25 October 1998
November, 1998
|
Transcript
This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.
Continuing until 6th November
The Children's Bach
by Helen Garner
Nov 9 - 24
A Month in the Country
by J.L. Carr
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr was much acclaimed when published in 1980. It won the Guardian Fiction Prize, was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and was later filmed with Kenneth Branagh.
Set in 1920 in the North of England, it tells the story of Tom Birkin, a young soldier traumatised by his experiences in the First World War.
Tom takes a job in a remote village where his task is to uncover a medieval wall painting in a church. Why has he been asked to do this? Aren't the locals a little strange? And how did the unpleasant vicar come by such a beautiful young wife?
The highly regarded British actor Samuel West, gives a sensitive portrayal of a shattered young man determined to come to terms with a completely different life.
Read by Samuel West
Adapted for radio by Elizabeth Bradbury
Produced by Tracey Neale (BBC)
Nov 25
The Searchlight
by Virginia Woolf
Memories are stirred by an Air Force practice search for enemy aircraft.
Read by Jane Harders
Nov 26
The Party
by Marjorie Barnard
A young woman recovering from a failed romance attends a party.
Read by Jane Harders
Nov 27
The Hair and the Teeth
by Carmel Bird
A mother reflects on lost treasures.
Read by Jane Harders
Nov 30 - Dec 12
The Women in Black
by Madeleine St John
This beautifully observed comic novel looks back to the Australia of forty years ago, and the intersecting lives of a group of very different women.
In the week before Christmas, the staff in Ladies Cocktail Frocks at F.G. Goode's Department Store are coping with more than just the crowds of shoppers and the intense heat of the season. In 1956, life in Sydney is changing fast. And the staff at Goode's wait stoically -- or less patiently -- for their own circumstances to change: for examination results to be known; for errant husbands to return; for Mr Right. By the time the New Year sales are over, each of these women in black will have seized her opportunity and made all the necessary adjustments.
The Women In Black was the first novel by Madeleine St John, an Australian writer living in London, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The Essence of the Thing.
Read by Tammy McCarthy
Adapted and produced by Kate Bochner
