9: 'The lark ascending!'
With Giles Hadlow's hardline policies finding success at the ballot box, Dave faces loss on all fronts, in the next episode of Alan Hollinghurst's new novel.
The stunning new novel from Booker Prize-winning author, Alan Hollinghurst.
Dave Win, the son of a British dressmaker and a Burmese man he’s never met, is thirteen when he wins a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities lie ahead, despite the vicious bullying of his wealthy classmates. Worst of these is the brutish Giles Hadlow, whose parents sponsored the scholarship and who seem to prefer Dave to their ruthless son.
Our Evenings follows Dave from the 1960s through to the Pandemic: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture; a talented actor on the road with an experimental theatre company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security.
Moving in and out of Dave’s orbit are the Hadlows. Estranged from his parents, Giles directs his privilege into a career as a powerful right-wing politician, whose reactionary vision for England threatens Dave’s own stability. And finally, as the Covid Pandemic hits, the two men’s lives and values will collide in a cruel shock of violence.
Today: with Giles Hadlow's hardline policies finding success at the ballot box, Dave faces loss on all sides...
Reader: Steve John Shepherd is an actor of English, Burmese and Chinese ancestry. He is best known for his TV roles in This Life and East Enders.
Writer: Alan Hollinghurst
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
Last on
More episodes
Broadcast
- Last Thursday 22:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4