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The 9/11 Letters (Omnibus)

Ten years on, five internationally acclaimed writers consider the consequences from the events of September 11 2001. From 2011.

Five internationally acclaimed writers consider the impact of the momentous events of September 11th, 2001.

Ten years on, these authors use imaginative letters to reflect on the consequences for Britain, America and the world.

The first letter is from Caryl Phillips, to his young nephew. He gives an eye-witness account of the day and those following, reflecting how the events changed him, and his identity as a "Resident Alien".

Naomi Alderman was working in an office overlooking the World Trade Centre when the planes struck the twin towers. Her experience that day led her to give up her law career and become a writer. But the character she imagines in her letter reflects an even more profound change.

Irish-Turkish writer Joseph O'Neill addresses his letter directly to listeners. He suggests that because of the mass coverage of the attack on the World Trade Centre, we were all 'there'. And so America's response to the attacks had profound implications for us all.

US novelist Lionel Shriver's letter is titled "Prepositions.' Her letter is to a woman whose husband died in 9/11, from a woman whose husband died on 9/11. Ten years on, the consequences of those little differences on the lives of these friends are huge and vastly different.

The final letter, 'A Proper Family' is by the former Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo. The imagined writer is Ginny, who, when the first plane smashed into the North tower was waiting on a bench in Central Park for her husband to return from breakfast with their son, their first meeting since a rift seven years previously.

Producers: Julian May and Beaty Rubens

First broadcast on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in September 2011.

1 hour, 10 minutes

Last on

Sun 12 Sep 2021 06:00

Broadcast

  • Sun 12 Sep 2021 06:00