Book Reading

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.

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.

Reader Tammy McCarthy
Sound engineer Nic Mierisch
Adapted and produced by Kate Bochner

Dec 21 - Jan 29
The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
Read by Frederick Parslow
Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows was first published just ninety years ago. It has not only become a children's classic, but remains a firm favourite with adults. These are the adventures of the brave and poetic Ratty, vulnerable but loyal Mole, kind Mr Badger, and the engaging reprobate Toad of Toad Hall.

Frederick Parslow's 1980 reading of The Wind in the Willows was one of the most popular in the 50-year history of the ABC Book Reading.
Adapted and produced by Anne Bellew