London Review Bookshop Podcast Laura Beatty & Edmund de Waal: Pear Trees
Dec 20, 2025
Laura Beatty, an Ondaatje Prize–shortlisted novelist, is joined by potter and author Edmund de Waal to explore her short story, *Pear Trees*. They dive into the intertwining of folklore and ecology, discussing how human relationships with nature shape identity. The duo examines the constraints of the short story form and the ephemerality of pear blossoms. They touch on themes of belonging and the mutable connection between humans and trees, weaving humor and tenderness into their reflections on life and mortality.
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Short Fiction As Reverse Discipline
- Short stories force intense, precise focus and must remain open at the end rather than resolve like novels.
- Laura Beatty describes writing short fiction as an "intense reverse discipline" compared with novelistic wandering.
Landscape Reframes Belonging
- The story places a human life within a vast landscape to reshape how the character thinks about belonging and death.
- Beatty frames humans as vessels made of clay whose emotions want to return to the world they came from.
Evie's Night Of Mistaken Death
- Laura reads a scene where Evie mistakes ordinary visitors for Death and then breaks down when the postman brings a bill.
- The moment juxtaposes anxious interiority with the small motions of everyday life like a shield beetle.