The Day Is for the Living

The Reith Lectures

BBC

Society & Culture, Science, Government, Technology

4.2 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2017

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel, starting with the story of her own great-grandmother. 'We sense the dead have a vital force still,' she says. 'They have something to tell us, something we need to understand. Using fiction and drama, we try to gain that understanding.' She describes how and why she began to write fiction about the past, and how her view of her trade has evolved. We cannot hear or see the past, she says, but 'we can listen and look'.

This was the first of a series of five lectures recorded in 2017, in which Dame Hilary discussed the role that history plays in our culture. How can we understand the past, she asks, and how can we convey its nature today? Above all, she believed, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

This lecture is being rebroadcast as a tribute to Dame Hilary. It was recorded in front of an audience at Halle St Peter's in Manchester, followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

Producer: Jim Frank Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown Editor: Hugh Levinson

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm novelist Hilary Mantell, and I'd like to welcome you to the first of the 2017 BBC Reith Lectures Podcasts.
0:47.3	My first lecture is called The Day is for the Living, and in it I explore memory, mourning,
0:57.1	and how the stories we tell ourselves
0:59.3	shape our view of the past.
1:02.4	And what happens on the threshold
1:05.8	when private and public history meet?
1:11.7	Hello and welcome to the 2017 BBC Reith Lectures.
1:16.5	We begin in Manchester, where our lecturer spent part of her childhood,
1:21.2	and we're in Halle St. Peter's.
1:23.5	It was a church 150 years ago when this was an area bustling with mill workers,
1:29.5	but for want of churchgoers, it became a warehouse, and then for years it stood derelict.
1:35.8	But now it's been restored to its former light and airy beauty
1:40.1	and has become the principal rehearsal and recording venue for the Halle Orchestra.
1:45.2	So we're in a place that literally seeps history.
1:49.9	Our lecturer has spent most of her life trying to feel her way
1:53.8	into an experience of the past and come to grips with history and ways of interpreting it.
	...

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