Interview Summary Sheet
Project: Memories of Fiction: An Oral History of Readers’ Lives
Reference No.
Interviewee name and title: Joanna Crooks
Interviewee DOB and place of birth: Reading, year unknown.
Interviewee Occupation: Teacher
Book group(s) attended: Putney
Date(s) of recording: Thursday 21 May, 2015
Location of recording: Interviewee’s home, Putney.
Interviewer: Dr. Amy Tooth Murphy
Duration(s): 1:35:07
Summariser: Haley Moyse Fenning
Copyright/Clearance:
Interviewer/Summariser comments:
Key themes:
Reading, book groups, libraries,
All books and authors mentioned (those discussed for >20 seconds in bold):
Enid Blyton
Noel Streatfeild
Richmal Crompton, Just William series
Anthony Trollope
John Updike
Naguib Mahfouz
Old Lob series
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
George Eliot
William Shakespeare
Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree
Thomas Hardy, Tess
Thomas Hardy, Jude
Thomas Hardy, Mayor of Casterbridge
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Howard Spring
Monica Dickens
Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
John Buchan, The 39 Steps
E.M Forster
James Joyce, Ulysees
Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Alan Johnston, This Boy
Philip Larkin
Andrew Motion
Evelyn Waugh
John Le Carre, A Most Wanted Man
Nicholas Monserrat, The Cruel Sea
Noel Streatfield, The Ballet Shoes
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Just William series
D.H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë , Villette
Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
Ian McEwan, Enduring Love
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Rose Tremain
Kazuo Ishiguro
Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing
John Updike
Malcom Bradbury
David Lodge, Small World
W.B Yeats
Agatha Christie, Miss Marple
Agatha Christie, Poirot
J.G Farrell, The Seige of Krishnapur
J.G Farrell, Troubles
J.G Farrell, The Singapore Grip
E.M Forster, Passage to India
E.M Forster, Howard’s End
E.M Forster, A Room with a View
Paul Scott, Jewel in the Crown
George Orwell, Burmese Days
George Orwell, Coming up for Air
George Orwell, Clergyman’s Daughter
George Orwell, 1984
George Orwell , Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Kate Saunders, 5 Children on the Western Front
E.Nesbit, The Treasure Seekers
Arthur Ransome
Pat Barker
Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot
C.S Lewis
J.R.R Tolkein
Margaret Atwood
Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills
Kazuo Ishiguro, Artist Floating World
Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day
Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter, Tom Kitten
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Kenneth Grahame, Wind in the Willows
Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means
Irène Némirovsky, Suite Francaise
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
Patricia Highsmith
Tove Jansson
Jeanette Winterson
Sarah Walters
Andrea Levy, Small Island
Andrea Levy, The Long Song
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel, Bring out the Bodies
Hilary Mantel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
Iris Murdoch, The Sea The Sea
Salley Vickers
Alan Titchmarsh
Kathryn Stockett, The Help
Ruth Rendell
Iris Murdoch, The Sea The Sea
Kingsley Amis, The Folks that Live on the Hill
J.K Rowling, Harry Potter
Thomas Mann
Gabriel García Márquez
Orhan Pamuk
Robert Harris, Enigma
Robert Harris, Fatherland.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters
Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That
Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong
Michael Frayn, Headlong
Edmund De Waal, The Hare with the Amber Eyes
Margaret Drabble, The Millstone
Margaret Drabble, The Summer Bird Cage
A.S Byatt, Possession
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
Helen Dunmore
Colm Tóibín
Michael Frayn, Spies
Rosamond Lehmann, Weather in the Streets
[1:35:07] [Session One: 21 May 2015]
00:00:00
Joanna Crooks [JC] comments that the demands of teaching meant it was difficult to
read but that she has read much more since retiring. Comments that she began
reading very early. Mentions Enid Blyton. Mentions Noel Streatfield. Mentions
Richmal Crompton, Just William series. Anecdote about telling her sister not to read
Enid Blyton. Discussion about reading habits in retirement. Mentions Anthony
Trollope. Comments that the reading group have encouraged her to read authors she
otherwise would not have. Mentions John Updike. Mentions Naguib Mahfouz.
Mentions Thomas Mann. Comments that the reading group reminds her of reading
books with a class as a teacher.
00:02:58
Discussion about reading habits in childhood. Anecdote about the Old Lob series.
Remarks that she read books obvious to the time. Comments that she did not enjoy
novels given at school. Mentions Charles Dickens, David Copperfield. Mentions
Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped. Comments on not liking the obligation to read
books at school, but feeling different about the reading group. Remarks on attending
the reading group even if she did not finished the book. Mentions William Makepeace
Thackeray, Vanity Fair. Comments that she was not widely wide when beginning her
English degree at University. Comments that the Oxford University English course
reading list only had novels written before the 1830s. Mentions Jane Austen, Charles
Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot. Mentions Thomas Hardy, Far from the
Madding Crowd. Comments on enjoying reading and teaching drama and preferring
teaching plays to novels. Mentions William Shakespeare. Remarks on going to allgirls school in Oxford. Mentions Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, Tess,
Jude and The Mayor of Casterbridge. Mentions Charles Dickens, Bleak House and
Great Expectations. Mentions Anthony Trollope.
