‘His straw hat hurt him, it pinched his forehead and started a dull ache in the two bones just over the temples…’

This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Katherine Mansfield, focusing on characters in her short fiction. Listen for a masterclass on openings, writing characters through objects, and making connections between and through them.

The full text of the stories Sally reads can be found here.

The passage read in the final section comes from Sally’s forthcoming fictional biography, provisionally titled Mrs Parnell.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Emilie: may you always sing.

We return this week, for a special micro-episode, to Mrs Dalloway’s London. Listen for a brief meditation on the fragmentation of life, interruption, and finding meaning in art.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Now it was time to move, and, as a woman gathers her things together, her cloak, her gloves, her opera-glasses, and gets up to out of the theatre into the street, she rose from the sofa and went to Peter…’

This week, we join Sally reflecting on the arrangement of character. Listen for a journey, via Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) through perspectives, cityscapes, and the means by which we navigate everyday life.

The music accompanying the initial discussion of Mrs Dalloway is ‘Friday’, by Paul Seba. More about Paul and his work can be found here.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.