Episode details

Available for over a year
Tessa Hadley talks about her short story collection Married Love with James Naughtie and a group of readers. Tessa is one of our leading short story and longer fiction writers. Tensions run high in these sharp observational stories about the events in our lives. A young woman marries against her parents' wishes; a young man in the early 20th century wants to do better for himself and inveigles his way into a local businessman's family home; and three grown up godchildren question the life and legacy of their recently deceased godmother. Tessa is one of the New Yorker magazine's most revered short story writers. She is noted especially for her talent for writing about families and their capacity for splintering, praised for how she handles the passing of time as well as her finely tuned sense of irony. In this edition of Bookclub Jim, Tessa and readers discuss three of the stories from the collection : Married Love, The Trojan Prince and The Godchildren. Recorded at the Small Wonder Festival at Charleston Farmhouse, East Sussex. Presenter : James Naughtie Producer : Dymphna Flynn Interviewed Guest : Tessa Hadley November's Bookclub choice : The City & The City by China Miéville (2009).
Programme Website