Sybille Bedford, author of Jigsaw and A Legacy

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sara Wheeler first read Sybille Bedford in her early twenties, and discovered a dazzling writer. The book she read was called A Visit to Don Otavio. It's set in Mexico, a country Bedford wanted to visit because of its 'long nasty history in the past and as little present history as possible.' Born Sybille von Schoenebeck in 1911 in Germany, she lived in Italy, France, California and London, and her book Jigsaw was nominated for the Booker prize. But by her own admission she never sold many books. Sara Wheeler is the author of Terra Incognita - about her travels in Antarctica. Victoria Glendinning adds her thoughts and wit to the programme. There are archive contributions from Hilary Spurling, Sue McGregor and Sybille Bedford too. The presenter is Matthew Parris

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:40.3	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:46.3	Sybil Bedford was a writer who by her own admission
0:49.6	never sold too many books,
0:51.6	but when she died in 2006 a month shy of 95 newspapers fell
0:56.7	over themselves to praise her work and her life she loved wine and freedom and
1:02.1	her few books I'm quoting here, inspired a deeply fervent
1:06.7	following of committed admirers, starting with her first published work, The Sudden View in
1:12.4	1953. This says the New York Times obituary was an
1:17.0	account of her journey through Mexico, later renamed a visit to Don Otavio. Her next work, called A Legacy, was Abbot. a
1:23.3	legacy was a book of entirely delicious quality.
1:27.3	Evelyn Moore said that.
1:29.1	So who was simple Bedford?
1:31.5	Before we start to piece together her life, let's just hear her voice.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.