Main content

Failure and female friendship

Lara Feigel's first novel takes inspiration from Mary McCarthy's 1963 novel about female friendship whilst Mich猫le Roberts has written a memoir of the year spent rewriting a book.

How do you cope with a sense of failure? Mich猫le Roberts has been Booker shortlisted and has 12 novels under her belt but her latest book is a clear-eyed account of a year spent rewriting after having a novel rejected. What sustained her in part were her female friends and cooking. Lara Feigel is the author of acclaimed non-fiction books and her first novel takes the template of Mary McCarthy's 1963 novel about female friendship and examines the lives of women now set against the backdrop of the publishing world. Alexandra Reza has been thinking about the place of the kitchen in novels such as Maryse Cond茅鈥檚 Morsels and Marvels, Marie N鈥橠iaye鈥檚 The Cheffe, Calixthe Beyala鈥檚 How to cook your husband the African way, and Sarah Maldoror鈥檚 Pudding for Constance. Shahidha Bari presents.

Mich猫le Roberts's latest book is called Negative Capability. You can find her talking to Free Thinking about smell and her novel The Walworth Beauty /programmes/b08n24f5

Lara Feigel's novel is called The Group. You can hear her in Free Thinking discussions about Doris Lessing /programmes/b09tml77 and a debate about Fiction of 1946 /programmes/b07wrq03

Alexandra Reza is a 2020 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the 91热爆 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Wed 10 Jun 2020 22:00

Broadcast

  • Wed 10 Jun 2020 22:00

Featured in...

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life