A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

The podcast explores the life and works of writer W.G. Sebald, discussing his writing style and use of photographs. They also discuss reading and writing approaches, the impact of books on readers, and the issue of dumbing down in education.

Just a short announcement by Sally about an exciting event coming up - recorded with the help of Magnificent Maeve Magnus.

Reflections on the isolation and longing of a neighbor who lived upstairs, contrasting experiences of being seen or unseen in life, exploring the mysterious nature of Mrs Robinson and her love and presence.

Sally Bayley launches her new book, feeling the pressure while her neighbors are away. She finds solace in reading Robinson Crusoe and relates to its psychological ups and downs. Sally reflects on the importance of willpower, determination, and paying attention. The podcast also explores the isolation experienced by writers and compares it to the solitude of Robinson Crusoe. The power of journaling and the impact of writing on mental health are discussed.

Something different for this episode - Sally interviews writer Will Self about his latest book of essays, Why Read. They discuss not just why we read, but how we read; digital reading versus physical books; and Will discusses the writers who had a formative effect on him, including Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka and W.G. Sebald. The event took place at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford. Our thanks to Will and to Blackwell's. You can find out more about Will Self's book here: https://will-self.com/why-read/    

In this episode, Sally reads extracts from her forthcoming book The Green Lady, a literary coming of age story. She explores haunting characters and the significance of keeping notebooks to capture them. The author reflects on maternal figures in her life and contemplates her own aging as a writer. Conversations about ghosts and compressed spaces are discussed, highlighting the importance of containing creativity.

Sally treads old familiar pathways through fields of corn and wheat in Sussex, very close to the place she grew up. Her thoughts are with Charlotte Brontë, who wrote haunting poems about her own complex, equivocal feelings towards her childhood and the place she grew up. Sally reads the famous opening passage from Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. Jane, an unwanted orphan who retreats into the world of books was a pivotal figure in Sally's psychological development as a young teenager. Charlotte Brontë (1816 to 1855) was the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who lived to adulthood. She lived a life marked by personal struggle, frustrations, loss and grief. Jane Eyre was published in 1847 under a male pseudonym. It was a highly original book, with strong autobiographical elements, initiating a genre of its own, the "governess novel".  The three sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Ann - had published their poems in 1846, the year before Jane Eyre, also pseudonymously. The poems which Sally reads in this episode are Regret, Winter Store, and Evening Solace. After the success of Jane Eyre, Charlotte stopped writing poems. You can find out more about her poetry here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charlotte-bronte In the first of her anti-memoir series, Girl With Dove, Sally writes in detail about her relationship with the character of Jane Eyre as she was growing up in very difficult circumstances: https://sallybayley.com/girl-with-dove 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.

"Why do we write?" Sally asks herself this week, as she reads a novella by the 20th century writer DH Lawrence, a story of longing, dreams, desire and self-liberation. Sally is interrupted by the arrival of a gang of noisy pheasants, who annoy the local cat, the aloof and enigmatic Plucky. Sally reflects on the unknowable interiority of everyone - not just cats; and while spring cleaning, she finds a talismanic object - a faded cover of a much-loved, much-read book. Returning to Lawrence, she discusses how the bright shining physically grounded objects of the story generate a fairytale world, a place of enchantment and spells. DH  Lawrence was born in 1885; the initials stand for David Herbert. He achieved as much infamy as fame in his lifetime for writings which promoted sexuality, vitality and the power of instinct; they were seen as scandalous and shocking to the sensibilities of the time. It wasn't until after his death in 1930 that Lawrence gained a favourable critical reputation; Philip Larkin said Lawrence “had more genius .. than any man could be expected to handle", while EM Forster called him "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation". Lawrence's critical reputation dipped again in the 1970s and he remains controversial today; in this episode, Sally highlights his desire to restore to literature an apprehension of the intimacy of the body and the physical presence of things. 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.  

This week, Sally is entertaining a visitor to the narrowboat - her eight-year-old neighbour Maeve Magnus - for their regular evening ritual of watching Poirot and honing their impressions of the TV show’s characters. Sally harkens back to her eight-year-old self, reading her way through Agatha Christie’s stories, each tale representing a world of fresh possibilities and alternative ways of living.  She savours one of her favourite passages, the opening of The Body in the Library, with its skilful prose, its evocation of place, time and architecture, its sharp observations of class and money, and its vivid characterisations. This is a novel which influenced Sally in writing her first autobiographical book, Girl With Dove. Sally reflects on why she wanted to be Miss Marple at the age of eight – and why she still does. She ponders the similarities between the fictional detective and the writer, observing quietly, searching for clues and insights, assessing character and building a narrative. Agatha Christie (1890 to 1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time. She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections; she created Miss Marple in 1927 and featured her in 12 novels and 20 stories. When the Body in Library was published in 1942, Christie wrote in a foreword that she had decided to write a crime novel which would take head-on one of the biggest cliches in all of fiction; a body is found in the library. The novel is acclaimed for its original plotting and its gentle subversion of traditional detective tropes. Sally also mentions a short story by Virginia Woolf, The Death of a Moth, with its close attention to insect life all around us. The story was published posthumously, in 1942, the year after Woolf’s death: https://www.sanjuan.edu/cms/lib8/CA01902727/Centricity/Domain/3981/Death%20of%20A%20Moth-Virginia%20Woolf%20copy.pdf You can find out more about Girl With Dove, along with her other books, on Sally's website: https://sallybayley.com/books 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. We have been able to launch and continue to run this podcast thanks to the kind help of donors, to whom we are profoundly grateful; any new listeners who might be willing to support us, please do have a look at the crowd-funding site we have set up - https://gofund.me/d5bef397  

This week, Sally is reading The Girls of Slender Means, a novella by one of her favourite writers, Scottish novelist, poet and essayist Muriel Spark (1918 to 2006). During the Second World War, Spark came to London to work in British intelligence. She took up residence at the Helena Club in London, a hostel in Lancaster Gate, described as “a strict club for young ladies”.  In 1963, she published A Girl of Slender Means, based on her experiences at the Helena Club. Spark was also editor of the Poetry Review from 1947 to 1948; one of the few female editors of the time. She wrote other acclaimed novels such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961).  Sally also reads a passage from Twelfth Night, a speech by Viola. Shipwrecked, posing as a servant, uncertain of her position and future, and in love, Viola is some ways a girl of slender means. 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.