I don't think any one writing her first book will write just from start to finish, without any help at all. We have to give willie credit for probably being a very good editor and helping her refine the book in a literary sense. After the claudine books, i think collett went on to write to mina books er, again, quite sexy tales. There's a wonderful story about the first night of ref degip's egyptian dream. Miss the lover and collette is playing out a scenario of the very sexi scenario between an archaeologist who discovers a mummy and unwraps the mummis bindings and windings. And in the end, col
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding French writers of the twentieth century. The novels of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873 - 1954) always had women at their centre, from youth to mid-life to old age, and they were phenomenally popular, at first for their freshness and frankness about women’s lives, as in the Claudine stories, and soon for their sheer quality as she developed as a writer. Throughout her career she intrigued readers by inserting herself, or a character with her name, into her works, fictionalising her life as a way to share her insight into the human experience.
With
Diana Holmes
Professor of French at the University of Leeds
Michèle Roberts
Writer, novelist, poet and Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia
And
Belinda Jack
Fellow and Tutor in French Literature and Language at Christ Church, University of Oxford
Producer: Simon Tillotson