logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2021
38m 10s

Elizabeth Strout with Isy Suttie

PENGUIN BOOKS UK
About this episode

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout joins Isy Suttie to discuss the third book in her Lucy Barton series, ‘Oh, William!’.


Using objects like a ring gifted to her by a great aunt and a postcard of the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald as a starting point, Strout muses on the almost mystical process that allows her to inhabit the characters she creates, her preoccupation with class and the shame that so often sits alongside it, and the epiphany that came to her on the comedy stage. #PenguinPodcast


‘Oh, William!’ is available to order on audiobook now: https://apple.co/3EbDgV6


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Jun 3
Which debut novels should you be reading in 2026?
What are the best books get you out of a reading slump? How did Snakes on a Plane inspire a literary sensation? What did James Joyce and Pakistani rap teach one of our debut novelists? And does a writer need to be completely delusional to finish writing a novel? This week on Ask ... Show More
51m 56s
May 20
Which books emotionally wrecked you? With Dawn French
How does artist Kae Tempest inspire Dawn French? Do editors always know best? What is the impact of grief on those we love most? And what really happened when Dawn French came face to face with a hippo while filming Harry Potter? In this episode of Ask Penguin, Rhianna Dhillon si ... Show More
58m 37s
May 6
What are the best novels about infidelity? With Sophie Mackintosh
What’s the difference between flash fiction and the short story? Why are we drawn to literature’s most flawed characters? And what would be the ideal fictional world for adulterers? Hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, on this episode of Ask Penguin, we’re answering your questions with our ... Show More
41m 22s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2023
Episode 532 - Priscilla Gilman
With her new memoir, The Critic's Daughter (Norton), Priscilla Gilman explores her relationship with her father, Theater Critic and Yale Drama professor Richard Gilman (as well as with her mom, literary agent Lynn Nesbit). We get into the perils of literary-kid memoir, the NYC bo ... Show More
1h 24m
Apr 2023
502 Persuasion by Jane Austen | My Last Book with Stephen Dobranski
Harold Bloom called Persuasion "the perfect novel." Virginia Woolf said "In Persuasion, Jane Austen is beginning to discover that the world is larger, more mysterious, and more romantic than she supposed." In this episode, the first of three parts, Jacke takes a look at Jane Aust ... Show More
35m 41s
Jun 2023
Shakespeare's Sex Life
<p>The Bard’s work featured many references to sex and sexuality - some more obvious than others. But what does the work reveal about the sexuality of Shakespeare himself?&nbsp;</p><br><p>Despite being married with three kids to Anne Hathaway in the sleepy suburbs of Stratford-up ... Show More
48m 50s
Jan 2021
#309 Kate Elizabeth Russell: Writing Fiction & Setting Boundaries
Kate Elizabeth Russell is a writer, based in Oregon. Her debut novel, My Dark Vanessa, was published in 2020 and has been translated into thirty-five languages. It’s been both a Sunday Times Bestseller and a New York Times Bestseller. Stephen King himself described it as ‘a hard ... Show More
30m 51s
Feb 2014
Jane Austen Vs Emily Bronte: The Queens of English Literature Debate
Who was the Queen of English literature. Was it Jane Austen with her sensitive ear for the hypocrisy lurking beneath the genteel conversation in the drawing rooms of Georgian England? Or Emily Brontë with the complex tale of violent attraction, thwarted love, death and the supern ... Show More
1h 59m
Dec 2023
Selby Wynn Schwartz in “les Rencontres” — CHANEL Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon
<p>Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Selby Wynn Schwartz, writer of “After Sappho”, her first novel published by Galley Beggar Press in 2022. Together, they talk about her insatiable appetite for literature as a child and the way it led her to becoming ... Show More
49m 39s
Jul 2021
The Life & Loves of Elizabeth Taylor | "We Will Have No More Marriages!" | 72
<p>After a brush with death, Elizabeth Taylor’s on top of the world. She has an Oscar, a million-dollar paycheck for&nbsp;<em>Cleopatra</em>, and a steamy new love interest: her stormy and hard-living co-star, Richard Burton. But when their affair threatens to become even more wi ... Show More
42m 12s