Show Notes
In the sixth episode of the Working Class Library, Kevin Barry joins Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir Angela’s Ashes.
McCourt’s account of his poverty-stricken childhood in New York and Limerick has sold ten million copies to date, and has been translated into more than 25 languages. Previously reluctant to believe anyone would be interested in the story of a poor family, the former schoolteacher waited until he was in his 60s to write and publish the book. As Kevin Barry explains, the scale of its success, and perhaps its false association with the 'misery memoir' genre, can obscure the brilliance of McCourt’s craft. In their discussion, recorded live at Hexham Book Festival, Kevin, Claire and Richard set it firmly in the Irish literary firmament.
Kevin provides special insight into the Irish setting of the story, as he reveals that his father knew the McCourts, and even went to the same school – Leamy’s – where young Frank was educated. At the end, we ask if it deserves a place on the shelves of our imaginary library of great books by and about ordinary people.
More from The Working Class Library
For the ninth episode of the Working Class Library, the writer and campaigner Terri White joins Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about the legendary Catherine Cookson. We focus on Cookson’s 1968 novel about a mixed-ethnicity marriage in 1920s Tyneside, but also talk a lot about the author herself, and her phenomenal popularity among working-class women readers in the late 20th century.
For the eighth episode of the Working Class Library, the globally bestselling author Lee Child joins hosts Richard Benson and Claire Malcolm to talk about Dreda Say Mitchell’s groundbreaking 2004 novel Running Hot.
In this episode of the Working Class Library, David Peace joins Claire Malcolm, Chief Executive of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, to discuss David Storey’s classic, controversial 1960 kitchen-sink novel, This Sporting Life.
For the fifth episode of the Working Class Library, the novelist David Nicholls joins Claire Malcolm, CEO of New Writing North, and Richard Benson, editor of The Bee, and to discuss Sue Townsend’s 1982 novel The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾.
For this episode, Richard and Claire are joined by novelist Sarah Hall to consider Flora Thompson’s memoir Lark Rise to Candleford.