Legacy

How did a woman lying on a sofa with a Pekingese on her lap write 723 books?

Why did the queen of pink chiffon put shoe polish on her eyelashes?

And, if she sold around 750 million copies, why can't you find her books in a shop today?

Matthew Sweet, author of the first biography to take Barbara Cartland seriously, tells Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch how a Doctor Who audio play about alien bookworms led him to her private papers.

A house left almost untouched since she died in 2000. A father killed in the Great War, two brothers lost at Dunkirk, and two suitors who threatened to shoot themselves if she said no. Then the paradox: a woman who told readers to put their husbands first while working six days a week, a Tory councillor who fought for travellers' rights, and the author of sex advice manuals. Plus Private Eye's cruellest cartoons, bought and hung in her downstairs loo, the Nigerian romance writers who name her as their inspiration, and why Matthew will never sit on her sofa.

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[0:00] 723 books, a Pekingese and shoe polish on her lashes
[4:14] Alien bookworms: the strangest way into a biography
[7:00] Why "The Great Dictator": a lost fortune and a family rebuilt by work
[9:41] Writing from the couch: war, grief and the women left behind
[17:37] The Tory councillor who fought for travellers' rights
[21:21] Nigerian romance writers, and her plan to conquer the world
[25:12] War paint: the lashes, the hair and the dog
[28:33] Private Eye cartoons in the downstairs loo
[31:00] Motherhood, and a family where everyone had to confess
[37:53] Third best-selling author ever, so why has she vanished?

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
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Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why were the first cowboys in the Americas from West Africa?

What does it mean in Akan culture when a man "eats from another woman's pot"?

And, could a mosquito be the reason Ghana never became a settler colony like South Africa or Kenya?

In the next part of The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch put Africa at the centre of the story, and find it at the centre of ours too.

West African villages with no walls and no kings, because there was enough for everyone. An ancient Ghana nowhere near modern Ghana, and Mansa Musa's gold. Then food: why a Ghanaian host will never let you leave hungry, the European visitors who resented Africa's abundance, a colleague in Senegal who thought the perfect birthday present was a goat, and the jollof wars. Plus the genetic resistance to malaria that shaped the slave trade, and how the mosquito kept European settlers out of West Africa and sent Afua's grandfather to Cambridge.

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[0:00] Land, food and race: three ways Africa shaped the world
[2:01] Is "Africa" even the right word?
[7:22] Villages with no walls and no kings
[11:01] Two Ghanas, and Mansa Musa's gold
[13:08] Why you'll never leave a Ghanaian home hungry
[17:04] The first cowboys in the Americas
[21:56] A goat for a birthday, and the jollof wars
[25:57] Malaria, genes and the slave trade
[29:50] How the mosquito kept settlers out of West Africa
[32:56] Africans telling their own stories

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do six men in three vans outside a Cotswolds air base end with America flying its bombers home?

What can 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel actually do for American drivers?

And, are a quiet corner of England, an airport in Riyadh and the war in Ukraine all part of the same story?

In this Legacy Inbox episode, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch try to work out how the week's biggest stories fit together.

A farmer who spotted men in balaclavas, a suspect who rang the police on himself, and Peter's three theories for what really happened at RAF Fairford. Then Houthi missiles hitting King Khalid Airport, the long war in Yemen the world stopped watching, and a diesel deal with Putin that covers roughly one American morning. Plus Trump's call for Ukraine to find a new leader, the Nobel Peace Prize he didn't win, and a rare moment when Afua changes Peter's mind about how Americans see Russia.

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[0:00] Iran, Saudi, Ukraine and the Cotswolds, all in one week
[1:05] Men in balaclavas outside RAF Fairford
[3:53] Three theories: diesel thieves, an Iranian plot, or a US exit plan
[9:20] Houthi missiles hit Riyadh, and the war in Yemen nobody watched
[12:06] Trump, Putin and a diesel deal worth one American morning
[14:36] The Nobel Peace Prize, and the court under threat
[16:38] Do Americans still see Russia as the bad guy?
[21:05] Is it all connected?

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If almost every early migration out of Africa failed, how did any of us get here?

Why does an Akan word that once meant "person from beyond the cornfields" now mean a white person?

And, when British politicians talk about net migration, who are they leaving out?

Peter Frankopan takes Afua Hirsch through 50,000 years of people on the move, using the new illustrated edition of The Earth Transformed.

A green Sahara full of lakes. Romans who conquered half the world but didn't spread their genes. Huns and Mongols running empires like a business that had to grow every year. Then the long scars the slave trade left on trust in West Africa, and the Gold Coast students who came to Britain long before Windrush. Plus 150 million people on the move in a single century, and Afua's prediction for 2050. And a school where Wednesday homework was translating Sanskrit into Urdu, and why speaking five Ghanaian languages never earns the respect that French does.

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[0:00] 50,000 years of people on the move
[2:07] The surest way to lose an election, and Vikings who are fine in hindsight
[8:19] Almost every early migration out of Africa failed
[13:23] Skin colour, vitamin D and why race is a social construct
[16:47] Rome, the Huns and empire as a business model
[20:22] The Mongols in Hungary, and the Greek idea of the stranger
[24:23] "Beyond the cornfields": the scars you can still hear in a word
[28:11] The migration nobody counts: Britons leaving
[31:44] 2050: will Britain wish it had immigration?
[36:04] Languages, Sanskrit homework, and which ones count as "sophisticated"

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when an author gets rejected eight times, writes a ninth novel in hand-written letters, and ends up at number one on the New York Times bestseller list? Why are we so drawn to storytellers, tradwives, and 73-year-old law clerks who reject email in favor of pen and paper? And, what does a 73-year-old fictional letter-writer have in common with the rise of the AfD in Germany and the political power of nostalgia?

Afua Hirsch brings her summer read — Virginia Evans’s Women’s Prize-winning novel The Correspondent — to Peter Frankopan, and what starts as a book review turns into a deep dive into rejection, class, ageism, and the performance of identity.

A 73-year-old former lawyer firing off petty grievances to her gardening club while hiding her deepest heartbreaks; Marlon James demanding his friends destroy his rejected manuscript; and why late-stage capitalism makes everyone treat their personal identity like a brand. Plus: why both Peter and Afua write their best work between midnight and 4:00 AM.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.