Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread

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BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Agatha Christie’s Giant’s Bread

One of Agatha Christie's brilliant novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Written by Agatha Christie, under the name of Mary Westmacott. The insatiable hunger of the genius (the giant) devours everything around him to feed his voracious appetite for art.

One of six brilliant novels written by Agatha Christie under the name of Mary Westmacott. The insatiable hunger of the genius (the giant) will devour everything around him to feed his voracious appetite for art.

Vernon Deyre is lost. He cannot afford to live in the house where he grew up and he’s in love with Nell, a girl who wants security. He takes a job in his Uncle’s factory but then experiences a personal epiphany at a classical concert and is determined to become a composer himself.  His work is experimental and difficult, using the sounds made by everyday objects or by using traditional instruments in extreme and unusual ways. Through his work he meets the famous opera singer Jane Harding, who encourages him to move to Russia to compose his greatest Opera.

This is the story of his obsessional pursuit of his music, his relationships, the terrors he experiences in the battlefield and his struggle to regain his identity after the First World War - but, most of all, his final understanding that without creation he has no soul. 


Cast:
Carl Bowerman/ George Chetwynd ... Tim McMullan
Sebastian Levinne ... Philip Arditti
Vernon Deyre ... Tom Glenister
Josephine Waite ... Lucy Trodd
Nell Vereker ... Hannah Boyde
Jane Harding .. Janis Kelly

By Agatha Christie, writing as Mary Westmacott
Adapted by Malcolm McKay.

Original music by Nick Bicât
Sound Designer: Leon Chambers

Directed by Annabel Arden
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4

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