Past Perfect: Penelope Fitzgerald

   

    Ahead of publication of Hermione Lee's Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life, do listen if you can to Radio 4's Past Perfect in which literary historian Michael Alexander assesses the much-admired novelist whose works are perhaps not as widely read as they should be. He highlights the modesty and economy of her style, and alongside her biographer, her daughter, and Julian Barnes, considers what makes Penelope Fitzgerald's books so distinctive and distinguished.

Comments

[Anji]

Thank you Karen, for the link. I actually managed to listen to it, often the links are not available to those of us across the pond. The Bookshop was the first book of hers that I read and now I want to go on and read the rest of her titles. What an interesting lady!

[Cornflower]

Glad you were able to hear the programme, Anji.
I loved The Bookshop, but also admire the other books of PF's I've read. Interesting that they recommended The Bookshop, Human Voices, The Beginning of Spring & The Blue Flower for anyone new to her, but said not to start with The Blue Flower. I think I read Gate of Angels first.

[Claire]

Wasn't it fascinating and now impatiently waiting for my copy of the biography to arrive. I think I'll listen again whilst it's still available on i-player. My first was The Bookshop which I just love.

[Cornflower]

Didn't her family sound interesting (e.g. their saying, "do the difficult thing")? Remarkable, too, was the amount of reading she did which was then concentrated to provide tiny details in the books.
I'm looking forward to the biography.

[Claire]

Meant to mention that there's a very interesting article by Hermione Lee on Offshore in Saturday's Review section of The Guardian.
"Do the difficult thing" - what a marvellous motto.

[Simon T]

Thanks for the link, I will bookmark this as I love Fitzgerald. Not sure I'll be getting the biog though, as I found HL's Virginia Woolf a bit over the top.

[Cornflower]

I'll look for that. Thank you, Claire.

[Cornflower]

I'll bear that in mind, Simon!

[Christine Harding]

I've not read anything of her's, but I do have Gate of Angels on the TBR pile - I saw it and remembered enjoying listening to it on Radio 4. I'll have to get it down from the shelf, and see if I can do a catch-up, or listen again to the programme you recommend.