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Home , Iris Murdoch, Julian Barnes, Kingsley Amis, Muriel Spark, Naguib Mahfouz, Paul Scott (novelist)

Interview Summary Sheet Project: Memories of Fiction: An Oral History of Readers’ Lives

Reference No.

Interviewee name and title: Joanna Crooks

Interviewee DOB and place of birth: Reading, year unknown. Interviewee Occupation: Teacher Book group(s) attended: Putney

Date(s) of recording: Thursday 21 May, 2015 Location of recording: Interviewee’s home, Putney. Interviewer: Dr. Amy Tooth Murphy Duration(s): 1:35:07 Summariser: Haley Moyse Fenning

Copyright/Clearance:

Interviewer/Summariser comments:

Key themes:

Reading, book groups, libraries,

All books and authors mentioned (those discussed for >20 seconds in bold): Enid Blyton Noel Streatfeild Richmal Crompton, Just William series Naguib Mahfouz Old Lob series , David Copperfield Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair , Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy, Tess Thomas Hardy, Jude Thomas Hardy, Mayor of Casterbridge Charles Dickens, Bleak House Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Howard Spring Monica Dickens Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca John Buchan, The 39 Steps E. Forster , Ulysees Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird , Lord of the Flies Alan Johnston, This Boy Andrew Motion John Le Carre, A Most Wanted Man Nicholas Monserrat, The Cruel Sea Noel Streatfield, The Ballet Shoes Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables Just William series D.H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë , Villette Ian McEwan, Ian McEwan, Enduring Love Ian McEwan, Atonement Rose Tremain Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing John Updike Malcom Bradbury , Small World W.B Yeats Agatha Christie, Miss Marple Agatha Christie, Poirot J.G Farrell, The Seige of Krishnapur J.G Farrell, J.G Farrell, The Singapore Grip E.M Forster, Passage to India E.M Forster, Howard’s End E.M Forster, A Room with a View , Jewel in the Crown George Orwell, Burmese Days George Orwell, Coming up for Air George Orwell, Clergyman’s Daughter George Orwell, 1984 George Orwell , Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Kate Saunders, 5 Children on the Western Front E.Nesbit, The Treasure Seekers Arthur Ransome , Flaubert’s Parrot C.S Lewis J.R.R Tolkein Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills Kazuo Ishiguro, Artist Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter, Tom Kitten Richard Adams, Watership Down Kenneth Grahame, Wind in the Willows , The Girls of Slender Means Irène Némirovsky, Suite Francaise Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment Patricia Highsmith Tove Jansson Jeanette Winterson Sarah Walters Andrea Levy, Small Island Andrea Levy, The Long Song Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit , Hilary Mantel, Bring out the Bodies Hilary Mantel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street , The Sea Salley Vickers Alan Titchmarsh Kathryn Stockett, The Help Ruth Rendell Iris Murdoch, The Sea The Sea , The Folks that Live on the Hill J.K Rowling, Harry Potter Gabriel García Márquez Robert Harris, Enigma Robert Harris, Fatherland. Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters , Cold Comfort Farm Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That , Birdsong Michael Frayn, Headlong Edmund De Waal, The Hare with the Amber Eyes , The Millstone Margaret Drabble, The Summer Bird Cage A.S Byatt, , Arcadia Helen Dunmore Colm Tóibín Michael Frayn, Spies Rosamond Lehmann, Weather in the Streets

