Rivals - our debrief show notes

A debrief and a round up of good things we've been reading and eating of late. Here are the shownotes from our latest episode x

Ever since we heard that Rivals, Dame Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster (and one of Sophie’s favourite books of all time) was to be turned into a television series, we’ve been busting to see it (which you can too, on Disney).

Well see it we have (and in some cases, ie Sophie’s, more than once) and we loved it so much we thought we’d jump in here for a very quick podcast debrief.. And as it’s been a while since we last released an episode, we also thought we’d check in what what we’ve been reading and eating since last time.

From Sophie: Marina Hyde wrote in the Guardian recently that Rivals is the horny and hopeful tv series we all need right now. I agree wholeheartedly. And btw, I also think someone needs to do a podcast for mid-life women called Horny and Hopeful. But that’s by the by.

We’ve already dedicated an entire episode to Jilly Cooper (link in show notes) , and I love that she is finding a whole new audience thanks to the TV series. And that in this current age of irony and cynicisym - her books about joyfully indulging your appetites, about sticking it to the man (ie Tony in this case), about love and sex and living a big sexy life are having another moment.

Makes me think of this line from India Knight’s newsletter Home;  “every bleak event needs a frivolity chaser - not that finding comfort in small bits of joy is remotely frivolous, au contraire. It is SANITY.”

I think that Rivals might be our frivolity chaser for the awfulness that this year has brought.

---

From Germaine: And for me, the tv series was much more therapeutic than reading the book! I believe that the biblio part of bibliotherapy is about story as much as books. It’s the consuming of stories that allows us to connect with our own emotional worlds and feel less alone or helps us to understand someone else. No matter which way you consume stories — radio, audiobooks, theatre, television, cinema, storytellers or in print form — you can reap the therapeutic benefits.

I didn’t love rereading Rivals this year, in this climate and this era. It made me feel quite sad about the sexism and gender politics I was marinated in, in my childhood. I now wonder what was happening in my mind a few months ago that added to it leaving this shape of distaste…

I wondered how they would handle this on screen and they managed to do it brilliantly. It has completely changed my attitude towards the reread!