| Harriet Baker joins us to introduce her fascinating new book on three major 20th Century writers – Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner & Rosamond Lehmann. Harriet will be in conversation with author and broadcaster, Sanjida O’Connell.
Here’s more on the book from its publisher, Penguin imprint, Allen Lane:
In Rural Hours, Harriet Baker tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the countryside and were forever changed by it. We encounter them at quiet moments – pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill; jotting down a recipe; or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly, we start to see transformations unfold: Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann emerge before us as the passionate, visionary writers we know them to be.
Following long periods of creative uncertainty and private disappointment, each of Harriet’s subjects is invigorated by new landscapes, and the daily trials and small pleasures of making a home; slowly, they embark on new experiments in form, in feeling and in living that would resonate throughout the rest of their lives. In the country, each woman finds her path: to convalescence and recovery; to sexual and political awakening; and, above all, to personal freedom and creative flourishing.
Graceful, fluid, and enriched by previously untouched archival material, Rural Hours is both a paean to the bravery and vision of three pioneering writers, and a passionate invitation to us all: to recognize the radical potential of domestic life and rural places, and find new enchantment in the routines and rituals of each day.
Advance praise for Rural Hours:
“An absorbing study of the impact of country living on Woolf, Townsend Warner & Lehmann. A meditative exploration of renewal, visionariness―interior & exterior, generative & tormenting―grievous loss, & love―cool & passionate, fragile & enduring” David Hayden
“A superb portrait of the complex imprint the countryside makes on the life of the mind, this exquisite book reveals three writers, each vividly drawn in the particularities of her own surroundings, her own difficulties and joys. This book is a thoughtful exploration of rural life and creativity, drawing on deep archival roots and Harriet Baker’s unique warmth and eloquence. A treasure.” Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat
“In this warm, perceptive, eloquent study, Harriet Baker collects some overlooked moments in these women’s lives, and with great honesty and empathy, captures what it felt like to live and write through them. Like Baker’s protagonists in their countryside boltholes I felt “socketed” by this book. I know I’ll return to it again and again.”Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters
Harriet Baker
Dr Harriet Baker has written for the London Review of Books, Paris Review, New Statesman, TLS, Apollo and frieze. She read English at Oxford and holds a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. In 2018, she was awarded the Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian Prize. She lives in Bristol.
Sanjida O’Connell
Dr Sanjida O’Connell has a PhD in zoology and psychology and is the author of eight novels and four non-fiction books. Sanjida previously worked as a wildlife presenter for the BBC and an environmental features writer and columnist for national newspapers and magazines. She has been nominated for numerous awards including the BBC Asia Awards, the Betty Trask Award for Romantic Fiction and Asian Woman of the Year. Currently Sanjida writes psychological thrillers under the pen name of Sanjida Kay, and is working on another thriller and a book about rewilding which she is serialising on Substack at Wild Writing with Sanjida. |
