Starting on the 13th of July, BBC7 will be airing Winifred Holtby's The Crowded Street in 10 episodes. You can also listen again online after airing.

Oh, goody!! Thanks!

Thanks Christina - This worked SO well for me with South Riding.

>#3:
Barbara;
I detect a little sarcasm there. Does that mean it will not be available for us to view here in the good old U.S. of A.?
belva

Gosh no. It actually worked so well I became sort of addicted to listening every night. If it follows the same format as South Riding it's an audio adaptation in play form (BBC 7 is a Radio station rather than tv), so somewhat abridged from the book. After the 13th, click on the link Christina has given above and you'll be able to listen too.

I usually reserve my sarcasm for my husband :)

Oh, got it. That is great that we can participate as well. I love the BBC. Their television programing is superb, but I have never listened to their radio broadcasts. Thank you for setting me straight and filling me in. I appreciate it.

Just listened to Episode 1 of this. It is available for another 6 days. Can't remember if I had to install the BBC iplayer when I listened to South Riding, but if I did it was easy because I am not in the least technical.

I have just listened to the first installment and loved it so much that I am off to Persephone Books to buy a copy of the book! (They've reprinted it and it's obviously more readily available than hunting down a Virago copy).

Indulged myself for a quarter of an hour this afternoon - wonderful. Highly recommended!

I'm saving myself for the Sunday omnibus!

Yes--excellent! I've just caught up with the first two episodes. Now I must get myself the book!!

Message edited by its author, Jul 14, 2009, 10:11pm.

The next adaptation of a VMC on BBC Radio 7 will be Edith Wharton's The Reef, available for listening online starting on July 27.

I'll be listening Christina. I am LOVING the Holtby!

Well spotted Christina - thank you! I am so very pleased that you can all enjoy these as well. Are any of you following the Proms concerts as well I wonder?

Thank you for bringing this serialisation to our attention, dear Christina! Wasn't The Crowded Street enjoyable? Apart from evoking the period in which I am so interested I found the development of Muriel so fascinating and totally credible. I loved the quote that gave the book its title so much that I have recorded it in my journal.

Just a reminder to myself and friends that The Reef by Edith Wharton begins today. The link is as in message 12 from Christina.

For anyone who lives in the US, Turner Classic Movies is showing They Were Sisters on Aug 2 at 8AM Eastern Time. According to the blurb, Dorothy Whipple helped adapt her novel to the screen. I know Whipple isn't a Virago author, but she is Persephone...

I'm going to watch just because James Mason is in it. Sigh...

OMG Liz - it's been years! I remember this movie from when the BBC used to have a Sunday afternoon film (always black and white). As soon as I saw the book on the Persephone site I hoped it was this film. 8 am? If you remember message me the day before to remind me to set the clock.

I double checked-They Were Sisters is 10AM, not 8AM, on TCM on Aug 2. The Seventh Veil is also playing. It is a whole day of Mason movies.

This (The Reef) is excellent and I have listened to all 5 episodes so far.

Message edited by its author, Jul 31, 2009, 8:20am.

I do hope someone other than me watched They Were Sisters on TCM. I thought it was really lovely and James Mason a total bounder. It says on the TCM site that after playing half a dozen vile men in a row Mason was voted the most popular actor in England. Says a lot about us women I guess.

Romain, I haven't watched it yet, but I have it TiVo'ed so I can relax and watch it Monday evening. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!

I recorded it and watched it last night. A little on the melodramatic side, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now must find the book!

Another wonderful read, Charlotte Bronte's Villette is presently being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in ten quarter hour episodes and is available here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ltt46

Whilst not a VMC I reckon a lot of us will relish this work which is rarely adapted. Compelling and powerful even after only one episode!

In addition there is also Muriel Spark : The Biography also on BBC Radio 4 and it may be found here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qftk

Both are available for seven days from each broadcast.

Oh Villette is a favorite. Thank you Julie!

So pleased Maren - I am totally loving it and completely absorbed by the drama.

>23 Thank you, Julie! Both sound interesting.

Whilst not a VMC I reckon a lot of us will relish this work which is rarely adapted.

But, Julie, Villette is a VMC (#357)!

Silly me - how wonderful and thank you Christina dear for so kindly pointing out my error. Fancy trying to give out such misinformation. I do so hope that you are able to relish it Maren and Christina and that the site is not barred in any way =)

Makes note to self to check list more often.

Message edited by its author, Aug 4, 2009, 5:44pm.

On Woman's Hour Radio 4 today there was an article related to Villette with Lucasta Miller who wrote The Bronte Myth and Jude Morgan who wrote The Taste of Sorrow. Again, if you can - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00...

