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Has privacy always been an important part of life and have we always had the same need for private havens?

Mark Tully searches for new approaches to private space in an increasingly crowded world and considers the need for privacy - with design historian Penny Sparke, author of As Long As It's Pink and The Modern Interior.

Examining the research of social scientists and historians, as well as the work of poets as diverse as Ruth Fainlight, W.B. Yeats and Noel Coward, Mark asks whether the need for private space goes hand in hand with the drive for modernity.

There's music from Charles Ives, Gustav Mahler and Flanders and Swann.

The readers are Adjoa Andoh and Pip Donaghy.

Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4.