Podcast: Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was one of the finest writers of late 18th and 19th centuries, her perhaps most famous piece of work was 'Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus', although she wrote other books, including a novel that predicted the end of mankind in 'The Last Man' (rather forebodingly, this was set at the end of the 21st century!)

This podcast from BBC's You're Dead To Me explores the life of Mary Shelley from her early years, through her marriage to the poet, Percy Shelley, to her death in 1851. The journalists discuss the influences on her writing, including that of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist writer and thinker and her father, William Godwin (philosopher and journalist)

This is an entertaining podcast episode that does covers some dark material related to Mary's life, and it could be used for the Theory and Methods unit (feminism) as an extension/homework task.