0:07:31
Discussion about reading during leisure time in childhood. Mentions Howard Spring
and Monica Dickens. Comments on Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca: read later as a
teacher and did not like it. Mentions Elizabeth Jane Howard. Mentions Agatha
Christie. Comments on John Buchan being unreadable for modern peoples.
Anecdote about landlady in Oxford winning literature prize. Further discussion about
John Buchan an detective stories: atmosphere, politics. Mentions The 39 Steps.
Mentions E.M Forrester. Remarks on importance of plot.
00:11:01
Further discussion about importance of plot. Comments on books where a plot has
not been engaging. Mentions James Joyce, Ulysees, Mentions Laurence Sterne,
Tristram Shandy. Brief discussion about Jane Austen: comments that all of her
male/female relationships are family or fantasy. Discussion about GCSE texts
Mentions Pride and Prejudice. Mentions Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird and
William Golding, Lord of the Flies. Mentions L.P Hartley, The Go-Between.
Comments on enjoying biographies: interested in early struggles rather than stories of
success. Mentions Alan Johnston, This Boy.
00:15:18
Further discussion about biographies. Mentions Evelyn Waugh: comments on reading
the biography alongside a novel for the Putney reading group. Mentions Alan Turing
biography. Comments on enjoying history focusing on people. Remarks on skipping
some sections of biographies. Comments that they are enjoyable even when you
know what is going to be happening. Anecdote about reading a Jackie Onassis
biography. Discussion about influence of author’s biography on enjoying their novels.
Mentions Philip Larkin. Mentions Andrew Motion: comments that he has no sense of
rhythm. Mentions Evelyn Waugh. Remarks that the greatest writing is often based on
personal experience and so a troubled past can be important.
00:21:47
Discussion about family reading habits. Anecdote about father reading Thomas Hardy
at the time Thomas Hardy died. Comments that her mother studied History at
University, and preferred biographies to fiction. Mentions Evelyn Waugh. Mentions
Graham Greene. Anecdote about giving her father A Burnt-Out Case as a gift when
he was in hospital. Mentions John Le Carre. Comments that it was the Putney
reading group who got her back into reading John Le Carre. Mentions A Most Wanted
Man. Comments that her grandmother’s bookcase was full of green Penguin novels,
which were the detective series. Story about Nicholas Monserrat, The Cruel Sea.
Comments on visiting the library as a child: remarks on not being able to take a book
back within the same day, though she would often have read one. Mentions the
autobiographical nature of Noel Streatfield, The Ballet Shoes.
00:26:07
00:31:33
00:38:09
00:39:55
00:44:23
00:51:09
Discussion about re-reading books. Mentions re-reading and teaching The GoBetween. Mentions Lord of the Flies. Comments on the last page of L.P Hartley, The
Go-Between still making her cry upon re-reading. Mentions the Just William series.
Comments that her children were great readers. Remarks on the importance of
reading books at the right age. Story about Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green
Gables. Brief plot description and discussion of Anne of Green Gables. Mentions
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden: draws parallels with a prequel of D.H
Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and other novels. Mentions Emily Brontë,
Wuthering Heights. Mentions Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre and Villette.
Discussion about contemporary authors. Mentions Ian McEwan: remarks that he is
artificial. Mentions Amsterdam, Enduring Love, Atonement and A Child in Time.
Mentions creative writing course at UEA and not liking a number of authors who
attended: Rose Tremain, Kazuo Ishiguro, who attended. Mentions Emma Healey,
Elizabeth is Missing. Mentions Still Alice film. Mentions Graham Greene. Mentions
Evelyn Waugh. Mentions John Updike. Mentions Malcom Bradbury and David Lodge.
Comments on enjoying satire. Mentions David Lodge, Small World: An Academic
Romance. Anecdote about pilgrimage to W.B Yeats’ grave.
Discussion about detective fiction. Comments on not liking violent crime. Mentions
Ian Rankin. Mentions Simon Brett. Brief discussion about Agatha Christie, Miss
Marple and Poirot. Discussion about Simon Brett’s characters.
Discussion about choosing what to read next, moods for reading. Comments that if a
reading group book has been particularly heavy, she will look for something lighter to
read next. Comments that she will often have several books on the go at once. Story
about reading Elizabeth is Missing for the reading group. Mentions Paul Scott, Jewel
in the Crown. Discusson about J.G Farrell, The Seige of Krishnapur and the Empire
trilogy. Mentions E.M Forster, Passage to India and Howard’s End. Mentions A Room
with a View and film adaptation.
Discussion about sci-fi and fantasy. Mentions George Orwell, Burmese Days, Coming
up for Air, Clergyman’s Daughter and 1984. Mentions Aldous Huxley, Brave New
World. Comments that she does not particularly like fantasy. Discussion about
imagination. Mentions Kate Saunders, 5 Children on the Western Front. Mentions
E.Nesbit, The Treasure Seekers. Story about reading Arthur Ransome and skipping
the parts about sailing. Remarks that her parents met on an ice rink. Comments that
she was brought up Christian. Mentions Philip Pullman: remarks that it is derivative.
