114: Edward Carey (Edith Holler)

Charlie and Edward Carey (Edith Holler) talk at length about the arts and the theatre in the context of his book and in general. They also talk about Norwich as Edward's book is his love letter to the city.

Please note there is a mild swear word in this episode.

A transcript is available on my site

General references:
Edward's previous episode on this podcast is number 52
Wikipedia's article on Norwich
Robert Louis Stevenson's essay on toy theatres is called A Penny Plain And Twopence Coloured and is available on Project Gutenberg
The downloadable theatre on Edward's website (scroll down, on the left)
Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters In Search Of An Author
My episode with Melissa Fu is number 59

Books mentioned by name or extensively:
Edward Carey: Edith Holler
Gaston Le Roux: The Phantom Of The Opera
Jeanette Winterson: The Passion
Julian Of Norwich: Revelations Of Divine Love
Robert Louis Stevenson: Memories And Portraits
Xavier de Maistre: Voyage Around My Room

Buy the books: UK || USA

Release details: recorded 2nd September 2024; published 27th January 2025

Where to find Edward online: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram

Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok

Discussions

01:29 The starting point of Edith Holler - lockdown, not being able to go to the theatre, and Brexit. We then move on to the fictional missing children in the book
05:22 Norwich as both a location and inspiration
12:01 Further notes on creating Edith herself, and then we discuss interpretations
18:41 More on the drawings and card theatre
21:05 The other characters
25:10 The Iron Curtain that separates theatre crew and theatre goers
29:01 The language of the novel
30:37 Was there something in particular that lead to you setting the book in the Edwardian period?
33:23 Being in Edith's head
34:27 Beetle Spread!
38:30 Did you ever consider having Edith leave the theatre?
39:20 The undercrofts and the importance of moving the story underground. We then continue on to discuss further theatrical influences on both the novel and ourselves
47:12 The photograph of a woman at the very end of the book
48:59 Edward explains why he won't tell us about what he's currently working on

Photo credit: Elizabeth McCracken

Disclosure: If you buy books linked to my site, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops