Sense & Sensibility reworked; Austenian happy endings

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Alfa Romeo, Austen Project, Edward Ferrars, happy endings, Jane Austen, Joanna Trollope, Northanger Abbey, Radio 4, Sense & Sensibility, Woman's Hour

New to me, but probably not to you, is The Austen Project, which will see updated versions of JA’s great canon. The first is Joanna Trollope’s ‘Sense & Sensibility’. You can hear Joanna T talking about it on the 24 October edition of Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ – at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03dvbyp (first item). She recognises that Austen purists might not approve of such modernised versions and so advises them not to read hers. Her book was also covered in the ‘Times’ (and no doubt other newspapers) on 25 October. One of the changes she makes is that Willoughby drives an Alfa Romeo instead of riding a magnificent horse; and Edward Ferrars is looking for work in the charity field instead of seeking a parish where he could be vicar.

As there has even been a version of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ involving zombies JA probably fares rather well at the hands of JT!

Joanna Trollope says in the ‘Woman’s Hour’ interview that she feels that Jane Austen rather loses interest in her happy endings. That is the impression I got in ‘Northanger Abbey’, which I’ve just reread after 45+ years. There the loose ends seem to be tidied up in remarkably good time and fortune suddenly smiles on almost all.

Joanna Trollope’s version of S&S is out now. Go to http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17349163-sense-sensibility for more info.

Susan Hill interview

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Black Sheep, Fiction, mining village, Radio 4, Susan Hill, Woman in Black

If you’re a fan of Susan Hill you might be interested in a short interview with her on last night’s ‘Front Row’ on Radio 4. You can catch it on http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03dfpjp/Front_Row_Susan_Hill_Pop_art_design_GF_Newman_Fake_movie_trails/ .

In it she talks about how she writes, the success of her ghost story ‘The Woman in Black’, and her new novel ‘Black Sheep’, set in a mining village.

Alice Munro, Nobel laureate

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Alice Munro, Christmas, Nobel, prize, Short story

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 has been awarded to Alice Munro, “master of the contemporary short story”. Good to see the short story getting recognised. I’ve not read Alice Munro – any thoughts from people who have? Would this be a suitable hint to drop in family ears for Christmas?

Must you finish a book you’ve started?

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Guilt, Joanna Trollope, Literature, Maeve Binchy, Mobile libraries, Reading, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

I feel guilty if I don’t finish a book I’ve started to read. It nags at me somewhat that I’ve never got round to reading the rest of ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’. Maybe I inherited this from my parents. But, when she was in her 80s, my mother said to me, “I’ve realised that at my age if I’m not enjoying a book, I don’t have to read it. There are plenty of others.” And indeed there were – the mobile library came outside her house each fortnight and gave her another stack of Maeve Binchy or Joanna Trollope etc. (A service that I believe has, sadly, now been cut from her area.) Is there a difference between closing an unfancied book for ever then starting a more promising one, and changing channels on the TV? Or should I do my duty and go back to ‘Tess’?

Hilary Mantel on Bring Up The Bodies

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Anne Boleyn, BBC Radio 4, Bookclub, Bring Up the Bodies, Henry VIII, Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize, Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall

Just listened to Bookclub on Radio 4, with Hilary Mantel talking about ‘Bring Up The Bodies’ and looking forward to the third volume in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Well worth tuning in if you liked ‘Wolf Hall’ or ‘Bodies’: certainly an appetiser for Vol 3. As she described it, ‘Wolf Hall’ led up to Thomas More’s demise, ‘Bodies’ to Anne Boleyn’s, and Vol 3 will take us to her hero’s own, with the focus on his relationship with Henry VIII. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c2mys is the link to the Radio 4 page; the programme will be repeated on Thursday at 3-30 pm and will soon be available on I-Player.