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Sylvia Townsend Warner: A BBC Radio Collection

Including Lolly Willowes & The True Heart

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Sylvia Townsend Warner: A BBC Radio Collection

By: Sylvia Townsend Warner
Narrated by: full cast, Louise Brealey, Tilly Vosburgh, Edward Petherbridge, Margaret Tyzack, Penelope Wilton, Irene Sutcliffe, Joanna McCallum, Joanne Mitchell, Helen O'Hara, Mick Ford
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About this listen

BBC radio productions of the works of Sylvia Townsend Warner - plus bonus programmes about the author herself

Sylvia Townsend Warner was a prolific author of novels, short stories and poetry, who also wrote a biography of T. H. White, translated Proust and was an authority on Tudor church music. A sharp, insightful storyteller, she was one of the 20th Century's most acute observers of English mores, and her work is infused with subversive themes reflecting her feminist and Marxist views.

This comprehensive anthology includes dramatisations of her two best-known novels, beginning with her 1926 debut, Lolly Willowes, which was shortlisted for the Prix Femina and launched her literary career. Louise Brealey stars in this joyously comic tale of a respectable, middle-class spinster who finally finds fulfilment in life by taking up witchcraft.

Next up is The True Heart, an imaginative retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. Set in 1873, it tells the story of orphaned maidservant Sukey, who falls in love, but is cruelly parted from her beloved. Believing that only Queen Victoria can help, she sets off on a heroic journey to see her... Tilly Vosburgh stars, with Mick Ford and Theresa Streatfeild.

These are followed by three short stories: 'The Proper Circumstances' (read by Joanna McCallum), 'One Thing Leading to Another' (read by Margaret Tyzack) and 'Oxenhope' (read by Edward Petherbridge). Also featured is the Radio 4 series Stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner, comprising five short tales - 'Flora', 'A Scent of Roses', 'English Mosaic', 'Furnivall's Hoopoe' and 'The Listening Woman' - all read by Penelope Wilton.

Concluding our collection are two bonus programmes: Comrade Ackland and I, Frances Bingham's original drama based on the true story of Sylvia Townsend Warner and her partner, poet Valentine Ackland; and The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, in which Irene Sutcliffe reads five extracts from the journal kept by the novelist from 1927 to her death in 1978.

Contents
Lolly Willowes
The True Heart
'The Proper Circumstances'
'One Thing Leading to Another'
'Oxenhope'
'Flora'
'A Scent of Roses'
'English Mosaic'
'Furnivall's Hoopoe'
'The Listening Woman'
Comrade Ackland and I
The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner

First published 1926 (Lolly Willowes), 1929 (The True Heart), 1944 ('The Proper Circumstances'), 1962 ('One Thing Leading to Another'), 1964 ('English Mosaic'), 1966 ('Oxenhope'), 1969 ('Furnivall's Hoopoe), 1972 ('A Scent of Roses', 'The Listening Woman'), 1977 ('Flora')

©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
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What listeners say about Sylvia Townsend Warner: A BBC Radio Collection

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Very enjoyable

I love these BBC Collections of radio drama by favourite authors; this one is lovely. Abridged books and short stories, a play, and excerpts from Sylvia Townsend Warner's diary, all were so enjoyable . I'm sure I shall return to this collection many times.

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Oh Dear Oh Dear

This just does not work. Tried my best to like this (wanted to love it) but none of it means anything to me and I do love my female Writings between Victorian and 1940’s. But this came across as a lot of ‘Moan oh poor me, if only” “if if if”. After one listen, just not interested. Empty. Returned.

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