Thanks for the info Julie but I listened to Villette on audio about a year ago. However, like you I am still enjoying The Reef.

>27 - Julie - thanks for the alert about the adaptations and there is no bar on the site here so I can listen to the programs..

Finished listening to The Reef. I agree with the review that said 'excellent novel, weak ending'.

Some radio programs of VMCs, starting August 24:

Jane Eyre will be broadcast in four 60-minute episodes

Valley of the Dolls will be broadcast in fifteen 15-minute episodes

Thank you Christina - there is also The Wide Sargasso Sea - the untold story of Mr Rochester's first wife on Radio 7.

#31 - I agree about The Reef!

Villette was wonderful and will certainly stay with me for a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'discipline' of listening and became completely immersed. (could be something to do with my dear Keith's excellent headphones!)

As I said in the Persephone group--The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes are currently playing on BBC7. Starting today, those that are interested can listen online for up to seven days after airing.

And you can catch a 60-minute adaptation of the VMC Agnes Gray on BBC7 for the next three days.

Daphne Du Maurier's Frenchman's Creek is available now on BBC7 for listening.

Thanks for these Christina, I have been listening to some of them on line. How wonderful!

The dramatisation of Frenchman's Creek is adorably corny. The Frenchman and his phony accent cracks me up ;D

A new tv adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma starts this sunday (4th October) 9pm on BBC1.
Woohoo! is all I can say! Really big fan of Emma so looking forward to this.

For those of you in the US--don't worry! PBS has BBC1's new version of Emma slated to appear in the 2010 season of Masterpiece Theatre.

Apparently the BBC are planning a new TV dramatisation of South Riding. It is a shame they are axing The Pallisers though :(
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t...

I know! I would have really liked to see a new adaptation of The Pallisers as well! shame.

Personally, I would love to see an adaptation of my number #1 Favorite Clueless Bookstore Customer Request: Clan of the Cave Bear by Jane Austen.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a prehistoric woman, in possession of blonde hair, must be in want of a tribe."

LOL, Andrew!! Did someone really ask for that?

Andrew, that is really funny! *mind reeling off in all directions, imagining the manners of the ton as expressed by the Cave Bear clan and phaetons pulled by woolly oxen*

Christine, I am sorry to say that someone really did ask for that. We held a contest for best opening line and the above was my contribution. I wish I still had the others.

Message edited by its author, Oct 5, 2009, 2:34pm.

No ..... surely not!

Oh dear Andrew. That is terrible. Back in my bookselling days in Idaho (that sounds like the start of something) I had a coworker who regularly dropped priceless gems. Mind you she worked in the bookshop with me.

One day she said, "I don't mind new age books but I don't think we should sell Satanist books."

me: "We're (insert major change bookseller here) do we sell Satanist books?"

Her: "Yes you know like The Poisonwood Bible and The Satanic Verses"

me: (Long pause) "You know those are fiction right? One is about missionaries in Africa and the other is about the Koran, you know Islam."

Her: "Well I don't think we should sell them."

Ah yess........

From maybe my least favorite human on the planet that I knew personally (and I shudder as I type this in fear that I may conjure him), the Asst. Man. of our local bookstore: "Put that back in biggerography."

Also (when the Ramses exhibit was touring the country and we had a special section): "Put that with the Rambus stuff."

(I don't think either compares with Cave Jane or new age fiction, I'm just making a contribution.)

And while I'm at it, how many ex-booksellers remember this conversation.
Customer: I'm here to pick up my friend's book. His name is Michael.
BS: What's his last name?
Cus: I don't know.
BS: What's the name of the book?
Cus: I don't know ......{taking much thought}.....it's blue.

Christine - yikes. That's all I can say.

LizzieD - Reminds me of another favorite Clueless Customer Request:

C: "Do you have that big, red book you had in the window at Christmas?"
BS: "Do you remember the title?"
C: "No."
BS: "The author maybe?"
C: "No."
BS: "What was it about?"
C: "I don't know, but it was about this big (demonstrates with hands) and it was red."

Hey LizzieD; (and all)
IALMBFAO!~!~!~!
loves,
belva

BBC4's Afternoon Reading is a short extract from The Quest for Christa T by Christa Wolf. You can listen here through the rest of the week.

Thank you Christina for bringing that to our attention. They sound fascinating.

As I am probably the only LTer *not* to have read it I am also listening to the BBC Radio 7 reading of A Thousand Slendid Suns. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00frmm4

Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton is now online as a one-hour program for listening for the next 7 days.

Thanks Christina, that will fill an hour somewhere in my reading week. It's one I have not read before.

