We're on our summer break, which gives us a chance to re-run this brilliant conversation we had with punk superstar Viv Albertine when she dropped by the studio a few years ago to talk about her memoir, To Throw Away Unopened. Nothing grants insight into lived experience quite like a memoir, but the form can accommodate so much more than that, and Viv's book takes in many things alongside its descriptions of her experiences growing up as a working-class kid in London, and her complicated relationship with her extraordinary mother. So, tune in for a show celebrating memoirs that take us from the experience of giving birth to coming out to what it’s like to be in a world-famous band, via all the richness and thorny issues that this form promises, and we'll be back with a new episode in September.

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: Memoir with Viv Albertine

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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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 - RE-RUN: Memoir with Viv Albertine

LiteraryFriction

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