You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News TALKSEDB.

You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News TALKSEDB.

Joan mackenzie is with us. Now, Good morning. Lo The Names by.

Joan mackenzie is with us. Now, Good morning. Lo The Names by.

Florence Knapp tell me about this well. It's a really clever, interesting book which essentially looks at how our names shape our history. And it's about a woman named Cora and her husband, Gordon, who's a really successful and highly respected doctor, although he is constantly belittled by his father, who was an eminent surgeon and always felt that Gordon had failed by not following in his footsteps because he's only a doctor, not a surgeon, and that's had some impacts on his character. So Gordon is great in the community and he's terrible at home, where things go on behind closed doors. And Cora, his wife, is small and petite. Before her marriage, she was a ballet dancer and she lives in fear, and some of this book is about what living in that kind of environment is like. So I will say that there are some dark themes to it, but it's very clever. It opens just after she's given birth to a baby boy, and she takes her nine year old daughter Maya and heads off to register the birth. Now, Gordon's made it very clear that this baby is to be named after him, and on the way to the registry office, Mayer says, I think we should call him Bear, and Cora herself, the baby's mother really wants to call him Julian, but she knows that if she goes against her husband Gordon, things are not going to go well for her. And the novel then moves in seven year increments and follows this baby through until he's thirty five. And there are three parallel strands in which each in each of which the boy is given a different name. So in part of the book is called Gordon, and part of the book is called Bear, and in part he's called Julia.

Florence Knapp tell me about this well. It's a really clever, interesting book which essentially looks at how our names shape our history. And it's about a woman named Cora and her husband, Gordon, who's a really successful and highly respected doctor, although he is constantly belittled by his father, who was an eminent surgeon and always felt that Gordon had failed by not following in his footsteps because he's only a doctor, not a surgeon, and that's had some impacts on his character. So Gordon is great in the community and he's terrible at home, where things go on behind closed doors. And Cora, his wife, is small and petite. Before her marriage, she was a ballet dancer and she lives in fear, and some of this book is about what living in that kind of environment is like. So I will say that there are some dark themes to it, but it's very clever. It opens just after she's given birth to a baby boy, and she takes her nine year old daughter Maya and heads off to register the birth. Now, Gordon's made it very clear that this baby is to be named after him, and on the way to the registry office, Mayer says, I think we should call him Bear, and Cora herself, the baby's mother really wants to call him Julian, but she knows that if she goes against her husband Gordon, things are not going to go well for her. And the novel then moves in seven year increments and follows this baby through until he's thirty five. And there are three parallel strands in which each in each of which the boy is given a different name. So in part of the book is called Gordon, and part of the book is called Bear, and in part he's called Julia.

Is that the perspective of those people that wanted to call him those names.

Is that the perspective of those people that wanted to call him those names.

Well, it's what happens to a baby born into those circumstances where there is a choice about which name he might be given, and what the impact of that name the subsequent environment has on the child. It's clever. It's a big buzz book overseas. It was trailed to me months and months and months ago. A lot of people very excited about it, and I think it's very clever and well done.

Well, it's what happens to a baby born into those circumstances where there is a choice about which name he might be given, and what the impact of that name the subsequent environment has on the child. It's clever. It's a big buzz book overseas. It was trailed to me months and months and months ago. A lot of people very excited about it, and I think it's very clever and well done.

Okay, interesting, Now, I had the pleasure recently of meeting raynall Wynn interviewed her on the Sunday Session. She was just delightful, of course, the author of The Salt Path and various other books being turned into the movie which everybody's enjoying starring Jason Isaacson Jillian Anderson. And you're going to talk about the book I am.

Okay, interesting, Now, I had the pleasure recently of meeting raynall Wynn interviewed her on the Sunday Session. She was just delightful, of course, the author of The Salt Path and various other books being turned into the movie which everybody's enjoying starring Jason Isaacson Jillian Anderson. And you're going to talk about the book I am.