Thanks again Christina - well spotted!

It's on my tbr pile. Does a one hour adaptation count?

>57 Barbara: Does a one hour adaptation count?

Madame de Treymes is one of Wharton's short stories (maybe novella? what's the definition?)--about 56 pages. So, one hour could be comprehensive.

The Madame de Treymes published by Virago is four short novellas: The Touchstone, Sanctuary, Madame de Treymes, and Bunner Sisters.

I looked at my non-Virago edition and it is indeed short stories, so I can at least do one of them and then read the rest.

The Rector's Daughter is Susan Hill's choice for the BBC Radio 4's 'Neglected Classic' list at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/ope...

The book that receives the most votes will be dramatised next year. More info on the full list is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/ope...

Message edited by its author, Nov 2, 2009, 8:27pm.

BBC Radio 7 is featuring Mrs Miniver this week at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nnrp5... It is an abridged reading of the book by Penelope Wilton.

Message edited by its author, Nov 6, 2009, 5:28am.

Please forgive me as I am sharing a non Virago link here. I know a number of us are interested in the first world war and the role of women. The Diaries of Edith Appleton is a series of three readings featuring extracts from the diaries of Edith Appleton, a nurse working close to the front line during the First World War. They are being read this week and may be found here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nqbbq

Edith Appleton was born in Deal, Kent in 1877. She kept diaries of her experience as a nurse working close to the front line - she served in France for the full duration of the war.

Her handwritten diaries detail the horrors of wartime, including the first use of poison gas. But they also record some rare lighter moments: how she and her colleagues spent their time off duty and what life was really like for nurses at the Western Front.

After the Armistice in November 1918, she joined 42 Ambulance Train and, in February 1919 was appointed to the staff of Dame Maud McCarthy, Matron in Chief, at Boulogne. She was demobilised on 22 December 1919.

Amongst the decorations awarded to Edith were the Military OBE, the Royal Red Cross and the Belgian Queen Elizabeth medal.

Thank you so much for all of that info Julie. I know we all appreciate it. I certainly do. I have developed an obsession with wartime diaries ever since reading Battle Cry of Freedom this summer.
belva

Thanks Belva - in fact there is a really good website where you can read the remarkable diaries along with pictures etc.
http://www.edithappleton.org.uk/- Take a look and see what you think - I think it is absolutely marvellous.

I am using women and war as one of my reading categories next year along with 'Votes For Women' as I am so very interested in that period and the themes from that time forward.
As you know it is Armistice Day today and so this is all very fresh in my mind. The last three surviving soldiers of the first world war all died this year and so there was a solemn thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey today which was centred around th etomb of The Unknown Soldier. It is really a passing of that generation - but of course my Mummy keeps going but then she was born in 1915 so was hardly eligible to fight or support in that war.

Message edited by its author, Nov 11, 2009, 3:57pm.

Julie - many many years ago I had a friend who was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to interview women about their roles in the Great War. He set off to interview old ladies then in their late 70's to late 80's and was astounded to find them candid about everything, including their love lives.

My favorite Armistice Day book is Random Harvest - in my view the most romantic book ever written - in which a soldier with amnesia walks out of a mental hospital on the day of the Armistice and in a dense pea souper fog meets the love of his life.

Thank you for the info, Julie. It is interesting indeed!
Now I am off to check the Edith Appleton's link.

You are welcome dear firends and thank you for the new recommendations.

romain - your friend had a wonderful job to do. When reading many of the books of the period it saddens me that we did not take more notice of these redoubtable women whilst they were still alive. If you are able to access the BBC site - there is a whole archive section of interviews, film and photos - a truly wonderul resource.

Another one friends may find interesting and wish to keep up with the three part drama series. The title is 'Women We Have Loved', this week featuring .... Enid Blyton .... and is on BBC4 on Monday evening.

More info here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nxkm8

Random Harvest was written by James Hilton who wrote Lost Horizon and so many others including Goodbye, Mr. Chips, I believe.
I am going to have to find that one Barbara. Sounds soooo good. Thank you everyone for all the info and recx.
belva

Message edited by its author, Nov 14, 2009, 3:06pm.

You can listen to du Maurier's The King's General for the next six days on BBC7 here.

Her The House on the Strand will be available in 12 episodes here starting on Tuesday.

Jamaica Inn is also available in 4 hour-long episodes here. (Episode 1 expires in two days).

>65, 68 Thanks for reminding me I've had Random Harvest on the TBR pile forever, now moving it up.

>69 The House on the Strand is one of my favorite du Maurier novels, so I will definitely be listening! Thanks, Christina!

>69 Thank you, Christina! The King's General looks interesting.