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Video Brookner

This mere four-minute piece (click here for the BBC Archive #OnThisDay feed) should be top of the list for any Brooknerian, not least because it is, to my knowledge, the only video of the author freely available. Anita Brookner made only rare media appearances. Buried in archives are, I know, a Channel 4 interview with Hermione Lee and a programme (in the 100 Great Paintings series) Brookner made in 1980, still only an art historian, on, I think, Delacroix.

We should be gladdened by this marvellous vouchsafement. There she is: stylish and a-swagger; trenchant in her commitment to the truth.
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Anonymous said…
Thank you so much for unearthing this for us. Her voice sounds just as I imagined it would, and she talks such sense. Trenchant is definitely the word for her!!
23 October 2020 at 16:19
The Brooknerian said…
Many thanks for your comment. The interviewer looks more than a little nervous.
24 October 2020 at 06:33
Sadmouth said…
Cpativating! Thank you! I wish there was more...
3 November 2020 at 17:17
On These Spindrift Pages - A journal of nature, thought, and the reflective life. said…
Thank you so much for sharing this post. I hope you are doing well and staying safe. Neil MacGregor, the art historian and a former director of the British Museum once said in the Courtauld Reunion interview on BBC Radio 4 that he was "dazzled" by Anita Brookner's teaching in the class. Perhaps, this short interview clip gives us a glimpse of what she might have been like a teacher in her tutorial. I think that I will be like an interviewer in this clip a little bit nervous as I would know that she might refute my argument in one idiosyncratic and insightful comment. I think that her novel "Providence" really could be seen as a portrait of her as a teacher.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Please keep up with your blog. It is an oasis for like-minded readers who admire Anita Brookner. I believe most of us are probably too introverted to start organising conferences or appreciation society of AB in real life but one never knows.

With warmest wishes, ASD
8 December 2020 at 13:35
The Brooknerian said…
Many thanks for your kind comments. I very much concur on the teaching scenes in Providence. I shall indeed try to continue here. It is an oasis for me too.
8 December 2020 at 18:13
Anonymous said…
That was indeed a surprise to see and hear one of my heroes,thank you so much.
6 November 2022 at 09:34
Anonymous said…
With the passing of time, and as the world sinks into some sort of ghastly cultural abyss, Anita Brookner shines ever more brightly as a symbol of what we once had, and what we have lost.
27 April 2024 at 11:58
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