Alison MacLeod and Lara Feigel discuss D H Lawrence.
In her acclaimed new novel Tenderness, Alison explores the creation, banning and 1960 show-trial of D. H. Lawrence’s ‘scandalous’ Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the ‘sex novel’ into which he poured the last of his life and all of his daring. Spanning almost 50 years, Tenderness is a ‘big-hearted, big-brained’ novel and a gripping epic of the 20th century itself, powerfully resonant for readers today. Across its pages, struggles play out between the imagination and censorship, democracy and state control, with intrigue, joy, a cast of characters both legendary and little-known – and, above all, human tenderness.
And during the 2020 lockdown Lara delved into Lawrence’s writings and traced the arc of his life, confronting his anger, his passion, and his tumultuous vitality to produce a dazzling blend of literary criticism, biography and memoir. Lara will preview her book at this talk.