Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

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Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford: Episode 4

Episode 4

BBC Radio 4 - Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford, Episode 4

It’s 1979 and the lives of five children killed by a wartime bomb continue to unfold.

It’s 1979 and, fifteen years after being discharged from a mental hospital, Ben is a bus conductor. But he’s still pursued by fear and battles daily with internal voices.

1944: In the fictional south London borough of Bexford, a German rocket explodes, destroying an entire store and part of the high street. Among the dead are Valerie, Jo, Vern, Alec and Ben - four year-olds who were accompanying their mothers to Woolworths. 

‘Their part in time is done’ but what of their possible futures? In ‘some other version of the reel of time’ their might-be and could-be lives are played out across the next 65 years. 

It's 1979. Ben is 39 years-old and,having been taken off medication and thrust back into the workplace, he is struggling to keep going in a world of internalised, brutally cruel voices. Working as a bus conductor offers the relief and distraction of keeping busy. 

Francis Spufford’s first novel, Golden Hill, won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize. His second novel takes its title from the Book of Common Prayer - Give to the departed eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them.


Written by Francis Spufford
Read by Jamie Parker
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters 
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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1944: Five young lives are ended. But what of their possible futures? What if?

1944: Five young lives are ended in a south London Woolworths. But what of their possible futures? What if? Francis Spufford's second novel read by Jamie Parker.

A cluster of women and children in a south London Woolworths, 1944 and a V2 rocket heading towards them. If the rocket had not hit, how would they have lived their lives?

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