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Backlisted

The Godwits Fly by Robin Hyde

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Arts, Books, Leisure, Hobbies

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2021

⏱️ 73 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our guest is author Paula Morris, who joins us from Auckland to discuss the novel The Godwits Fly (1938) and the life of its author Iris Wilkinson AKA Robin Hyde. In recent years, Iris Wilkinson's writing has been rediscovered and restored to the canon of New Zealand literature, where it occupies a place alongside Katherine Mansfield's; The Godwits Fly is her highly autobiographical novel spanning the years 1910-28. Also this week, John has been captivated by Neurotribes, Steve Silberman's fascinating study of neurodiversity, while Andy revels in the forensic detail of Glenn Frankel's new book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic. This episode wouldn't have happened without Rachael King or WORD Christchurch Festival: https://wordchristchurch.co.nz. Thanks Rachael!Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)* 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 let me ask you both, let me ask you, Paula, and you, John Mitchinson, how long has

0:28.3

you lost one another? I'll let Paula go first. There's some dispute about how long it

0:34.0

is since I saw John. He sent me an email saying, I can't wait to see you again after 40

0:38.9

years, and I'm thinking, actually, you came to my flat in London in Vauxhall in the 90s

0:44.5

for a party, but but John has wiped us from his memory and has no recollection.

0:50.3

Paula, that doesn't surprise me. One of the things that hasn't gone yet is my memory,

0:54.5

but I wonder if it was just, it must have been at that. I think there probably are things

1:00.5

I have repressed about that period of my life. It was not my, it was not the happiest

1:05.5

time of my life, but I'm sure I'm sure I would have remembered. In Vauxhall. In Vauxhall,

1:10.8

yeah, Crimson with Rodin Vauxhall. I was lived on the same double page spread of the

1:15.3

eighties and no matter where I moved in London, but I discovered. But you were in London

1:23.1

for a long time, right? Well, I went to university in York, then I

1:26.8

went briefly in Manchester, then I was in London working at the BBC and then at various

1:30.4

record companies. I didn't really see a lot of people from my past, speaking of repressed

1:35.9

things. So before that to answer Andy's question, we really hadn't seen each other since the

1:42.8

eighties when we were undergraduates at the University of Auckland and John left to go back

1:47.0

to the UK and that was really the last time we'd spent any time together. Well, this is so

1:52.8

nice. And also we should just say Paul, just tell us where you are. I am in Auckland, New Zealand,

1:58.9

which is my hometown. It's just amazing, isn't it? We never, this is one of the incredible

2:03.9

upsides about not being able to leave the house for nearly two years. Is we able to bring

2:10.1

people in from all over the world? It's so exciting for us to be able to do this. And it's

2:13.7

so great to see you. And we should also say before we start that the reason that we're doing

...

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