Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Julia Armfield Reimagines King Lear in a Drowning World

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Mar 11, 2025

Julia Armfield, a London-based fiction writer known for her novels exploring climate catastrophe, discusses her latest work, 'Private Rites.' She delves into how King Lear's themes resonate in a world shaped by rising sea levels, particularly through the lens of three sisters navigating their father’s death. The conversation touches on sibling dynamics, eco-critical themes, and the intersection of queerness and horror in contemporary narratives. Armfield also reflects on the everyday struggle amidst disaster and how familial power plays manifest in modern life.

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INSIGHT

Sibling Dynamics and Birth Order

Julia Armfield loves writing about siblings and the dynamics within families.
She's particularly interested in how birth order affects individuals and their relationships.

ANECDOTE

Mafia-Flavored Lear

Armfield was influenced by a National Theatre production of King Lear starring Simon Russell Beale.
The production had a mafia-like flavor, highlighting the inescapable nature of family.

INSIGHT

Queerness in Disaster Narratives

Armfield's novel, Private Rites, explores queerness within a climate crisis setting.
She questions how the disaster genre changes when the nuclear family isn't the focus.

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How does Shakespeare’s King Lear resonate in a world facing climate catastrophe? Novelist Julia Armfield explores this question in Private Rites, a novel set in a near-future London reshaped by rising sea levels. Following three sisters grappling with their father’s death, Private Rites weaves together themes of inheritance, power, and familial wounds—echoing Shakespeare’s tragic monarch while carving out a distinctly modern, queer perspective. Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea, discusses her fascination with disaster narratives, the inescapable dynamics of sibling relationships, and how Shakespeare’s work inspires her storytelling. From the storm in King Lear to the watery depths of her fiction, she reflects on how queerness, horror, and the climate crisis intersect in literature. Julia Armfield is a fiction writer living in London with her wife and cat. Her work has been published in Granta, The White Review, and Best British Short Stories in 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award in 2018 and won the White Review Short Story Prize in 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize in 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize in 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2022 and won the Polari Prize in 2023. Her second novel, Private Rites, was longlisted for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize in 2024. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 11, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.