Rippling Pages: Interviews with Writers ripplingpages

"The garden is a co-author"Marchelle Farrell is here to talk about her essay in a new anthology from Daunt Books, BY THE RIVER: ESSAYS FROM THE WATER'S EDGE. I've wanted to talk to Marchelle since the publication of UPROOTING: FROM THE CARIBBEAN TO THE COUNTRYSIDE - Canongate Books), so it was great to have her here when she's part of an anthology featuring the likes of Caleb Azumah Nelson and Tessa Hadley.Marchelle, a consultant psychiatrist as well as a writer, often blends personal history with reflections on how colonial history has shaped the world and behaviourRippling Points1.25 - The rivers that Marchelle writers about in her essay, 'Memory River4.06 - the noise of the river and how it infiltrated Marchelle's dreams7.08 - A sense of renewal and writing about childhood 9.00 - The pain and joy in revisiting childhood12.34 - Marchelle's belief on balancing both pain and joy in life. 15.04 - The story of Marchelle's family and forgotten stories18.23 - Can anything ever be permanently erased?20.22 - Leaving space for the reader to make interpretations.22.13 - The river and its links to colonial history.25.22 - How the 'English' garden isn't so English.28.20 - What is play and why is it importantReference PointsJo HamyaAmy KeyDonald Winnicott

"I wanted to be talking choice in a way that was routed in a social context, and that was true to the particularity and intimacy that I shared with my mum at the end of her life."Marianne Brooker is here to talk about her Women's Prize for Non-Fiction shortlisted essay, INTERVALS, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.Marianne talks about her life and living with her mother who was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. The book is a blend of memoir, philosophy, literary criticism, and politics. It's a tough but incredibly beautiful read. Rippling Points2.05 - When Marianne decided this story about her mother was going to be a book3.40 - 'Trying, circling, avoiding' - setting down to write a book like this4.30 - How Marianne would categorises this book7:00 -  On planning or not planning the book 8:44 - When Marianne's mother developed primary progressive multiple sclerosis10:20 - Finding a voice and coming up with a 'vocabulary'12:20 - The 'forces' in the book and Marianne's mother16:10 - Marianne's relationship with her mother.20:00 - What primary progressive multiple sclerosis is.22:20 - Marianne on 'choice' 25:21 - When Marianne found a video of her mother.
Reference PointsWriters
Roland BarthesAnnie ErnauxClarissa Pinkola Estés - Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype Saidiya HartmanAlice HattrickSophie LewisSam MillsMargery Williams - The Velveteen RabbitFilmmakersChantal Akerman

"That whole question of the invisible life...that there's something going on we cannot see that determines our health and the future of the planet."Dawn Garisch, one of South Africa's most pre-eminent writers, joins the Rippling Pages to talk about Breaking Milk, published in the UK by Heloise Press. Shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times South Africa/CNA Literary Awards '21, it finally lands on our shores.Dawn is also a doctor and a CEO of the Life Righting Collective, a non-profit organisation aiming to provide creative practice as a low-cost resource for humane, responsible and compassionate attitude in institutions and society as a whole.Find out more here: https://liferighting.com/Rippling Points1.40 - Who the narrator (Kate) of this novel is, and why Dawn chose to write about her at this point in the narrator's life. 7.00 - Why Dawn spent some time making cheese for the book8.40 - what separates us from our parents and other people11.43 - Kate's former job as a geneticist14.26 - The voice of the inner critic17.54 - The benefits of the life writing collective21.00 - Kate's husband, the other writer in the book. 27.30 - Dawn's work as a doctor. Reference PointsChrista Wolf - Accident: A Day's NewsJ.M. Coetzee DisgraceDawn Garisch - Eloquent BodyBessel Van der Kolk - The Body Knows the ScoreJaakp PankseppDonald Winnicott Virginia Woolf - Mrs DallowayVirginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own.

"Wounds, whilst they open us to the world...they can be points of infection." Welcome to 2024 and a new episode of the Rippling Pages. Rachel Mann is a poet, scholar, novelist and Anglican priest. She is Rachel Mann is here to talk about her new collection, Eleanor Among the Saints (Carcanet), which takes inspiration from the life of Eleanor 'John' Rykener. A trans woman, seamstress, embroider, and sex worker who lived in medieval England.More info about the book here
This is Rachel's second collection after Kingdom of Love (also Carcanet - and which I reviewed here!)The book is a Poetry Book Society recommendation and you kind find tickets to her launch here.Tickets to the Carcanet launch of the book here: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/events?showpage=913This show comes with a content warning - we do talk about some sensitive topics, such as domestic violence, so please do take care of yourself when listening.
Rippling Points5.05 - Poetry and embroidery8.03 - What Eleanor's story,  and Rachel's poetry, tells us about embodiedness11.45 - Society and Eleanor's story14.54 - How details about Eleanor's life helped in writing the collection. 18.30 - 'Violence' in craft and the writing process. 21.45 - How themes of violence and the body converge in Rachel's poems. 28.20 - 'Fear' of working with heavy and sensitive topicsReference Points
Gilles DeleuzeUmberto Eco

"Kathy had a documentary impulse that is teaching us now."Jo Scott-Coe returns to the Rippling Pages to talk about her latest book, UNHEARD WITNESS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KATHY LEISSNER WHITMAN (University of Texas Press)Jo is a previous guest of the podcast, joining us in Series 2 to discuss MASS (Pelekinesis), an account of Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower Shooter. Listen to that episode here: https://ripplingpages.podbean.com/e/jo-scott-coe-on-mass/Now she returns to discuss a follow-up to that book, the story of Whitman's wife, Kathy Leissner Whitman.This show comes with a content warning - we do talk about some sensitive topics, such as domestic violence, so please do take care of yourself when listening.
Rippling Points
Returning to the story: where the last book left us (2:30)
How Kathy's letters tell the story: Being with Kathy's 'intimate testimony' to tell her powerful and painful story (19:30)
Reference Points
Sylvia Plath
Evan Stark
Jane Monckton-Smith
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"It's not confessional...but it's absolutely full of concrete details of things that I've observed or really happened."Charlotte Eichler joins the Rippling Pages to discuss her new collection, SWIMMING BETWEEN ISLANDS, published by Carcanet
Tickets to Tom Branfoot launch that I'm hosting here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/boar-book-launch-tickets-733576425837Rippling Points
Fruit bats: the mystery of the mystery, and how we write it
Unnatural world: how even poets find it difficult to connect with nature
Reference Points
Anthony Vahni Capildeo