Episode 1
4 Extra Debut. Recently widowed, Violet Hetherington takes a cruise ship to visit her old friend Edwin in New York. Read by Eileen Atkins.
Eileen Atkins reads from Salley Vickers' acclaimed new novel, Dancing Backwards
Violet Hetherington's husband has recently died. Alone, she decides to take a cruise-ship crossing to visit her old friend, Edwin, in New York.
As she journeys across the Atlantic the quiet Violet begins to blossom - learning to ballroom dance, taking up smoking again, befriending a famously seething theatre critic. And in her time alone she reminisces about her early adulthood as a student at Cambridge. It's at Cambridge that she meets Edwin. Edwin, it soon becomes clear, is someone she's betrayed and someone she's both terrified and desperate to see again. The story that unfolds about the young Violet holds the secret to that betrayal.
Written and abridged by Salley Vickers. Vickers is a critically acclaimed, best-selling novelist whose work includes Mr Golightly's Holiday, Instances of the Number 3, Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You. Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You were both popular Book at Bedtimes. Last year she dramatised her version of the Oedipus myth, Where Three Roads Meet, for Radio 4's Afternoon Play slot. Before becoming a full time writer she was a psychoanalyst.
Produced by Kirsty Williams.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
You are at the first episode
Broadcasts
- Mon 29 Mar 2010 22:45大象传媒 Radio 4
- Mon 19 Jan 2015 14:00大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
- Tue 20 Jan 2015 00:00大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra
Books
Celebrating reading and the 100 novels that have shaped our world.
How many of these 100 Novels have you read?
Short stories to keep
The fiction podcast featuring the best stories from the UK's finest writers