Past Programs
Family and Children - 2008
The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood (review) Read Transcript
27/10/2008
Rachel Power is a writer, artist and musician. She's also a mother of two young children. In her book The Divided Heart: Art and Motherhood she writes about her own experience and that of 26 other artist-mothers, who talk about balancing motherhood with finding the space to continue their creative lives. Clare Wright, also a writer and mother, read Rachel Power's book with particular interest.
An Upwrite Man - Tim Parks on the relationship between writers and their families
24/10/2008
Tim Parks is a novelist, essayist, critic and translator. He lives in Italy with his wife and children. Earlier this year, you may remember, Tim spoke to us about his collection of literary essays The Fighter. His most recent novel, Dreams of Rivers and Seas, has just been published. The arrival of the first printed copies of a new book, and the fact that his children are now old enough to read his novels, prompted Tim to think about the relationship between writers, particularly writers of fiction, and their families.
Books to read to children during financial ruin -- Erica Perl
14/10/2008
Each day we hear of the worsening state of the world economic system.
Of course, it's not the only time there's been an international financial crisis -- just think of the 30s Great Depression, the 70s oil crisis or the recession in the 80s.
For many young people though, this is their first experience of global economic collapse.
As Erica Perl has found, a look at children's books written during tough times reveals a recurring theme of economic hardship. They seem to be sending a message to kids that times have been worse.
Jackie Kay: Scottish poet, novelist and short-story writer Read Transcript
04/09/2008
Jackie Kay's a captivating writer and a warm and funny presence. Born in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father she was adopted by a white couple at birth and brought up in Glasgow. The experience of being adopted by, and growing up with, a white family inspired her first collection of poetry The Adoption Papers. Her first novel, Trumpet, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and she has also written a much-admired short story collection, Wish I Was Here. In 2006 Jackie Kay received an MBE for services to literature. Her latest book is called Darling, a collection of new and selected poems.
Amanda Curtin's new novel The Sinkings Read Transcript
18/08/2008
Western Australian writer Amanda Curtin's new novel The Sinkings deals with the 19th century murder of an ex-convict called Little Jock, who had lived his life as a man, but was found in death to have been a woman. Amanda Curtin uses this story to traverse some difficult territory, exploring the experience of being neither man nor woman, of being born of indeterminate gender and what that might mean, not just for a child, but also for a mother.
Isabel Allende Read Transcript
11/05/2008
Isabel Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days is based on her journals and her correspondence with her mother in Chile. It continues the intimate conversation her first memoir Paula began. It's also addressed to her daughter, reporting on how the family is faring. In it she describes what life has been like in California, where she's lived for 25 years, and how she has coped since Paula died in 1992.
Isabel Allende was born in Chile but is now well ensconced in San Francisco. She's best known for her novels The House of the Spirits from 1982 and City of the Beasts from 2002 as well as Paula.
The family life she reports on is complicated. There's Paula, of course, and Allende's other child, Nico, who, with his wife, Celia, has three children. There's Willie, Allende's partner since 1988, and his three children. Then there's Jason (son of Willie's second wife), who's with Sally, until Sally leaves him for Celia. There's Paula's ex-husband and his new partner. There are real grandparents, adopted grandparents (such as the mother of Allende's brother's second wife) and her friends in San Francisco, the Sisters of Perpetual Disorder. And there's Allende herself, the reformed 'mother-in-law from hell'. It's clear that her dysfunctional family provides as much drama and colour as any of her magical realism novels.
Writing about fear: Gabrielle Lord Read Transcript
28/04/2008
Gabrielle Lord says she writes about children being abused by grown-ups—either consciously or unconsciously—because when she was at boarding school she discovered what it's like to be defenceless at the hands of angry adults. It's a lesson she's never forgotten and one that has influenced her writing.
Isabel Allende Read Transcript
23/04/2008
Isabel Allende's memoir The Sum of Our Days is based on her journals and her correspondence with her mother in Chile. It continues the intimate conversation her first memoir Paula began. It's also addressed to her daughter, reporting on how the family is faring. In it she describes what life has been like in California, where she's lived for 25 years, and how she has coped since Paula died in 1992.
Isabel Allende was born in Chile but is now well ensconced in San Francisco. She's best known for her novels The House of the Spirits from 1982 and City of the Beasts from 2002 as well as Paula.
The family life she reports on is complicated. There's Paula, of course, and Allende's other child, Nico, who, with his wife, Celia, has three children. There's Willie, Allende's partner since 1988, and his three children. Then there's Jason (son of Willie's second wife), who's with Sally, until Sally leaves him for Celia. There's Paula's ex-husband and his new partner. There are real grandparents, adopted grandparents (such as the mother of Allende's brother's second wife) and her friends in San Francisco, the Sisters of Perpetual Disorder. And there's Allende herself, the reformed 'mother-in-law from hell'. It's clear that her dysfunctional family provides as much drama and colour as any of her magical realism novels.
