Margaret Kennedy, Vita Sackville-West, and film adaptations – welcome to episode 106!
In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I discuss whether you should read the book before you watch the film. In the second half, we pit two novels about hotels against each other: The Feast by Margaret Kennedy and Grand Canyon by Vita Sackville-West.
You can find the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or via the play button above. Get even more content and bonus things at Patreon! We really appreciate it when people rate and review the podcast, and we also love hearing from you at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Suddenly a Knock at the Door by Etgar Keret
The Optimist by E.M. Delafield
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Enbury Heath by Stella Gibbons
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Dorothy Whipple
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Emma by Jane Austen
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Trial by Franz Kafka
George Bernard Shaw
Monica Dickens
Together and Apart by Margaret Kennedy
The Forgotten Smile by Margaret Kennedy
Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
Lucy Gayheart by Margaret Kennedy
Agatha Christie
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
Another great episode from what has quickly become my favorite podcast! (Just rated it five stars on iTunes :)
How horrible is the Keira Knightley P&P. She just uses that one facial expression with her lips slightly parted and her eyes gazing into the distance, for all occasions.
One you didn’t mention that’s kind of interesting is Wives and Daughters. I watched the movie first and LOVED it – for me it is up there with the very best. Justine Waddell, Michael Gambon …. and just a beautiful story and beautifully executed as a film. Then years later when I first picked up the book, I had no idea until I GOT to the end that it was actually unfinished. I would have been completely heartbroken at that point if I hadn’t already seen Andrew Davies’s beautiful conclusion, which surely must have been what Mrs Gaskell had in mind!
Thanks for your lovely review! And W&D – I haven’t seen it, but I do remember getting to the end of the book and being furious that it was SO long and yet still unfinished!
I’m definite a book first person! As for Feast vs Canyon, I *loved* Feast but haven’t ever tracked down the Vita – which I really must, because I like minor Vita!
It is so unusual – certainly far from her best, but gives an extra perspective on her
Best film adaptation: Orlando. It rolls with the weirdness and is beautiful to look at. Most pointless – A Month in the Country (the Carr book). The book is all about an internal shift inside the main character and can’t really be shown visually.
Interesting, I found Orlando really hard to engage with – perhaps because the book has so much interiority that is hard to translate to the screen. But Swinton was the only possible choice to play Orlando, and she’s great.
Yes to Swinton. And how about Quentin Crisp as Good Queen Bess!
By chance years ago I caught a rebroadcast of Fortunes of War and was so riveted I went and bought the first trilogy the next day—not something I would have normally read (or even heard of) so that’s a plus in the see first/read later column. Same goes for the Pinteresque adaptation of The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen. On the other hand, Bowen’s The Last September was made into an attractive film to look at but with very little relation to the novel (though Maggie Smith chews some fine scenery.). There’s an odd but still interesting adaptation of To the Lighthouse—surely as unfilmable book as you could imagine, but Michael Gough and Rosemary Harris make excellent Ramsays. I guess on the whole visual adaptations may be great for inspiring you to read the original works but too often screamingly painful versions if you’re already familiar with the books. Great discussion, though.
Oh, and can we talk about the Ian Carmichael Lord Peter Wimsey adaptations from the 1970s (sorry, Simon!)?
We certainly can – love Carmichael as Lord Peter and the wonderful Peter Jones.
:D
I enjoyed reading the Balkan Trilogy but struggled to watch the adaptation. Then I realised why. There is a scene – all I remember is there was a teapot in a cosy on a table. Emma Thompson does her bit perfectly fine and then Kenny B weighs in like a whale lashing about having been harpooned by Japanese whalers. Frightful. Back then he was the new Olivier so you couldn’t say how awful he was. He ruined Poirot too. Only film I have ever walked out of yet he has made another. Dear Ustinov and darling Suchet must be livid!
The Last September film was ok but I just cannot get on with the book. Feel they are only distantly related.
Pinteresque adaptation of Bowen is so intriguing!!
I loved The Feast and I will now have to re-read it as I also missed the point of it being an allegory.
Agree that there are lots of perfectly good books ripe for adaptation – could they just leave Jane Austen to rest in Winchester Cathedral for a while. They certainly could not improve on Ciaran Hinds as my Captain Wentworth. The Bachelor or The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons would make excellent Sunday evening viewing as would the whole of Thirkell’s Barsetshire Chronicles. Lots of scope for romance, period costumes and steam trains. I’ve already cast Jenny Agutter and Penelope Wilton, but not Maggie Smith as she has quite enough to do. Please note it was the amazing Eileen Aitken in Cranford, not Maggie. Maggie gave us Miss Brodie which is enough.
I had the good fortune to grow up when the BBC did wonderful adaptationsfor children on a Sunday afternoon and they served to introduce me to a wide range of authors I would not have read otherwise. They also saved me from wading through an awful lot of Scott and Dickens. But some classics are beyond adaptation, such as Tove Jansson’s Moominland. The page gives an image that no computer can capture. Sometimes the book can take a reader much further than a screen can ever do.
So glad it wasn’t just me who missed the allegory, Linda!
Hi Simon, the podcast hasn’t been showing up on Spotify for the last few days. I thought it might just be a glitch and would reappear by itself, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Do you know if there’s a reason for this? Do I need to find a new podcast app?
Thanks Andrea! A few people spotted this – hopefully it is back now and working properly?