cheering and applause. her stories often centre on oppression and brutality. most famously, her 1985 novel, the handmaid s tale, a dystopian vision of america, in which women are enslaved, now an emmy award winning television series. there s an eye in your house. in this episode of this cultural life, the radio a programme, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how, even in high school, her creativity was clear. i put on a home economics opera. it was about fabrics. can you remember how it goes? # fabrics need a swim in the suds. # it makes them feel just like new. # plink plink, plink plink. laughter. i want to make sure the mics are recording us. margaret atwood, welcome to this cultural life. thank you very much. happy to be here. on this programme, i ask my guests to choose the most significant influences and experiences that have shaped their own creativity, and your first choice is your parents. yes. tell me about your parents. well, first of all, th
cultural life, the radio 4 programme, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how, even in high school, her creativity was clear. i put on a home economics opera. it was about fabrics. can you remember how it goes? # fabrics need a swim in the suds. # it makes them feel just like new. # plink plink, plink plink. laughter. i want to make sure the mics are recording us. margaret atwood, welcome to this cultural life. thank you very much. happy to be here. on this programme, i ask my guests to choose the most significant influences and experiences that have shaped their own creativity, and your first choice is your parents. yes. tell me about your parents. well, first of all, they, um, were very innovative and able to improvise, because, of course, if you live in the woods and there aren t any shops, you have to be, and they were both very outdoorsy. but they also allowed us to make messes in our rooms and didn t make us clean them up. by messes, i mean project
happy to be here. on this programme, i ask my guests to choose the most significant influences and experiences that have shaped their own creativity, and your first choice is your parents. yes. tell me about your parents. well, first of all, they, um, were very innovative and able to improvise, because, of course, if you live in the woods and there aren t any shops, you have to be, and they were both very outdoorsy. but they also allowed us to make messes in our rooms and didn t make us clean them up. by messes, i mean projects, which always begin as messes. just to set the scene, this is rural quebec, because your father was an entomologist. he was studying. oh, yes. he was a forest entomologist, and his research station spring, summer and fall, was up in the woods north, north, north, north, north of ottawa, up the ottawa river, and this would be in a house that he built himself, because he was of a rural background and knew how to do all of that, and, um, therefore, he had
the national trust says that the recent cold weather has delayed blossoms in many parts of the uk, but the trust also says that when the temperatures start rising, we can look forward to a riot of spring colour, like these cherry trees in shipley in west yorkshire. and talking of temperatures rising, let s get the expert view with chris. well, we had temperatures up to 16 degrees today. that was in nantwich in cheshire. that is one feature of the weather this week. it s been pretty mild so far, more of that to come. it s also been quite grey and cloudy with rain around. more of that to come as well. this month has been a pretty wet month so far. alder grove, to the west of belfast, has had one and a half times as much rainfall as we would normally see in an average march. loads more to come. that area of cloud as the rain we had today and it will continue overnight. we have weather systems lining up in the atlantic, waiting to swing in. it is across western areas of the count
that are brighter tomorrow, but this big lump of cloud in the north sea, thatis big lump of cloud in the north sea, that is heading into northern england, southern eastern scotland and it is bringing fairly widespread outbreaks of rain, most of the rain will be light but it a damp night nevertheless, where you keep the cloud 3 6 degrees it is frost free but there will be frosts for part of southern england and north west scotland where the skies clear, temperatures could get down as low as mine four in the coldest spots, tomorrow, we still have this cloudy damp zone in northern england, southern, eastern areas of scotland. the rain extensive but not heavy. the rain extensive but not heavy. the best of the sunshine in the south and north west. temperatures should reach a high of between eight and ten, but like recent days will have a chilly north easterly wind coming in off the north sea, i think fairly quiet day coming up on friday, variable cloud. most of us should have radi