[1:35:07] [Session One: 21 May 2015] 00:00:00 Joanna Crooks [JC] comments that the demands of teaching meant it was difficult to read but that she has read much more since retiring. Comments that she began reading very early. Mentions Enid Blyton. Mentions Noel Streatfield. Mentions Richmal Crompton, Just William series. Anecdote about telling her sister not to read Enid Blyton. Discussion about reading habits in retirement. Mentions Anthony Trollope. Comments that the reading group have encouraged her to read authors she otherwise would not have. Mentions John Updike. Mentions Naguib Mahfouz. Mentions Thomas Mann. Comments that the reading group reminds her of reading books with a class as a teacher. 00:02:58 Discussion about reading habits in childhood. Anecdote about the Old Lob series. Remarks that she read books obvious to the time. Comments that she did not enjoy novels given at school. Mentions Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. Mentions Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped. Comments on not liking the obligation to read books at school, but feeling different about the reading group. Remarks on attending the reading group even if she did not finished the book. Mentions William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair. Comments that she was not widely wide when beginning her English degree at University. Comments that the University English course reading list only had novels written before the 1830s. Mentions Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot. Mentions Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. Comments on enjoying reading and teaching drama and preferring teaching plays to novels. Mentions William Shakespeare. Remarks on going to all- girls school in Oxford. Mentions Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tess, Jude and The Mayor of Casterbridge. Mentions Charles Dickens, Bleak House and Great Expectations. Mentions Anthony Trollope. 0:07:31 Discussion about reading during leisure time in childhood. Mentions Howard Spring and Monica Dickens. Comments on Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca: read later as a teacher and did not like it. Mentions . Mentions Agatha Christie. Comments on John Buchan being unreadable for modern peoples. Anecdote about landlady in Oxford winning literature prize. Further discussion about John Buchan an detective stories: atmosphere, politics. Mentions The 39 Steps. Mentions E.M Forrester. Remarks on importance of plot. 00:11:01 Further discussion about importance of plot. Comments on books where a plot has not been engaging. Mentions James Joyce, Ulysees, Mentions Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy. Brief discussion about Jane Austen: comments that all of her male/female relationships are family or fantasy. Discussion about GCSE texts Mentions Pride and Prejudice. Mentions Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird and William Golding, Lord of the Flies. Mentions L.P Hartley, The Go-Between. Comments on enjoying biographies: interested in early struggles rather than stories of . Mentions Alan Johnston, This Boy. 00:15:18 Further discussion about biographies. Mentions Evelyn Waugh: comments on reading the biography alongside a novel for the Putney reading group. Mentions Alan Turing biography. Comments on enjoying history focusing on people. Remarks on skipping some sections of biographies. Comments that they are enjoyable even when you know what is going to be happening. Anecdote about reading a Jackie Onassis biography. Discussion about influence of author’s biography on enjoying their novels. Mentions Philip Larkin. Mentions Andrew Motion: comments that he has no sense of rhythm. Mentions Evelyn Waugh. Remarks that the greatest writing is often based on personal and so a troubled past can be important. 00:21:47 Discussion about family reading habits. Anecdote about father reading Thomas Hardy at the time Thomas Hardy died. Comments that her mother studied History at University, and preferred biographies to fiction. Mentions Evelyn Waugh. Mentions . Anecdote about giving her father A Burnt-Out Case as a gift when he was in hospital. Mentions John Le Carre. Comments that it was the Putney reading group who got her back into reading John Le Carre. Mentions A Most Wanted Man. Comments that her grandmother’s bookcase was full of green Penguin novels, which were the detective series. Story about Nicholas Monserrat, The Cruel Sea. Comments on visiting the library as a child: remarks on not being able to take a book back within the same day, though she would often have read one. Mentions the autobiographical nature of Noel Streatfield, The Ballet Shoes. 00:26:07 Discussion about re-reading books. Mentions re-reading and teaching The Go- Between. Mentions Lord of the Flies. Comments on the last page of L.P Hartley, The Go-Between still making her cry upon re-reading. Mentions the Just William series. Comments that her children were great readers. Remarks on the importance of reading books at the right age. Story about Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables. Brief plot description and discussion of Anne of Green Gables. Mentions Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden: draws parallels with a prequel of D.H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and other novels. Mentions Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights. Mentions Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre and Villette. 00:31:33 Discussion about contemporary authors. Mentions Ian McEwan: remarks that he is artificial. Mentions Amsterdam, Enduring Love, Atonement and A Child in Time. Mentions creative writing course at UEA and not liking a number of authors who attended: Rose Tremain, Kazuo Ishiguro, who attended. Mentions Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing. Mentions Still Alice film. Mentions Graham Greene. Mentions Evelyn Waugh. Mentions John Updike. Mentions Malcom Bradbury and David Lodge. Comments on enjoying satire. Mentions David Lodge, Small World: An Academic Romance. Anecdote about pilgrimage to W.B Yeats’ grave. 00:38:09 Discussion about detective fiction. Comments on not liking violent crime. Mentions . Mentions Simon Brett. Brief discussion about Agatha Christie, Miss Marple and Poirot. Discussion about Simon Brett’s characters. 00:39:55 Discussion about choosing what to read next, moods for reading. Comments that if a reading group book has been particularly heavy, she will look for something lighter to read next. Comments that she will often have several books on the go at once. Story about reading Elizabeth is Missing for the reading group. Mentions Paul Scott, Jewel in the Crown. Discusson about J.G Farrell, The Seige of Krishnapur and the Empire trilogy. Mentions E.M Forster, Passage to India and Howard’s End. Mentions A Room with a View and film adaptation. 00:44:23 Discussion about sci-fi and fantasy. Mentions George Orwell, Burmese Days, Coming up for Air, Clergyman’s Daughter and 1984. Mentions Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Comments that she does not particularly like fantasy. Discussion about imagination. Mentions Kate Saunders, 5 Children on the Western Front. Mentions E.Nesbit, The Treasure Seekers. Story about reading Arthur Ransome and skipping the parts about sailing. Remarks that her parents met on an ice rink. Comments that she was brought up Christian. Mentions Philip Pullman: remarks that it is derivative. Comments that literature based on literature almost never works. Mentions Pat Barker. Brief discussion about First World War poetry. Mentions Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot . Comments that C.S Lewis was contrived. Comments that husband loved reading J.R.R Tolkein: remarks that it was self-consciously based on Norse literature. Remarks on Margaret Atwood: too much like science-fiction. Discussion about Kazuo Ishiguro. Mentions A Pale View of Hills, Artist Floating World and Remains of the Day. Mentions Iain Banks. 00:51:09 Discussion about reading with her children. Comments that her husband, John, would read aloud to the children. Mentions C.S Lewis and Arthur Ransome. Remarks on reading to her grandchildren. Mentions Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit. Comments that she did not like reading books about animals when she was younger. Anecdote about Richard Adams, Watership Down. Mentions Kenneth Grahame, Wind in the Willows. Description of Peter Rabbit: story about a bad boy and three good girls. Mentions Beatrix Potter, Tom Kitten. Comments that her father was a civil servant and her mother stayed home after having six children. Remarks that her mother had, before marriage, worked for a literary agency which included Evelyn Waugh amongst others. Brief description of Evelyn War biography. Discussion about spie stories. Mentions A.D Peters. Further description of mother: a secretary in the 1930s, worked at Cambridge University library later, was a very active church go-er. Description of childhood: living in Cambridge before moving to , getting married and living in a variety of places including Leeds and Oxford. Comments that her parents had wanted four children but had twins.

