It's never occurred to me before, but the ghost story as a genre has arguably been welcoming to female writers, certainly when compared to (say) science fiction, where within living memory women writers had to disguise their gender, lest spotty boys be outraged by the presence of girls in the gang. (CL Moore, anyone? How about Leigh Brackett, or James Tiptree Jnr?). Anyway, BBC 7 is doing a series of ghost stories by women. They are 'The Cold Embrace' by Mary Braddon, 'Man Size in Marble' by Edith Nesbit, and 'Afterward' by Edith Wharton. It's a pity there are no more recent efforts, though. I would have chosen 'The Tower' by Marghanita Laski, plus something by Joan Aiken and a Joyce Carol Oates. But there you go - copyright and all that.
3 comments:
Good to see Edith Wharton in there, one of my favourite writers all round. I haven't revisited her stories for a while, is 'Afterward' the one about the lonely relative in France who may or may not be a ghost ? An excellent tale that anyway. Pity I can't pick up BBC 7 on my radio, digital reception here isn't good.
All the best for you and ST in 2011.
Thanks! 'Afterward' is set in England, and concerns the ghost that isn't identified as such until, well, afterward. If you can use the BBC iPlayer, it's here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00njx8j/The_Female_Ghost_Afterward/
Yes I listened to it on iPlayer ( I keep forgetting it's available for radio programmes ). Not sure it quite works as a dramatisation, a straightforward reading would be better I feel but it was still worth hearing.
Post a Comment