"Everybody needs a jolly good listening to"

Featuring author Wendy Jones

Why would a writer put her/himself into the background? Wendy Jones has written many kinds of books – fiction, and for children – but in this episode we focus on how and why she likes to tell people’s stories in their own words.

She did this in her biography of Grayson Perry, and in The Sex Lives Of English Women.

In this conversation, we talk about what drew her to use this technique, and how she actually goes about it – the hard work, like the figure of the writer, can sometimes seem invisible.

We also talk about Studs Terkel, the American radio broadcaster and pioneer of oral history, who inspired Wendy. The Studs Terkel book Wendy mentions is When Will The Circle Be Unbroken?, and the illustrated book I describe afterwards is Working.



Buy Wendy’s books on Amazon.

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From This Series

  1. All Is Joy: Improvisational Theatre and Calling Samaritans
  2. Finding Your Own Style, and Sticking With It | Interview with James Mayhew
  3. How To Pull Off A Month-Long Creative Project
  4. "Everybody needs a jolly good listening to"
  5. "I Thought I Didn't Need Supervision" | Interview with Jenny Rogers
  6. "When I'm On My Deathbed I'll Remember This"
  7. On The Pleasures Of Copying Out Great Writing By Hand
  8. Travel Writing | Making Sense Of Some Things
  9. Save the world, one creative project at a time
  10. On Asking Good Questions