Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the myriad of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories. In every episode, she explores elements of narrative strategy such as structure, use of fiction techniques, facts and truth, beginnings and endings and to what extent the writer interpreted the evidence rather than providing clues and leaving it to readers to do the interpreting themselves. She also asks how they researched their books; how they balanced a subject’s public, personal and inner lives; and ethical issues, such as privacy and revealing secrets.
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Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the myriad of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories. In every episode, she explores elements of narrative strategy such as structure, use of fiction techniques, facts and truth, beginnings and endings and to what extent the writer interpreted the evidence rather than providing clues and leaving it to readers to do the interpreting themselves. She also asks how they researched their books; how they balanced a subject’s public, personal and inner lives; and ethical issues, such as privacy and revealing secrets.
Megan Marshall: "After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart"
Biographers in Conversation
1 hour 1 minute 31 seconds
2 months ago
Megan Marshall: "After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart"
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, multi-award-winning biographer Megan Marshall chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why a renowned biographer turned the lens on herself, blending memoir with biography after decades of writing about other people.
How writing about her partner’s illness and loss and heartbreak made Megan a more empathetic biographer.
Megan’s bold decision to step out from behind the scenes and become a character in her own book.
The touching reason Megan put her mother’s self-portrait on the cover.
How decades of exploring other people’s lives taught Megan surprising lessons about living her own life.
What Megan means by ‘the mysteries of the human heart’ and why some questions about a life will always remain unanswered.
Biographers in Conversation
Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the myriad of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories. In every episode, she explores elements of narrative strategy such as structure, use of fiction techniques, facts and truth, beginnings and endings and to what extent the writer interpreted the evidence rather than providing clues and leaving it to readers to do the interpreting themselves. She also asks how they researched their books; how they balanced a subject’s public, personal and inner lives; and ethical issues, such as privacy and revealing secrets.
