Patrick Geoghegan

speaker

1,107 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 7 Aug

Patrick Geoghegan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.

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Talking History with Patrick Geoghegan · Mussolini and Fascist Italy · 10 Jun 2026 podcast

You mentioned there the the attraction that she had for Nazi Germany and certainly the the leading figures in Nazi Germany seem to have hugely admired her, at least in the in the nineteen thirties. voice-verified

What was the attraction there? voice-verified

Because it definitely seemed to have a dark influence over her and and seemed to have a dark attraction for her. voice-verified

And what was it like living in Fascist Italy in this period? voice-verified

Because in a way herself and her husband were able to act almost like as a bridge between the older uh the older aristocracy who had ruled Italy and then these new fascists who were in control? voice-verified

And to what extent do you think that she was an enabler of the fascist regime, of her father's regime? voice-verified

Uh because she was this glamorous figurehead, she was this celebrity that i i was she in a way making making a lot of this a lot of these things respectable? voice-verified

And when you talk about the excesses, how bad did it get? voice-verified

You've mentioned the affairs. voice-verified

I think she certainly when she was in China she was drinking a lot of gin and uh there d was d was that a reflection of an unhappiness or was it just that she was wild and uh and liked to live her own life? voice-verified

You describe her in the book as clever and enigmatic, and she certainly was enigmatic, but I I wonder about the cleverness. voice-verified

At times she seems very clever, but at times she seems to be just making you know, silly mistakes or being blinded by glamour or a or a or a mystique that, you know, perhaps she should have seen through. voice-verified

How sexist was fascist Italy? voice-verified

Was there any respect for women or they were very much seen as subordinate? voice-verified

And you also get a great insight into the book into just how authoritarian the state was and how much control was being exerted by the state and and how they were all caught up in that. voice-verified

Well, tonight we are talking about Mussolini and Italian fascism. voice-verified

And right now I'm talking to Caroline Moorhead about her fascinating new book on Edda Mussolini, the daughter, the favourite daughter of Benito Mussolini. voice-verified

And there's a brilliant review of the book in the Guardian newspaper which describes the narrative trajectory as something like a cross between a Martin Scorsese film and a Greek tragedy. voice-verified

And we're gonna take a quick break now. voice-verified

When we come back, we'll be finding out voice-verified

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