Helen Lewis: Great Wives

RADIO 4, 11PM ♦ The title of this series is a play on the Radio 4 biography series Great Lives, but rather than focusing on famous geniuses, writer Helen Lewis explores what it takes to be the person who lives with them. What makes a good marriage and a meeting of minds? In this final episode she: studies the life of Austrian composer Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav; looks at the work of the psychologist Hans Eysenck and his wife, Sybil; and muses on the “pros and cons” list that Charles Darwin drew up when he was considering taking a wife.