David Hawkes

I definitely recommend the biography. It’s a very intelligent piece of work. Yes, there are so many Spark novels to recommend: Memento Mori, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, The Driver’s Seat …. The 1st volume of Spark’s letters is out this month. I will be devouring them. Another biography next year too.

Completely agree with you about Loitering with Intent. Frances Wilson in her new biography of Spark regards it as her finest. I would put The Girls of Slender Means right up there among the very best too.

Tonight’s film

One of my favourite films and I couldn’t be happier that it’s been released on blu ray. Thanks for alerting me to this. I wonder if Easy Living will get a blu ray release too?

Oh yes, I have. I bought it on publication day and read it immediately. (Pym is one of my favourite writers). I’ve also read the one by Hazel Holt, A Lot to Ask.

I read it last year and really enjoyed it. Liddell’s novels are worth checking out too. Stepsons made quite an impression on me when I read it many years ago. I also own his book on Barbara Pym, A Mind at Ease. They were lifelong friends since they were at Oxford together in the ‘30s.

Hirokazu Kore-eda
Richard Linklater
François Ozon
Wes Anderson
Alice Rohrwacher

@chrisvfeil.bsky.social joereid.bsky.social

Hi guys, picking up from your latest episode, both series of Beautiful People (yes, there were two) were released on blu ray in 2010 by the BBC. It’s possible to pick up used copies on eBay. Region B, mind.

Three is impossible. My current favourite is Luigi Comencini’s Incompreso (Misunderstood), recently released by Radiance. I also love Felice Lazzaro and La Chimera. Fellini’s Il bidone is underrated. Ettore Scola’s Una giornata particolare (A Special Day) is also great.

I reread it last year and (like you) found it to be an utter delight. A S Byatt thought it was Murdoch’s best book. I still have a preference for The Bell, which I fell completely in love with when I first read it at the age of 16.

That one is new to me. I must investigate …

It’s my favourite Christmas film and I try to watch it every December.

Completely agree about Leisen’s Easy Living. I love his Midnight every bit as much, if not more.

I didn’t look at the Faber list. Mea culpa!

A great list. I’d add some more Spark (The Ballad of Peckham Rye) and some Iris Murdoch (Under the Net and A Fairly Honourable Defeat spring to mind).

I’m so happy about this. It’s a wonderful film and one of my favourites by Truffaut. Fingers crossed that you get to release Wild Child and The Green Room in the future.

Congratulations, Simon!

I read Cause for Alarm last year and really enjoyed it, so will add Epitaph to my reading list.

Thank you, Simon. I don’t mind at all. Quite the reverse, in fact!

No problem. 😄

Thanks, Jacqui.

I read Pamela Hansford Johnson’s The Honours Board a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed it. Do you recommend any other of her novels?

Nothing else springs to mind. If you do think of any others, please let me know.

It’s a great novel. I think it’s also probably the best depiction of the impact that (local) government has on people’s lives.

I’ve only seen the last three on your list but loved them all. I would add JSA, Memories of Murder & The Handmaiden to my list.

I reread Loitering earlier this year. Unquestionably one of her very best. I’m starting the Frances Wilson book tomorrow.

Don’t forget this late career gem 💎

This is extraordinary. Thank you for sharing the links to this interview.

It’s Thomas Hardy’s birthday today as well as mine. To honour the great man, this morning I started reading the only major novel of his that I haven’t read. And now I’m raising a pint in his honour at the pub of the same name. Dedicated or what?

Barn Cottage in Finstock, Oxfordshire.

It’s my birthday too. And Barbara Pym’s and Edward Elgar’s. I’m in honoured company.