Inbox: The Correspondent | The Power of Letter Writing | Book Club

Afua Hirsch (0:05)

Hello, and welcome to Legacy Inbox.

Peter Frankopan (0:07)

I'm Peter Frankopan.

Afua Hirsch (0:08)

I'm Afua Hirsch.

Peter Frankopan (0:09)

And this is where we step away from the main series and open up our inbox.

Afua Hirsch (0:13)

It could be somewhere we've been, something we're working on, someone we want you to meet.

Peter Frankopan (0:18)

Or something we just can't ignore.

Afua Hirsch (0:20)

And this week, we're talking about something I can't stop thinking about, a novel I just finished reading, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which I loved. It's such a beautiful book, but it's also, I think, a metaphor for something deeper that's happening in our culture and also in our politics. So we will be getting into it. And before we do, just a reminder that Legacy Inbox is better when you're in it. It's called Inbox for a reason. So if there's something you want to suggest, an idea for a series, a person, a phenomenon, a book, just hit us up. DM us on Instagram. We are at Original Legacy Podcast.

Peter Frankopan (0:59)

And if you want more than is perhaps good for you, you can come and join me and Afua on Legacy Plus where we have bonus episodes, Q&A, early releases, whole series. And you can find us on legacy.supportingcast.fm.

We've got lots of stuff that we put there. I think that because we've slightly struggled with the tech behind some of this, you haven't always been able to find us, but we release at least one episode a week and that is behind a paywall. So come and be part of the Legacy family. We'd love you to join us. It's absolute bargain to get ahold of Afua and me if we were coming to do your Christmas event or your wedding. We'd be out of most people's prize range apart from maybe Elon Musk and his friends. But so come and join us on legacy.supportingcast.fm.

Afua Hirsch (1:45)

So Peter, the correspondent, I have to say...

Peter Frankopan (1:49)

I want to ask you Afua about the correspondent.

Afua Hirsch (1:51)

Go on.

Peter Frankopan (1:51)

Because you're always bang on trend. How did you find the correspondent? Because you've done the reading of The Summer. You found the right subjects to read about. Why did you pick up the correspondent?

Afua Hirsch (2:00)

I noticed that it had won the Women's Prize. I don't necessarily read books because they win prizes. Though I do keep an eye on the Booker and the Women's Prize and the Costa First Novel Prize. And there's a few that I rate. And having like you Peter been a juror on many book prizes, I know the work that goes into selecting, shortlisting and awarding books. I do respect and take seriously books that are recognized that way because I know how hard it is to make it to the top.

So I noticed that, but it didn't really grab me. I don't know if it's something about the cover or the idea. It's a book about an older lady writing letters. It just didn't kind of jump at me as like a thrilling read for the summer. Oh my God, how wrong was I? I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I cried, I laughed, I can't stop thinking about it. It was such a beautiful book. So I think it just didn't, it wouldn't go away. I saw that it won the prize, I heard people talking about it. And actually now I know more about the book. I think that's really interesting because as well as loving books, I love stories of how books get published. I particularly love stories of books that fail multiple times before they get published. And actually we talked the other day about Marlon James, who we both love, who's a good friend of yours, incredible writer who's just written a book that's being hailed as the book of the decade, potentially the century no less. Can't wait to read that.

But one of the things I love about Marlon's story, which I read is that his first novel was rejected so many times. I think he said more than a hundred times that he destroyed the manuscript, contacted everyone who'd read the manuscript, that he'd sent it to and told them to destroy it. He basically wanted to obliterate this book from the face of the earth because he was so hurt and bitter at all these rejections. And there was one friend who didn't delete it, who didn't comply. And then that book ended up being published to Massive Critical Acclaim and launching him on his path of being such a successful author.

Peter Frankopan (3:57)