Podcast 57: Angela Carter

To kick off Season 6 of our podcast, writer Leon Craig brings us the story of award-winning English author Angela Carter. Known for her feminist, gothic, and erotic sensibilities and for re-inventing folk and fairy tales with her now seminal collection The Bloody Chamber, Carter’s life had quite a few plot twists of its own. In her 51 years she wrote nine novels, five short story collections, several children’s books, and countless essays and articles. She also collected quite a few lovers after awakening from a stifling marriage, harvesting them first from her social circle and friends’ husbands, then later more randomly during her two years living in Japan. Shortly after her death from cancer, Angela Carter received a strong wave of recognition, and her writing is now taught to generations of British school kids.

Our presenter Leon Craig has received more than a few comparisons to Carter for her own debut story collection, Parallel Hells, which is now out in paperback from Sceptre Books. At the White Review, you can read that collection’s “Lick the Dust,” which was selected for Best British Short Stories 2022 . Leon can be found at www.leoncraigwriter.com and on Twitter @Leon_c_c.

This episode, DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce the episode and talk more about writers Carter and Craig.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Acast. You can download the transcript, created by Annie Musgrove, here.

Show notes:

Angela Carter, from the Fay Godwin Archive at the British Library

“‘A free woman in an unfree society will be a monster. Her freedom will be a condition of personal privilege that deprives those on which she exercises it of her own freedom. The most extreme kind of this deprivation is murder. These women murder.” from Angela Carter’s iconic collection of essays

The Crescent where Angela was bored in Brighton.

Angelas favorite pub in Bristol: the Greyhound

Angela’s first three books, from 1966, 1967, and 1968 respectively.

Angela after returning from Japan in 1972

Her books from 1969, 1971, 1972: so productive!

The terrifying poster for Neil Jordan’s film that was banned from the London Tube

Angela in her study towards the end of her life

Leon recommends The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography by Edmund Gordon, “On Angela Carter” by Susannah Clapp at the London Review of Books, A Card From Angela Carter by Susannah Clapp, and “Death of the Author” by Lorna Sage, Granta. Angela Carter’s estate has a great website and is on Twitter @AngelaOCarter.

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Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.