POD: Book Clubs

The Color Purple

Iconic modern classic

Set in the deep American South between the wars, The Color Purple is the classic tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.

Published in 1982, The Color Purple went on to win both the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. In 1985, the book was adapted into a film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey, and in 2005 it was adapted into a Broadway musical.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

PODCASTS

Alice Walker – The Color Purple

(52 mins)

Iconic African American writer Alice Walker on her prize-winning novel ‘The Color Purple’ from the BBC World Book Club.

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Alice Walker: Desert Island Discs

(34 mins)

Kirsty Young’s castaway this week is the Pulitzer Prize winning writer Alice Walker. Author, poet, feminist and activist, it was her novel The Color Purple that brought her worldwide attention and acclaim. The story of a poor black girl surviving in the deep American south, between the wars, it is a landmark work, disturbing and exhilarating in equal measure.

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Movie: The Color Purple

(31 mins)

Movie review: Robert and Joshua from the Torn Stubs podcast head to the deep south to discuss The Color Purple directed by Steven Spielberg.

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VIDEOS

Alice Walker on Her Classic Novel, Speilberg’s Film, and the Broadway Adaptation

(3 mins)

Alice Walker discusses the birth of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Steven Spielberg’s big-screen version, and her thoughts on the musical adaptation.

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Lovely Hoffman on Celie & Shug controversy

(4 mins)

Callie Crossley, WGBH Radio & TV Host, interviews Lovely Hoffman on the set of SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of The Color Purple.

Watch

ARTICLES

1982 New York Times review

Review of The Color Purple shortly after it was published by Mel Watkins for the New York Times

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National Book Awards review

Journalist, Anna Clark, recalls her original 1983 review of The Color Purple that still features on the National Book Award website.

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A Cultural Touchstone for Black Female Self-Love

A review of the cultural impact of The Color Purple, by Victoria Bond for The New Republic.

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Filming locations

Details and photos of The Color Purple movie filming locations from themoviedistrict.com

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XTRA

Alice Walker author website

Book notes on The Color Purple

Symbolism of Purple

Website for The Color Purple Musical

Dear Mrs Bird

Uplifting tale of friendship

London, 1941. Amid the falling bombs Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a fearless Lady War Correspondent. Unfortunately, Emmy instead finds herself employed as a typist for the formidable Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine. Mrs Bird refuses to read, let alone answer, letters containing any form of Unpleasantness, and definitely not those from the lovelorn, grief-stricken or morally conflicted.

But the thought of these desperate women waiting for an answer at this most desperate of times becomes impossible for Emmy to ignore. She decides she simply must help and secretly starts to write back – after all, what harm could that possibly do?

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Girl, Woman, Other

Dazzling and masterful

This is Britain as you’ve never read it. This is Britain as it has never been told. From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They’re each looking for something – a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .

Winner of the Booker Prize 2019

‘Beautifully interwoven stories of identity, race, womanhood, and the realities of modern Britain’

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Gutsy Women

Courage and resilience

Throughout history and around the globe women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win victories that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book. They are all gutsy women, leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done.

Be inspired by ordinary women who have gone on the achieve the extraordinary. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have collated ‘The Book of Gutsy Women’ , a phenomenal collection of essays about women who have made a lasting difference in the world. Listen to their interview about the book with Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast and then delve a bit deeper into the stories of nine of these amazing women.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

The Color Purple

Iconic modern classic

PODCASTS

(52 mins)

(34 mins)

Kindle Paperwhite

(31 mins)

VIDEOS

(3 mins)

HelloFresh meal plan offers

(4 mins)

ARTICLES

XTRA

Alice Walker author website

Book notes on The Color Purple

Symbolism of Purple

Website for The Color Purple Musical

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