Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Arts, Books, Leisure, Hobbies

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2021

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joining John and Andy this week is novelist and host of the books podcast Sentimental Garbage, Caroline O'Donoghue (Promising Young Women, Scenes of a Graphic Nature, All Our Hidden Gifts). We are discussing Nuala O'Faolain's revelatory memoir Are You Somebody? (1996), the original publication of which caused a sensation in her native Ireland. The book went on to top the New York Times bestseller list for six weeks; it still has the power to astonish. Also in this episode Andy has been exploring John Higgs's new book William Blake Vs The World and John is moved by Consumed: A Sister's Tale, the family memoir of Arifa Akbar, a former guest on Backlisted. Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length) 10:08 - William Blake Vs The World by John Higgs 14:44 - Consumed: A Sister's Tale by Arifa Akbar 20:33 - Are You Somebody by Nuala O'Faolain *To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. *For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I'm in Ladywell in Southeast London, which most people haven't heard of because it's
0:29.7	mostly just a marketing term to mean cat fruit. Is it? If you left where you are now, how long
0:37.1	would it take you before you reach the cat food cat? The cat food cat, oh, about 11 minutes, I would
0:42.6	think. Very accurate. Yeah, although there's so much sort of cat food cat graffiti around the
0:47.4	place, they really do lean heavily on the cat stuff around here. But not in Ladywell. Not in Ladywell,
0:53.2	no, it's all about the well in Ladywell. Of course, yeah. And have you been in Ladywell for the
0:59.4	last year and a half or have you been able to move around all over? We've done the real
1:03.2	cliché thing of like we were living in a one bedroom flat much closer to the city and then
1:10.0	quietly went mental during the last year with. Yes. We know that. Yes. We recognise those
1:19.0	symptoms. Yes. No, yeah, it was one of those, it was that kind of vibe where I remember I turned
1:23.4	30 and locked down and my boyfriend arranged this beautiful mural out of my favourite mountain
1:28.3	goat song and it was a gorgeous day and then 11 weeks later the mural was still up and we looked
1:33.8	like we were serial killers. Things falling down on blue tack and just sort of the humid air of a
1:40.4	dog's mouth all the time. It was a real devastating couple of months. So we moved out to this
1:47.2	barmy, lovely, much bigger space in Ladywell where we both have our own offices and the
1:52.6	dog's mouth can be in a different room. Do you like the mountain goats? I'm obsessed with the mountain
1:57.2	goats, yeah, yeah. John from the mountain goat's listens to this. Yes, he's a massive fan.
2:04.0	Get out of town. He's one of our patrons. Yeah, yes. Thanks, John. You
2:12.9	What? You think I'm messing with you. What are you talking about at the end of this podcast?
2:18.5	Now I have to go the rest of this thinking that my hero since I was like a teenager is listening
2:24.0	and this is already one of my favourite podcasts anyway. So the nerve level was fairly high lads.
2:31.3	We like a lovely warm bath, Carol. Actually, this is quite fitting because this book is so
	...

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