The idea of normality, according to the Anglican priest, Rachel Mann, “haunts our idea of what it is to be human”.

Lent Talks
BBC Radio 4

The idea of normality, according to the Anglican priest, Rachel Mann, “haunts our idea of what it is to be human”. As the first of this year’s tranche of Lent Talks (4 March) moved into gear, you had an idea that she knew what she was talking about. Transitioning into a woman at the age of 23, Mann had from childhood been obsessed by a suspicion that she was not what her body declared her to be. Her formative years spent desperately trying to be “normal” sprang, she maintained, from a deep-rooted awareness that she would never fit in.

The theme of this year’s season, which continues until 8 April, is “identity”.

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