Comments that literature based on literature almost never works. Mentions Pat
Barker. Brief discussion about First World War poetry. Mentions Julian Barnes,
Flaubert’s Parrot . Comments that C.S Lewis was contrived. Comments that husband
loved reading J.R.R Tolkein: remarks that it was self-consciously based on Norse
literature. Remarks on Margaret Atwood: too much like science-fiction. Discussion
about Kazuo Ishiguro. Mentions A Pale View of Hills, Artist Floating World and
Remains of the Day. Mentions Iain Banks.
Discussion about reading with her children. Comments that her husband, John, would
read aloud to the children. Mentions C.S Lewis and Arthur Ransome. Remarks on
reading to her grandchildren. Mentions Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit. Comments that
she did not like reading books about animals when she was younger. Anecdote about
Richard Adams, Watership Down. Mentions Kenneth Grahame, Wind in the Willows.
Description of Peter Rabbit: story about a bad boy and three good girls. Mentions
Beatrix Potter, Tom Kitten. Comments that her father was a civil servant and her
mother stayed home after having six children. Remarks that her mother had, before
marriage, worked for a literary agency which included Evelyn Waugh amongst others.
Brief description of Evelyn War biography. Discussion about spie stories. Mentions
A.D Peters. Further description of mother: a secretary in the 1930s, worked at
Cambridge University library later, was a very active church go-er. Description of
childhood: living in Cambridge before moving to London, getting married and living in
a variety of places including Leeds and Oxford. Comments that her parents had
wanted four children but had twins.
00:57:04
1:25:34
Discussion about Putney reading group. Comments that the advert for the group
implied that they were reading books which had film adaptations. Mentions Virginia
Wolfe, The Hours and film adaptation. Remarks that privately set up reading groups
are not a good idea: members are required to buy the book. Anecdote about friend’s
perception of reading groups. Remarks that a facilitated group allows for intellectual
discussion: open to general discussion rather than everyone expected to say
something first. Discussion about facilitators introducing with their opinions of a book
first. Mentions Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means. Discussion about Irène
Némirovsky, Suite Francaise. Comments that there have been some clashes in the
group: notably about Ian McEwan, A Child in Time. Remarks on group being scared
that they would lose the group through privatisation of borough. Mentions Evelyn
Waugh. Mentions that a friend’s reading group had a waiting list as it got too big. [List
of books available for group shown to interviewer] Mentions Margaret Atwood, The
Handmaid’s Tale. Comments that her sister in law’s reading group in Brazil do not
read texts in translation. Mentions Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment.
Discussion about Patricia Highsmith and Tove Jansson. Mentions Jeanette Winterson
and Sarah Waters. Further discussion of books on reading list. Mentions Andrea
Levy, Small Island and The Long Song. Mentions Kate Atkinson. Further discussion
about Jeanette Winterson: comments that she likes the autobiographical aspect of
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Mentions Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Bring out the
Bodies and Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. Discussion about Sarah Waters, The
Paying Guests: the next book to be read for Putney reading group. Comments on
authors on the list she would not want to read: Salley Vickers, Alan Titchmarsh.
Mentions Kathryn Stockett, The Help. Comments on Ruth Rendell. Anecdote about
Lincoln film starring Daniel Day Lewis. Brief discussion about Iris Murdoch, The Sea
The Sea. Mentions Kingsley Amis, The Folks that Live on the Hill. Brief discussion
about J.K Rowling, Harry Potter series and film adaptations. Comments on Thomas
Mann: being affected by finale of story as though it has happened to her own family.
Remarks on Gabriel García Márquez: inappropriate relationships, boring. Remarks on
Orhan Pamuk: heard him speak, pretentious. Remarks on Henry James: unreadable.
Comments that she admires Robert Harris. Mentions Enigma and Fatherland.
Mentions Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South and Wives and Daughters: comments
that it was unfinished. Mentions Michael Frayn, Headlong. Mentions Stella Gibbons,
Cold Comfort Farm. Comments on Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That. Remarks on
Sebastian Faulks: jumps on bandwagons. Mentions Birdsong.
Discussion about what makes a good reading group book: comments that it is when
not everybody likes it. Mentions Edmund De Waal, The Hare with the Amber Eyes:
comments that it is autobiographical. Mentions Margaret Drabble, The Millstone and
The Summer Bird Cage. Comments that writers often have one or two good books in
them and struggle after that. Brief discussion about A.S Byatt, Possession. Mentions
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia. Mentions Helen Dunmore and Colm Tóibín. Mentions John
Updike. Anecdote about teaching her class the Brontë sisters: comments that Ann
was not as good as her sisters as she lacks the imagination required to create
stories. Remarks that so many people without imaginative power still try to create
stories. Mentions Michael Frayn, Spies. Mentions Noel Streatfield: remarks that she
is her favourite children’s writer. Comments that when people have a great idea for a
story it is often based on a memory, experience, person feeling. Anecdote about
friend writing book similar to Rosamond Lehmann, Weather in the Streets.
[1:35:07] [End of Session One]