The Book Club: the brilliance of Houdini

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest on this week's Book Club podcast is the biographer Adam Begley. Adam's work includes biographies of John Updike and the Belle Epoque photographer, cartoonist and aeronaut Felix Tournachon, aka Nadar. In his new book he turns his attention to the great escapologist Harry Houdini. I asked him what it was that made Houdini special, what challenges a lifelong myth-maker (aka inveterate liar) poses to the biographer, and how Adam tends to get on with his subjects. As Adam describes in our talk, you can watch a video of Houdini in action here.

The Book Club is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hear past episodes here.

Get a subscription to The Spectator as well as a copy of Lionel Shriver's book, all for free here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Book Club is brought to you in association with Charles Stanley Community, providing our clients, colleagues and friends with practical supporting conversation.
0:07.6	Find out more at Charles Stanley Community.
0:15.5	Hello and welcome to Spectator Book Club. I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor of The Spectator, and this week's podcast is a discussion with Adam Begley,
0:24.1	the biographer of John Updike, Felix Tornichon, who has now turned his attention to the great Houdini.
0:31.5	This was a recording of an event held over Zoom for the Circle Square networking group for over 55. So we're happy to record this in
0:40.3	association with them. It's a very great treat to be here chairing Adam, whom I have now a relatively
0:47.2	reasonably long and friendly relationship with, though we've only now met virtually,
0:53.1	as well as being the distinguished biographer of John Updike,
0:56.7	the 20th century novelist. He's written a biography of Felix Tornishaw, Nadar,
1:01.4	sort of 19th century aeronaut photographer, self-publicist, caricaturist, and jack-of-all-old
1:08.1	trades, and now Houdini, the great escapologist.
1:11.6	He's also, to my great delight and gratitude, a regular contributor to my pages on the spectator
1:18.6	and improves them every time he's in them. So welcome, Adam.
1:22.6	Now, Adam, as I've just sketched out, you know, there's quite a range in your subjects.
1:30.2	You know, you've dotted around.
1:32.1	Now you've moved on to Houdini.
1:33.7	What is it that made you light on him after, you know, moving from a literary novelist to an aeronaut?
1:40.1	Why now an escapologist?
1:41.6	I have to admit that the topic was suggested to me. I didn't dream it up
1:45.5	on my own. But the moment it was suggested, I realized that it was something I wanted to do,
1:51.0	mostly because I wanted to hone my skills as a storyteller. And it seemed to me that this was
1:57.8	a great story with many acts and a dramatic finish, and that for once
	...

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