In between yet another plumbing crisis, a mercy dash to St George’s hospital, and
the sudden closure of our one-year-old’s day nursery, I managed to slip away to
Broadcasting House to record an interview with Mariella Frostrup, the host of
Open Book on Radio 4. Also taking part in a discussion about The Valley of Unknowing and the literary impact of the Stasi files, was Anna Funder, author of the prize-winning non-fiction bestseller Stasiland – although hers was a disembodied voice emanating from a studio in New York . Spookily enough, Australian Anna’s most recent book, a novel, is set in Berlin in 1932, just like The Einstein Girl, and is based on the
life of an actually existing woman. It came as something of a relief to
discover that the woman in question - and indeed the rest of her story - had nothing to do with the great physicist.
As expected, I thought of many brilliant and memorable
things to say in response to the Mariella’s questions - but only after the whole thing was over
and I was tramping back down a rainy Regent
Street towards the Tube station. Oh well...
The interview, suitably edited, will be broadcast on Radio 4
this Sunday 22nd April at 4pm; and again the following Thursday 26th
at 3.30pm. Details of the whole edition can be found here:
A Podcast of the programme will be available for download soon
after the first broadcast, here:
Late that evening, after further urgent plumbing consultations
and an untimely instance of projectile vomiting from our youngest, I closed a
deal for the North American rights to The
Valley of Unknowing New York
legend. I would have celebrated
on the spot, but it was almost midnight by this time, and I was in danger of
collapsing at my desk. I finally collapsed on the floor beside my son's bed ten minutes later.
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