Episode 3
The 'child bride' starts work on writing The Country Girls. Novelist Edna O'Brien continues her astonishingly honest memoir.
The great Irish writer, Edna O'Brien, whose controversial 1960 novel brought her both literary fame and notoriety back home, reads her astonishingly honest memoir of a literary life of high drama.
Born in 1930 into a strict Catholic family in rural County Clare, O'Brien rejected her background in search of literary life in Dublin, but found herself transported to London, unhappily married with two young children. The publication of The Country Girls brought her literary stardom in sixties London, but also notoriety back home, and a bitter end to her marriage. But along the way there were also encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars and literary titans, as well as the inevitable regrets and sorrows.
In today's episode: Edna, the 'child bride', starts work on The Country Girls.
Author: Since her debut novel The Country Girls, Edna O'Brien has written more than twenty works of fiction along with a biography of James Joyce and Lord Byron.
Abridger: Miranda Davies
Producer: Justine Willett.
Last on
Broadcasts
Wed 3 Oct 201209:45BBC Radio 4 FM- Thu 4 Oct 201200:30BBC Radio 4
- Wed 6 Sep 201714:45BBC Radio 4 Extra
- Thu 7 Sep 201702:45BBC Radio 4 Extra
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