Holly Walsh on BS Johnson
Listen now
Description
BS Johnson was born in Hammersmith in 1933. A wartime evacuee, he never quite shook a sense of dislocation for the rest of his life. Holly's favourite book, she calls it the gateway drug to his work, is Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry. It's the tale of a disaffected accountant who applies the principles of double-entry book keeping to his own life; any perceived slight permits him to repay the same on somebody else. These stretch from minor acts of personal revenge to poisoning London's water and blowing up the House of Commons. "The things I find attractive about him are the things I'm a little bit scared of. His work is so raw - it's so different to how I feel." Holly Walsh Joining Holly and Matthew Parris is the novelist Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotter's Club and Like a Fiery Elephant, an award-winning biography of BS Johnson's life. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
More Episodes
Lady Rachel MacRobert was born Rachel Workman in Massachusetts in 1884. She was sent to study in the UK where she developed a passion for geology, and attended the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Geological Society despite women not being allowed. She became Lady Rachel MacRobert through...
Published 05/13/24
Published 05/13/24
Professor Alice Roberts, best known as the presenter of Digging for Britain, picks the wife of two English kings and the mother of two English kings. Queen Emma was born in Normandy and came to England as a diplomatic peaceweaver when she married Aethelred in 1002. Somehow she survived the...
Published 05/07/24