I’ve cleared my diary for the week of 18th September because Radio 4 are about to dramatize Vasily Grossman’s masterly epic Life and Fate (translated by Robert Chandler, Vintage Classics, £9.99). The adaptation is going to take over every drama slot on Radio 4* and I for one am going to tune in. I haven’t been this excited since they made the Desert Island discs archive available.
I heard all about the project as part of the Vasily Grossman symposium hosted in St Peter’s College on Friday. The radio adaptation is the brainchild of Mark Damazar, former Controller of Radio 4 and now Master of St Peter’s College, Oxford. When Alison Hindell, Head of Drama at the BBC, readLife and Fate she declared it ‘undramatisable’. How could an audience follow that many characters? How could all the rich streams of the novel be captured in a conventional radio drama? Four years on, one breakthrough later, Hindell and her team of dramatists (Jonathan Myerson and Mike Walker) and the brightest stars in the British acting firmament - Kenneth Branagh, David Tennant and Sam West - have brought Grossman’s epic to glorious life.
(Photographs: The sun shone on the Vasily Grossman exhibition and symposium held at St Peter’s College, Oxford, Friday 9th September)
We listened to sneak previews which beautifully captured Grossman’s ruthless honesty about war and the richness of his characters that makes you care so much about their fates. The day of discussions – from ‘Grossman at War’ with Robert Chandler and Lyuba Vinogradova to ‘The Novel Set Free’ with Linda Grant and Francis Spufford – was incredibly moving. Grossman died fearing this book, the culmination of his life’s work, would never see the light of day. And here, over fifty years later, it was being lauded by the likes of Andrey Kurkov as ‘better than War&Peace’. I like to think that this bespectacled writer, ‘with Autumn in his heart’ would be pleased to see the BBC and Oxford University giving him his due.
Win goodies!
I have 5 copies of Life and Fate for our lovely readers. All you have to do is answer a question: On ‘Start the Week’ Linda Grant admitted she couldn’t finish War and Peace. In that spirit of honesty email me at vintageclassics@randomhouse.co.uk which Classic book you couldn’t get to the end of and I'll send a copy to the best responses.
* Apart from The Archers.
** In the same spirit of truthfulness I hearby admit that I have never been able to finish Crime and Punishment. There, I said it.
If you’d like to know more about the book or dramatisation do listen to Mr Branagh talk about Life and Fate:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/life-and-fate/