4.2 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Stand-up comedian Andrew Maxwell and writer Kamila Shamsie share their favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Andrew is a John Steinbeck fan, and chooses Tortilla Flat. Kamila picks Clear Light Of Day by Anita Desai. Harriett's choice is the little-known but compelling memoir In Pursuit of the English by Doris Lessing. Produced by Beth O'Dea
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0:46.6 | Hello, welcome. When the young Doris Lessing arrived in London fresh from southern Africa, |
0:52.3 | what on earth did you make of the English? |
0:57.0 | We'll be finding out because my choice of a good read, |
1:00.0 | one of the lesser-known books by the late great Nobel laureate, |
1:02.6 | is a beady-eyed memoir of that time. |
1:06.1 | And while we're about it, we'll discover what my guests think of the English. |
1:09.1 | They are the Irish stand-up, Andrew Maxwell, |
1:11.7 | twice nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award, |
1:17.0 | most recently heard on the radio in his series Public Enemies, and seen on TV hosting the controversial conspiracy coach trip. With Andrew is the Pakistani writer Kamala Shamsi, chosen by |
1:24.2 | Granta as one of our current top 20 literary talents. Her novels include the Orange Prize shortlisted burnt shadows |
1:30.4 | and due out this April a god in every stone. |
1:35.1 | Carmilla, why don't you start us off with your choice of a good read? |
1:38.3 | I've chosen Anita the size Clear Light of Day. |
1:41.3 | On the surface the story is, seems like a fairly straightforward domestic kind of tale. |
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