlow as Herault; David Hownslow as Brissot; and Chris Pavlo as Nobleman.

Changes of perspectives, developing too many strands and also adding a fair share of unnecessary linguistic acrobatics I nearly decided to stop listening about 8 hours into the book. The showdown came on Bastille Day, when Jon and David came to ask if my sister and I wanted to come into Bergerac to watch the fireworks. He and his wife Lucile are presented as a kind of couple maudit, damned souls and capricious free spirits addicted to self-gratifying pleasure in all the forms that life and revolutionary politics have on offer (principally, sex and power).The protagonist’s childhood companion, Karina, becomes an undergraduate at another part of London University and turns up at her student hostel to live just down the corridor. As these young men, key figures of the French Revolution, taste the addictive delights of power, the darker side of the period’s political ideals is unleashed – and all must face the horror that follows. We know the story won’t end well for him – henchmen often capsize – but we watch with horror and admiration as he achieves his gruesome ends. You don't need to know anything about the French Revolution to be able to follow this book which focusses on 3 of the main protagonists.

Swotty girls “forfeited today for the promise of tomorrow, but the promise wasn’t fulfilled; they were reduced to middle-sexes, neuters, without the powers of men or the duties of women”.All around them are men and women, many from Ireland, down on their luck, some of them almost starving. This story is apparently true and for a moment it made me genuinely pity her as a real person, which isn't all that easy when dealing with such strong historical archetypes. When they have enough to eat and when the rich and the government stop bribing treacherous tongues and pens to deceive them; when their interests are identified with the people. In standard histories Hunter may be an enlightenment hero; in Mantel’s reimagining, he is somebody much stranger, stabbing and infecting himself out of intellectual curiosity, twisted and tormented by his thirst for experimental knowledge. Part one: Liberty is narrated by Lizzy Watts and Paul Ritter, dramatised by Melissa Murray and directed by Marc Beeby.