BBC R4 Open Book: A Book of One's Own (a history of women's writing in the last hundred years)

As part of a six part series entitled A Book of One's Own, the BBC radio programme Open Book has been featuring women's writing in the last couple of programmes. Both are available to listen to on-line. The latest programme, featuring Nicola Beauman, publisher of Persephone Books, is here:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012kn25

Mariella Frostrup presents the second part of her series examining the history of women's writing in the last hundred years. This week in A Book of One's Own she explores fiction of the 1930s and 40s - a time when the vote had been won but sexual inequality was still rife - with the help of writers and critics including Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf's biographer, and feminist publisher Carmen Calil.

With the bicentenary of William Makepeace Thackeray's birth fast approaching we ask comedian Al Murray to tell us about his great, great, great grandfather and why he thinks Vanity Fair is still as relevant today as it was when it was first written in 1848.

Plus, we find out about a new charitable scheme which is giving away books for free.

Producer: Ella-mai Robey.

BOOKLIST

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY BICENTENNIAL

Al Murray’s (Thackeray’s great, great, great grandson) picks:

Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd

Going to See a Man Hanged – William Makepeace Thackeray
Publisher: unknown

Biography:

Thackeray – DJ Taylor
Publisher: Vintage

A BOOK OF ONE’S OWN – PART 2

Women writers:

A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Someone at a Distance – Dorothy Whipple
Publisher: Persephone Books Ltd

Driftwood – Dorothy Whipple
Publisher: Richardson

Invitation to the Waltz – Rosamond Lehmann
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd

South Riding – Winifred Holtby
Publisher: BBC Books

The contributors’ books:

Virginia Woolf – Hermione Lee
Publisher: Vintage

A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-39 – Nicola Beauman
Publisher: Persephone Books Ltd

You can still download the first programme as a podcast as well as other episodes of Open Book too.

Just listening to Open Book Part two now - what a pity I missed the Suffragettes! But loved this episode - thanks for posting! A women must have money and a room of her own .... love it and VW!

Just found that the first programme is available after all. Do listen to these - they are lovely! Holtby and Lehmann .... so thought provoking and loved the 'I want my girls to feel they can do anything' quote from South Riding.

I thought the third episode was even better! Here goes:-

Available as a Podcast and at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012qnl8

In the third instalment of her history of women's twentieth-century writing, A Book of One's Own, Mariella investigates the era of sexual liberation in the 1960s and 70s and how it ignited feminist fiction. She also traces the explosion in feminist literary theory, a development which has not been welcomed by some women writers, as Mariella finds out from novelist AS Byatt.

In the week of Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Mariella asks writers N.J. Cooper and Tess Gerritsen, if the genre has become too gory.

Plus with the news that houses once belonging authors JG Ballard and JK Rowling are up for sale, Olivia Cole - poet and Literary Editor at GQ - provides a countdown to her top 5 author abodes.

BOOKLIST

CRIME

Face of the Devil – N.J. Cooper
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

The Silent Girl – Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: by Bantam Press

Good as Dead – Mark Billingham
Publisher: Little Brown (on 18 August 2011)

The Leopard – Jo Nesbo
Publisher: Vintage

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
Publisher: Quercus

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Abacus

AUTHOR’S HOMES:

Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd

Lewis Carroll – Alice in Wonderland
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd

Henry James – The Turn of the Screw (novella)
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Harry Potter Boxed Set - JK Rowling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton : an Autobiography - JG Ballard
Publisher: Harper Perennial

A BOOK OF ONE’S OWN

The Women’s Room - Marilyn French
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd

Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
Publisher: Vintage

The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
Publisher: Harper Perennial

A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing - Elaine Showalter
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd

The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd

The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories - Angela Carter
Publisher: Vintage Classics

The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Sexual Politics - Kate Millet
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd

The Female Eunuch - Germaine Greer
Publisher: Harper Perennial