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Margaret Atwood with Hermione Lee

1 Jan 1985
52m

The acclaimed author talks about her story collection, Bluebeards' Egg, not long after success of Handmaid's Tale.

The Canadian author Margaret Atwood discusses her work and ideas on literature with writer and broadcaster Hermione Lee. The discussion centres on the stories in Atwood's collection Bluebeards' Egg and her novel The Handmaid's Tale. Subjects range widely, including themes of literature informed by fairy tales; visual imagery as inspiration; mythology in contemporary literature; comparing the short story with the novel; autobiography as source material; writing from the male point of view as a woman; definitions of feminism and on being Canadian.

In response to question about whether her (Canadian) books were read differently in different international countries, she cites the example of The Handmaid's Tale: "In England it was greeted as a cracking good yarn. In Canada they said 'could that happen here?' somewhat nervously, and in the States they said 'how long have we got?'"

Tags

Non Fiction

From the collection

What We Read

Get between the covers with some of the brightest literary stars past and present.

In this hyper-digital age, there's something a bit special about the most medium analogue of all. Literary tastes may have changed over the years, but that cool touch of paper, that light swish as each page curves over is as satisfying as ever. But then, the chances are you're reading this in a public library, so you won't need us to tell you about the wonder of books. The videos collected here celebrate the joys of reading and the agonies of writing, and highlight how literary tastes have changed (or not) over the years. You'll find some of the giants of the literary scene discussing their work, their creative process and their influences. You'll find books of all kinds - fiction, non-fiction, for readers young, old and anything in between - explored, examined, discussed and reviewed. So why not, to borrow a phrase, curl up with a good video?

13 videos in this collection

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Douglas Adams

1992

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Jilly Cooper / Jean Rook (Calendar People)

Leeds
1975

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Kazuo Ishiguro with Clive Sinclair

1986

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Ben Okri

1991

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