Show Notes
In this episode, I have a real literary treat for you.
First, we’re heading to a rather special location in West London: a lovely, sunny writer’s shed at the bottom of James Dunford Wood’s garden. It’s an intimate setting for a fascinating conversation with four experienced authors who have joined forces to meet the challenges of today’s increasingly competitive publishing world.
They’ve formed a new venture, The Authors' Collective, with a shared ambition: to ensure their writing continues to reach readers and find its place in an ever-changing book market. I sat down with all four to talk about their latest books, their writing lives and what it means to work together in pursuit of a common goal.
Melissa Jones introduces us to her new book, Gone for a Soldier, Conrad Williams talks about Say You Love Me, while Candida Crewe discusses Disapproval and James Dunford Wood brings us into the world of his latest work, The Big Little War. Four writers, four very different books, and one shared determination to keep good writing alive and in front of a book-buying public. It’s a conversation about creativity, collaboration and the realities of being an author today.
And there’s a bonus for you, too. I’ll be speaking with Francis Spufford, chair of the judges for the second Tadeusz Bradecki Prize, following its recent award ceremony at the Polish Hearth Club in Kensington. We’ll hear about the prize, its celebration of imaginative writing across genres and cultures, and the winning book by Julian Brave NoiseCat, We Survived the Night, praised by the judges as “astonishing and meritorious”.
Photo: Candida Crewe, Conrad Williams, Tim Allen, James Dunford, Melissa Jones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Cultural Crunch
Matilda Ziegler and Agni Scott are old friends, both actresses whose stage and screen work spans decades. In the late eighties Mattie was known to millions as Donna in Eastenders and more recently she played Rowan Atkinson's love interest, Mr Bean's girlfriend Pearl. Agni starred alongside Harry Connick Jr. in the Netfilx hit romantic comedy Find Me Falling, set in Cyprus where where she grew up. You may have seen her in Bridget Jones' Baby as Colin Firth's ex-wife. Now they are working together on stage in a brilliant revival of a play written in 1937- Judgement Day by Ödön von Horváth. It's somewhat of a full circle moment for Mattie who starred in Stephen Daldry's 1989 staging of the play, translated by Christopher Hampton at the same theatre -The Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington. She's directing this time, with her daughter Faye in the role she herself played thirtyseven years ago.
This is the first of two special editions of The Cultural Crunch from Edinburgh Festival. There really is no better place to be in August, when the city become a vibrant beating hub of creativity. The Fringe has more than three thousand shows across hundreds of venues, including for the first time this year - a sauna. Before the madness commenced, I caught up with six writers, directors and performers as they prepared to take their shows to Edinburgh. And what a talented bunch they are! Will Usherwood-Bliss of NewsReview, the topical sketch comedy show celebrating almost half a century at Fringe; Kitty Falcon whose moving tribute to her late father Sitting (In Silence) is set in a silent retreat; Conor Dye writer of Tap Out (or I'll hit you again), a comic play about a man who starts picking fights with strangers- just to feel something; James Watterson who plays a library inspector in The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy!; Electra Kolb, a Fringe veteran at just eighteen, who is returning to Edinburgh with her one woman show Father, Away She Goes and finally one half circus duo Ockam's Razor Alex Harvey, who is taking to the trapeze with his wife in a new show called Collaborator.
It has undeniably been the summer of The Odyssey. Homer's epic poem is almost 3000 years old and has finally been given the big screen treatment it deserves. Christopher Nolan's blockbusting film adaptation has been well worth the wait and is without doubt the cinematic highlight of the year. You will be familiar with the plot, Greek hero Odysseus uses his wits to survive a perilous journey home from The Trojan War to reclaim his family and kingdom, despite the best efforts of sirens, sorcerers and a cyclops. Through readings and thought-provoking discussions, this bonus episode of The Cultural Crunch serves as both an excellent introduction and a scholarly appreciation of one of the greatest stories ever told.
Robin Mahoney has spent a lifetime working in film and television and has an infectious enthusiasm for his craft. We first met in the summer of 1993 when he was gathering a crew of fresh young creatives to make a film about a music festival on a farm in the Somerset village of Pilton. Glastonbury The Movie went on to become the definitive document of the festival before it became the internationally famous cultural phenomenon that it is today. It also captures British youth culture at the end of the analogue age, free from camera phones and corporate hype. It's a fallow year on the farm so while the festival is taking a break Robin decided to mark the 30th anniversary of his film with a UK- wide cinema release. We met up again to reminisce and celebrate this very special film.
In this special edition of The Cultural Crunch I took my roving microphone for a day out at one of the most glorious events of the English summer season - The Chelsea Flower Show. There I met designers and creative teams behind some of the gold medal-winning gardens. I discovered that ancient woodlands are making a much needed comeback and how a charity that aims to end food poverty has collaborated with a green-fingered genius to create a haven of tranquility. I began by taking a behind the scenes tour of one of the most talked about gardens at the show, a beautiful fusion of art and nature that will soon find a permanent home outside Tate Britain.