It was first published in twenty eighteen, so it's not new, but of course movies give books a whole new life, and that's what happened with this one. And anyone who heard that interview will know that it's the true story of raynal Wynn and her husband, who's known is Moth, who found themselves destitute and homeless in their fifties after an investment with a friend of Moths goes terribly, terribly wrong, and it's all dragged through the courts and they lose everything, absolutely everything, and it's complicated by the fact that Moth has an incurable illness and so he's not well and they have no options, so they decide that they'll go walking, and they settle on a path which is more than six hundred miles on the Southwest Coast Path it's called in the UK, which goes from Somerset to Dorset for people who know the geography, and it takes you through Devon and Cornwall, so some pretty spectacular parts of the world. And they had to carry lightweight packs because they know they weren't that fit or that you know, ready to adapt to the outdoors. So they've got unsuitable, flimsy sleeping bags and a lightweight tent which isn't that good, and literally no money. They could buy one pot of tea and share it between them. From time to time. They could afford a packet of chips, but mostly they lived on noodles. It's like your student life come back to visit you in your fifties, and it was arduous and exhausting, but they didn't have anywhere else they had to be. There was nowhere else they really could be because they had nowhere to live, and they just kept going until they realized that actually there was almost nowhere else they'd rather be. And it's the story of the making of two people through extraordinary courage and endurance and finding themselves in the process.

It was first published in twenty eighteen, so it's not new, but of course movies give books a whole new life, and that's what happened with this one. And anyone who heard that interview will know that it's the true story of raynal Wynn and her husband, who's known is Moth, who found themselves destitute and homeless in their fifties after an investment with a friend of Moths goes terribly, terribly wrong, and it's all dragged through the courts and they lose everything, absolutely everything, and it's complicated by the fact that Moth has an incurable illness and so he's not well and they have no options, so they decide that they'll go walking, and they settle on a path which is more than six hundred miles on the Southwest Coast Path it's called in the UK, which goes from Somerset to Dorset for people who know the geography, and it takes you through Devon and Cornwall, so some pretty spectacular parts of the world. And they had to carry lightweight packs because they know they weren't that fit or that you know, ready to adapt to the outdoors. So they've got unsuitable, flimsy sleeping bags and a lightweight tent which isn't that good, and literally no money. They could buy one pot of tea and share it between them. From time to time. They could afford a packet of chips, but mostly they lived on noodles. It's like your student life come back to visit you in your fifties, and it was arduous and exhausting, but they didn't have anywhere else they had to be. There was nowhere else they really could be because they had nowhere to live, and they just kept going until they realized that actually there was almost nowhere else they'd rather be. And it's the story of the making of two people through extraordinary courage and endurance and finding themselves in the process.

I thought of it as a little bit of a love story, Joan, in the sense that their relationship goes to a whole new level. They learn a whole lot about themselves and appreciate things about each other. But also this love story for nature and just being at one and you know, with what is going on day to day, sort of a nature.

I thought of it as a little bit of a love story, Joan, in the sense that their relationship goes to a whole new level. They learn a whole lot about themselves and appreciate things about each other. But also this love story for nature and just being at one and you know, with what is going on day to day, sort of a nature.

Was just charming immersed in it. Yeah. Yeah, Now it's extraordinary. And I think if I were to take on something like that with anybody else, would probably kill each other halfway along. I'm just not made for it.

Was just charming immersed in it. Yeah. Yeah, Now it's extraordinary. And I think if I were to take on something like that with anybody else, would probably kill each other halfway along. I'm just not made for it.

No, it's yeah, good on you for being honest about that, Joan. I won't say anything else about that. Look beautiful book, full story, and even though set in harrowing circumstances, it turns out to be incredibly uplifting and hopeful, doesn't it.

No, it's yeah, good on you for being honest about that, Joan. I won't say anything else about that. Look beautiful book, full story, and even though set in harrowing circumstances, it turns out to be incredibly uplifting and hopeful, doesn't it.

Yeah, And I'm thrilled for her that it's all been so successful.

Yeah, And I'm thrilled for her that it's all been so successful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's The Salt Path by ray Norwin. And the first book that Joan spoke about was The Names by Florence Nap. Thank you so much.

So that's The Salt Path by ray Norwin. And the first book that Joan spoke about was The Names by Florence Nap. Thank you so much.

See you next week.

See you next week.

For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to News Talks a B from nine am Sunday or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to News Talks a B from nine am Sunday or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio