In a recent Guardian interview, the actress Harriet Walter reflected on the impossibility of ever really knowing another human being. Yet, like the novelist Hilary Mantel, she has devoted her professional life to inhabiting characters not her own, often historical ones. Walter’s notable roles include Elizabeth I, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, while Mantel has twice won the Man Booker Prize for her extraordinary portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies – adapted for the stage by the RSC, currently playing in the West End, and soon to be serialised on BBC2. In a conversation jointly hosted by the RSL and Intelligent Life magazine, and chaired by the playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, they reflect on how they get to grips with a character, compare notes on capturing personality on the page and the stage, and discuss how to maintain a sense of self while becoming someone else.

We are grateful to the Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation for supporting this event.

In partnership with Intelligent Life.

Hilary Mantel and Harriet Walter in conversation with Timberlake Wertenbaker

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Why is there so much delight in discovering a juicy new word? Do you ever read the dictionary for fun? Is it annoying when people use obscure words too often? This month’s show is dedicated to the building blocks of all books: words. Joining us is the author Eley Williams, whose first novel The Liar’s Dictionary is both about words and delights in them. In the novel, Peter Winceworth, a disgruntled employee of Swansby’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary at the turn of the century, begins inserting his own invented words into the first edition. In the present day, intern Mallory is tasked with rooting out his mischievous insertions. We spoke to Eley about lots of things including our favourite words and reading the dictionary like a novel, so kick back and join us for an hour of lexical wonder and appreciation. 

Recommendations on the theme, The Joy of Words: 
Octavia: A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes 
https://monoskop.org/images/f/f7/Roland_Barthes_Roland_a_lover_s_discourse_1978.pdf
Carrie: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 
https://www.anthonyburgess.org/a-clockwork-orange/

General Recommendations:
Octavia: Blueberries by Ellena Savage 
https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/blueberries
Eley: and what if we are all allowed to disappear by Tania Hershman 
https://www.guillemotpress.co.uk/poetry/tania-hershman
Carrie: The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin 
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/n-k-jemisin/the-fifth-season/9780316229296/

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com 
Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

Literary Friction -  The Joy of Words with Eley Williams

A monthly conversation about books and ideas on NTS Radio hosted by friends Carrie Plitt, a literary agent, and Octavia Bright, a writer and academic. Each show features an author interview, book recommendations, lively discussion and a little music too, all built around a related theme - anything from the novella to race to masculinity. Listen live on NTS Radio www.nts.live

Literary Friction - The Joy of Words with Eley Williams

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