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World Poetry Day Double-Bill: Elizabeth Bishop's Geography III with Rachel Cohen
Elizabeth Bishop is one of those poets who’s often referred to as a writer’s writer, but this doesn’t mean her poems are hard to read. On the contrary: as one of the most loved and admired twentieth-century poets, Bishop has the rare ability to do high-low. She’s enjoyable and accessible and also intensely artful and complex, not to mention very funny. In this special episode, Sophie and Jonty chat to American writer and critic Rachel Cohen about her decades-long admiration for Bishop and deep appreciation for her art.
Bishop was born in New England and spent a significant amount of her childhood in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her writing is infused with the austerity and beauty of Northeast America. But Bishop has another side too, a flamboyance and lushness of texture that came from living in Key West Florida and Brazil. She struggled with alcoholism and depression and had intense lifelong friendships with several of the most important writers of her generation, including the great poets Robert Lowell and Marianne Moore.
We talk about the paradoxes and contradictions of Bishop and her last published collection, Geography III, with the brilliant Rachel Cohen, whose books, essays and occasional observations are, like Bishop’s poems, beautiful, meticulous, and expansive all at once. Rachel has written about Bishop in her fabulous book A Chance Meeting.
Further Reading:
Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III
Rachel Cohen, A Chance Meeting
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48. George Orwell 4: Come on, Eileen! Anna Funder, Mrs Orwell and Wifedom
01:00:06||Ep. 48George Orwell is one of the most famous names in classic literature, thanks to his novels Animal Farm and 1984, both dystopian fables of worlds gone mad, ruled over by autocratic pigs and authoritarian governments who monitor their citizens– or barnyard companions – every move.And yet for all his commitment to political and social justice, or at least the calling out of injustice and repression, Orwell’s private relationships were troubled and difficult, particularly his relationship with his wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy.In 2023, the internationally celebrated historian and novelist Anna Funder published Wifedom to instant acclaim. It’s a beautifully crafted biography of Eileen, re-assessment of Orwell, and polemical memoir of Anna’s own life as a writer, mother and wife. The book has had a huge impact on wives and women all over the world and has changed the way we think about Orwell.Anna’s home turf as a writer is the challenge of staying human under repressive regimes. She is the author of the brilliant Stasiland a documentary history of life in East Germany under the Stasi secret police in the aftermath of world war 2, and All That I Am, an historical novel about Nazi Germany and Hitler’s atrocities. Anna joins Sophie and Jonty in the studio to talk about Eileen, Eric Blair, early 20thC British history, and the experience of publishing Wifedom.47. George Orwell 3: Murder in the Barnyard: Animal Farm
01:20:13||Ep. 47Animal Farm is George Orwell’s micro masterpiece, an animal fable that offers a devastating critique of Stalinist Russia and the rise of totalitarianism. Orwell described it to a friend as a “little squib,” but it’s much more than that: a tiny atom bomb that lands a structurally perfect hit on mid-20th century political authoritarianism and communism’s failure to protect the people it purported to serve.Written over the winter 1943/1944, Animal Farm is the closest Orwell came to a piece of collaborative writing, as Orwell and Eileen revised the book together, huddled in bed to stay warm in chronically cold houses.Animal Farm was rejected by 4 publishers (including TS Eliot at Faber & Faber) before it was snapped up by Secker and Warburg and published in 1945 and became an instant hit, hugely popular ever since. As Sophie and Jonty tell the history of the novella, they also retrace the early years of Orwell’s marriage to Eileen O’Shaugnessey when they lived together on a smallholding farm in Wallingford Hertfordhsire, complete with a farm-shop; Orwell’s flirtation with violent revolution during the years of the Second World War; and, less dramatically, his time as a producer at the BBC. Sophie and Jonty also sing Beasts of England in its entirety (to the tune of Darling Clementine), discuss how to make the perfect cup of tea, and Jonty’s bad experiences at a prestigious London restaurant, and why - in many ways - Animal Farm really is just about the animals. Books referenced, quoted, or mentioned: Orwell: The New Life (2023) by DJ Taylor WIFEDOM (2023) by Anna Funder Orwell’s Roses (2021) by Rebecca SolnitDarkness at Noon (1940) by Arthur KoestlerEssays by George OrwellGulliver’s Travels (1726) by Jonathan SwiftThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Leviathan (1651) by Thomas HobbesThe Social Contract (1762) by Jean-Jacques RousseauThe Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels46. World Poetry Day Double-Bill: Can poetry change the world? The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
54:19||Ep. 46Together, Siegfried Sassoon’s The Old Huntsman (1917) and Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918) are among the greatest examples of protest art in British history. Sassoon was a decorated war hero, who took a stand - when few others dared - on the moral emptiness, institutional corruption and brutality of the First World War. Alongside his poetry, Sassoon took the shocking measure of writing an open letter, which was read out in parliament, in which he accused the British government and military of deception, of deliberately prolonging an ‘evil and unjust’ war, and the complacency of the British public for not holding the government to account.As a consequence, he faced a court-martial and certain imprisonment, but his friend - the fellow poet Robert Graves - intervened and persuaded the authorities that Sassoon was mentally ill. Instead, Sassoon was sent to Craiglockhart Hospital, under the care of pioneering psychoanalyst WHR Rivers, where he wrote many of his finest poems, before returning to the frontline for the final months of the war. In this episode, Sophie and Jonty are joined by historian and Sassoon biography Max Egremont, who explains the extraordinary circumstances that led to Sassoon - an officer so brave that his men nicknamed him Mad Jack - turning against the war and embracing the tiny, fringe movement that was pacifism in the 1910s. We’ll find out about his friendships with fellow poet Wilfred Owen and psychologist WHR Rivers at Craiglockhart Military Hospital, which inspired Pat Barker’s best-selling Regeneration trilogy. Finally, the question is asked - can poetry ever change the world?Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography (2005) by Max Egremont.Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker (1991-1995)45. George Orwell 2: The Revolution SHOULD NOT be televised: Homage to Catalonia
