The Beauty and Significance of Ivy

Sally does her washing on the narrowboat, and with spring in the air, her thoughts turn to the past. She reads from an old favourite, the children’s classic novel, The Wind in the Willows, and discusses its characters and themes with her friend from next door, Maeve Magnus, who is reading it for the first time and sees close parallels between the book and their own lives on the river. Sally recalls her fierce search for meaning and direction of her university days, and how she plunged into the writings of the American scholar Camille Paglia; then she reads an illuminating passage written by a former student, the writer, art critic and academic, Rebecca Birrell. Sally ends by reflecting on her desire for privacy and space, and the adoption of literary and artistic personae, reaching back to the masks worn by actors in ancient Greece.

The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by the Scottish novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help the excitable, impetuous, swaggering, but hapless Mr Toad. The novel was based on bedtime stories which Grahame, a successful banker and financier, told his seven-year-old son. The book's impressionistic descriptions of the English countryside and its mythic search for moments of grace have made it an enduring read for adults as well as children; while the setting of the book partly drew on the author's experiences of living beside the River Thames, south of Oxford - not too far from where Sally and Maeve now live.

Grahame died in 1932 and lies buried in Oxford’s Holywell Cemetery.

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, which Sally read avidly at university, is a 1990 book about sexual decadence in Western literature and the visual arts by scholar Camille Paglia. The novel draws on the conflicts of Greek drama and demonstrates their continued relevance in its comprehensive study of Western art and literature, from Botticelli and Leonardo daVinci to Shakespeare, Goethe, Coleridge, Emily Brontë and Oscar Wilde.

This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early Twentieth Century by Dr Rebecca Birrell is published by Bloomsbury Circus. It is both biography and art critcism of 10 female artists, including Dora Carrington, Vanessa Bell and Gwen John. It was the Guardian Art Book of the Year and shortlisted for a number of other prestigious awards.

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. If you would like to support us, please visit - https://gofund.me/d5bef397