00:57:04 Discussion about Putney reading group. Comments that the advert for the group implied that they were reading books which had film adaptations. Mentions Virginia Wolfe, The Hours and film adaptation. Remarks that privately set up reading groups are not a good idea: members are required to buy the book. Anecdote about friend’s perception of reading groups. Remarks that a facilitated group allows for intellectual discussion: open to general discussion rather than everyone expected to say something first. Discussion about facilitators introducing with their opinions of a book first. Mentions Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means. Discussion about Irène Némirovsky, Suite Francaise. Comments that there have been some clashes in the group: notably about Ian McEwan, A Child in Time. Remarks on group being scared that they would lose the group through privatisation of borough. Mentions Evelyn Waugh. Mentions that a friend’s reading group had a waiting list as it got too big. [List of books available for group shown to interviewer] Mentions Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale. Comments that her sister in law’s reading group in Brazil do not read texts in translation. Mentions Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment. Discussion about Patricia Highsmith and Tove Jansson. Mentions Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters. Further discussion of books on reading list. Mentions Andrea Levy, Small Island and The Long Song. Mentions Kate Atkinson. Further discussion about Jeanette Winterson: comments that she likes the autobiographical aspect of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Mentions Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Bring out the Bodies and Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. Discussion about Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests: the next book to be read for Putney reading group. Comments on authors on the list she would not want to read: Salley Vickers, Alan Titchmarsh. Mentions Kathryn Stockett, The Help. Comments on Ruth Rendell. Anecdote about Lincoln film starring Daniel Day Lewis. Brief discussion about Iris Murdoch, The Sea The Sea. Mentions Kingsley Amis, The Folks that Live on the Hill. Brief discussion about J.K Rowling, Harry Potter series and film adaptations. Comments on Thomas Mann: being affected by finale of story as though it has happened to her own family. Remarks on Gabriel García Márquez: inappropriate relationships, boring. Remarks on Orhan Pamuk: heard him speak, pretentious. Remarks on : unreadable. Comments that she admires Robert Harris. Mentions Enigma and Fatherland. Mentions Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South and Wives and Daughters: comments that it was unfinished. Mentions Michael Frayn, Headlong. Mentions Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm. Comments on Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That. Remarks on Sebastian Faulks: jumps on bandwagons. Mentions Birdsong. 1:25:34 Discussion about what makes a good reading group book: comments that it is when not everybody likes it. Mentions Edmund De Waal, The Hare with the Amber Eyes: comments that it is autobiographical. Mentions Margaret Drabble, The Millstone and The Summer Bird Cage. Comments that writers often have one or two good books in them and struggle after that. Brief discussion about A.S Byatt, Possession. Mentions Tom Stoppard, Arcadia. Mentions Helen Dunmore and Colm Tóibín. Mentions John Updike. Anecdote about teaching her class the Brontë sisters: comments that Ann was not as good as her sisters as she lacks the imagination required to create stories. Remarks that so many people without imaginative power still try to create stories. Mentions Michael Frayn, Spies. Mentions Noel Streatfield: remarks that she is her favourite children’s writer. Comments that when people have a great idea for a story it is often based on a memory, experience, person feeling. Anecdote about friend writing book similar to Rosamond Lehmann, Weather in the Streets.

[1:35:07] [End of Session One]