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Olivia Laing

Michael Berkeley's guest is the writer Olivia Laing, whose books include The Lonely City, Crudo, and her latest, The Garden Against Time.

Olivia Laing has won prizes and critical acclaim for her books, but readily admits that she led quite a wild life before becoming a writer: she dropped out of university, lived in a treehouse on an anti-road protest and later trained and worked as a herbalist.

Her non-fiction books include The Trip to Echo Spring, which examined how writers who were damagingly addicted to alcohol could still produce great literature. She drew on her own experience of extreme loneliness in New York to write The Lonely City, which blended memoir with reflections on the works of artists including Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol.

Her first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the James Tait Memorial Prize.

And most recently she’s written The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise. It’s an account of how she’s restoring a walled garden in Suffolk - and an investigation into the history of gardens and the solace and pleasure they can bring.

Olivia's music choices include Puccini, Purcell, Wagner and Bach.

Available now

49 minutes

Last on

Sun 23 Jun 2024 12:00

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043 (2nd mvt)

    Performer: Yehudi Menuhin. Performer: Christian Ferras. Orchestra: Bath Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Yehudi Menuhin.
    • Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046 - 1051 & Violin Concertos, BWV 1042 - 1043.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 208.
  • Giacomo Puccini

    Vissi d'arte (Tosca)

    Singer: Maria Callas. Orchestra: National Theater Opera Orchestra of Paris. Conductor: Georges Sébastian.
    • Live in Paris 1958.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 15.
  • Richard Wagner

    Mild und leise wie er lächelt (Tristan und Isolde)

    Singer: Birgit Nilsson. Orchestra: Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Karl Bohm.
    • Wagner: Tristan und Isolde.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 29.
  • Pet Shop Boys

    Being Boring

    • Ultimate.
    • Parlophone UK.
    • 9.
  • Henry Purcell

    The Cold Song

    Singer: Klaus Nomi.
    • Klaus Nomi.
    • RCA.
    • 1.
  • William Basinski

    Disintegration Loops (1.1 Excerpt I)

    • Music from The Comedy - A film by Rick Alverson.
    • Jagjaguwar.
    • 7.
  • Exuma

    22nd Century

    Music Arranger: Harold Wheeler. Music Arranger: Nina Simone. Singer: Nina Simone. Conductor: Harold Wheeler.
    • Here Comes The Sun (Expanded Edition).
    • RCA/Legacy.
    • 13.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Ombra mai fu (Serse)

    Singer: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Conductor: Harry Bicket.
    • Handel Arias.
    • AVIE Records.
    • 20.
  • Henry Purcell

    When I am laid in earth (Dido and Aeneas)

    Singer: Janet Baker. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Anthony Lewis.
    • DECCA.

Broadcast

  • Sun 23 Jun 2024 12:00

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