Annie Ernaux: ‘My mum burned my teenage diaries’

Available for over a year

Annie Ernaux has spent decades transforming the intimate details of her life into stories that illuminate more than just one woman’s experience.That fearless writing earned her a Nobel Prize. It is not just what she writes that is impressive, but that she got to write at all. Annie comes from rural Normandy, the daughter of shopkeepers, not the Parisian intelligentsia. She had to fight for her place at the table. Her honesty about her sexuality and desire, at odds with the strict norms of the 1950s, were so disturbing to her mother that when she found her teenage diaries, she burned them. Afterwards, only memory remained to guide Annie back to the past. Vibeke Venema spoke to Annie who reflects on the experiences that shaped her life. They became the focus of her books: the all-consuming affair she had in Simple Passion, the sweep of collective memory in The Years, and the backstreet abortion she had at the age of 23 that almost cost her her life, recounted in Happening. This interview contains references to sexual assault and abortion that some may find upsetting. It was a co-production between Nobel Prize Outreach and the BBC. When Vashti Bunyan, a shy art-school droupout, tried to make it as a popstar in 1960s London, people just didn't get her music – or her. Disillusioned, she set off to Scotland on a horse and wagon. Along the way, she wrote songs of her extraordinary journey and in 1970 even recorded an album, Just Another Diamond Day. But when that flopped, she turned her back on music for good, vowing never to set foot in a studio again. Vashti thought her music was lost to history, but 30 years later, she discovered her album had become an underground hit. This interview was first broadcast in 2023. Presenter: Asya Fouks Voiceover: Angelique Talio Producer: Vibeke Venema, Laura Gozzi and Edgar Maddicott Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707 (Photo: Annie Ernaux with blonde hair and a green shirt looks into the camera. Credit: Getty Images)