Radio: Pick of the Day

THANKS TO Nancy Mitford (right), middle-class parents have had to worry about their children saying "toilet" instead of "lavatory" and "pardon?" instead of "what?". According to Stafford on Humour (3.30pm R4), this nonsense was meant as a tease: despite suffering physical and emotional pain, which led to at least one suicide attempt, Mitford had an urge to amuse, and it never occurred to her to use her own suffering as material for literature.

Postscript (9.15pm R3) tonight studies Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose Confessions started the fashion for self-revelation. Kevin Jackson assesses the book's impact and wonders whether Rousseau was quite as candid as he claimed to be.