The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Arts, Books, Leisure, Hobbies

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2022

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's sixty-five years since John Wyndham published The Midwich Cuckoos, the fourth in his hugely successful series of science fiction novels that began in 1951 with The Day of the Triffids. Many people’s first introduction to The Midwich Cuckoos is through the classic film from 1960, which was renamed The Village of the Damned and starred George Sanders. We’re joined for this episode by the writer and director David Farr, who has just produced the most recent adaptation of the novel: a seven-episode series for Sky. As well as assessing the merits of the book – sometimes obscured by its popular success – we discuss the process of adapting a classic novel for a modern audience. This episode also features Andy sharing his holiday read – The Feast by Margaret Kennedy (author of The Constant Nymph which we featured last year). The novel is set in Cornwall, which was exactly where Andy found himself when he read it. John also introduces a new independent publisher, Hazel Press, whose exquisite small, environmentally friendly books include The Wren by Julia Blackburn, a haunting sequence of short journal entries and prose poems. Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length) 11:00 - The Feast by Margaret Kennedy. 18:01 - The Wren by Julia Blackburn. 22:48 - The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham * 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	I was in Cornwall last week, I had a lovely time.
0:26.1	I went to Land Hydrook, and I went to Michael's Mount and Castle Drogo, man.
0:34.1	Have you been there? Has anyone been there?
0:36.1	It's just got such a great name.
0:38.1	Castle Drogo.
0:39.1	One does not simply walk into Castle Drogo, you have to follow the path.
0:44.1	So I'm going to say it was built in the 1920s and 30s, designed by Lutchens,
0:52.1	responding to his American patrons' desire for a new castle.
0:58.1	So it's this art deco castle with a sort of 1930s flat roof, as a result of which the water has been leaking in for the last 90 years.
1:09.1	And it's just undergone a nine-year restoration process.
1:14.1	But it's very peculiar. It's like when you walk into the main hall, it's these incredible Lutchens spaces.
1:21.1	But none of the flagstones or the ramparts are worn down or old.
1:28.1	Everything's basically as new. It's a very old experience.
1:32.1	And then within it you've got these kind of country house rooms, these cozy little rooms within this castle environment.
1:40.1	Yeah, it was brilliant.
1:41.1	It was the sort of thing, as we said on Lutchens, that Andy Miller would do.
1:47.1	And he did do it. I did do it. It was really fun. It was really, really fun.
1:52.1	David, where are you? You said you were in the country.
1:56.1	I mean, I'm in a secret location that I can't diverge in the country.
2:01.1	Are you hiding out?
2:02.1	It's my little bolt hole that we go to. So I do genuinely not tell anyone where it is really.
2:07.1	Really?
	...

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