01:23:03||Ep. 45War is boring; revolution is boring; politics is boring. That’s the message of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. But, somehow, Homage to Catalonia itself is NOT boring. Published in 1938, it charts Orwell’s experience on, behind and beyond the front line of the fight against Fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Through the course of his narrative, written in the weeks immediately following his return to England, adrenalin still pumping in his veins, Orwell takes us through the complexity of internecine factionalism in Republican Barcelona, derring-do raids on General Franco’s trenches, his own experience of being shot in the throat by a fascist sniper, and the narrow escape by himself and his wife Eileen when they became political targets of the Soviet Union with a warrant out for their arrest. Homage to Catalonia was a massive flop - think Betamax video, New Coke, or Michael Jackson’s Invincible album - selling less than a thousand copies, but it has become recognised as a masterpiece of reportage. Most importantly, it contains the political awakening and many of the ideas leading directly to Animal Farm and 1984. In these pages, we see Orwell’s horror of totalitarianism, his fear of rats, the betrayal of workers by their supposedly revolutionary leaders, of newspaper censorship rewriting the past with alternative facts. And, in anarchist Barcelona, we even see a glimpse of Airstrip One - a crumbling post-revolutionary city with blue-overall wearing citizens, gradually succumbing to Stalinist mind-control. This is the second episode in our four-part series on George Orwell. The first, following Orwell’s early life was about the impact of the First World War, the moral abyss of the British Empire and the Great Depression on his first book Down and Out in Paris and London. In this, Sophie and Jonty look at the rise of fascism in Europe through Orwell’s front row seat of the Spanish Civil War, taking us up to brink of the Second World War. Content warning: mild bad language Books referenced, quoted, or mentioned: Orwell: The New Life (2023) by DJ Taylor WIFEDOM (2023) by Anna Funder Essays by George OrwellThe Road to Wigan Pier (1937) by George OrwellNineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell People of the Abyss (1904) by Jack London Tropic of Cancer (1934) by Henry Miller Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930) by Siegfried SassoonFor Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway43. George Orwell 1: The Best Gap Yah, great food writing and Paris hotels: Down and Out in Paris and London
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01:24:39||Ep. 41By many reckonings, this is the most famous novel in English. It’s also the book Jane Austen described as her own “Darling Child.” As we head to the milestone of Jane’s 250th Birthday in December (get ready for the minced chicken and negus party) Sophie and Jonty dig into one of the most joyful, funny, sexy stories ever told.In this episode we ask why this small novel of village life exploded into a global cultural icon, inspiring retelling upon retelling, and catapulting Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennet’s romance into a modern myth.You’ll hear about some lesser-known experiences from Jane Austen’s life that informed the writing, and why it took her so long (aspiring writers, take heart). Sophie tries to shoehorn four historical secrets at the start of the episode, but Jonty only lets her share two of them on air. And he dings her for being too interested in legal history. Instead, the duo argue about why mismatched attraction, or mistaking steamy passion for implacable dislike, is such an evergreen literary trope, and how much Elizabeth’s love of Darcy depends on seeing his enormous house.Both hosts give favorite jokes another outing – listeners can decide if repetition make them more funny. Not as funny as Austen, that’s for sure. Tune in for a tune-up about the original Meet the Parents, a tale of colliding families, ghastly mothers in law, and male bonding activities.-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio and get bonus content: patreon.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast-- Follow us on our socials:youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shortsinsta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/bluesky: @slobpodcast.bsky.socialBooks Mentioned or Used as Sources:Rachel Cohen, Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels, 2020.Claudia L. Johnson and Clara Tuite, 30 Great Myths About Jane Austen, 2020.Sandra MacPherson, “Rent to Own, or, What’s Entailed in Pride and Prejudice,” Representations, 2003.Claire Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life, 1999.Fay Weldon, Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen, 1985.Producer: Boyd BrittonDigital Content Coordinator: Olivia di CostanzoDesigner: Peita JacksonOur thanks to the University of Sydney Business School.40. Self-Help, dodgy marriages and the siren call of Australia: David Copperfield Part 2
54:17||Ep. 40In Part 2 of David Copperfield, we pick up David where we left him, sobbing at the door of Betsey Trotwood’s house in Dover. From this low, David’s life changes - he is no longer a victim, but embarks on a (very long) journey towards self-reliance, re-encountering old friends like Micawbers and Steerforth, but also new characters like Uriah Heep and the simpering Dora. To make sense of this long, rambling journey of redemption, Sophie and Jonty reveal the influence of the emerging self-help movement on Dickens’ world-view and how his side-hustle as the director of a Home for Homeless Women inspired him to send many of the characters in David Copperfield off to Australia at the end of the book - and the inevitable happy ending this suggests. BOOKS MENTIONED OR USED AS SOURCES: Charles Dickens: A Life (2011) by Claire Tomalin Self-Reliance (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Help (1859) by Samuel Smiles 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals (1944) by Lewis Namier Demon Copperhead (2022) by Barbara KingsolverRivals (1988) by Jilly Cooper