Magic Classical Book Club: "Bring The House Down" by Charlotte Runcie

Today’s guest on the Magic Classical Book Club is Charlotte Runcie who will be talking to Tim Smith about her new novel: "Bring The House Down"

Theatre critic Alex Lyons made his name from his brutal, brilliant reviews.

So when he sees Hayley Sinclair's dismal one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe, he thinks nothing of dashing off another of his trademark one-star pans for the newspaper. He also thinks nothing of taking her home after the performance, failing at any point to mention who he is.

What he doesn't expect is for Hayley to revamp her show into a review of Alex's entire life, exposing what an awful person he really is. Worse, the show is a smash hit, and Alex is about to become national news. But can Hayley bring the establishment down without taking herself with it?

Funny and thrilling, Bring the House Down gives you a front row seat to the downfall of the people who tell us what to think. It's about art, performance, female rage, and how while revenge may be sweet, it can also be perilous.

Tim firstly asks Charlotte how it feels to be the winner of the Indie Book of the Month

“Oh, it feels absolutely amazing. Indie bookshops are just my favourite place to go. I can think of nothing better to do on a day off than just getting a coffee, going to an indie bookshop and probably spending too much money on too many books.”

Tim then asked Charlotte what she can tell us about the book without giving too much away:

“So ‘Bring The House Down’ is the story of a notoriously vicious theatre critic who gets a brutal comeuppance from everyone he's ever wronged. And the story starts when the critic, Alex gives a one star review to a one woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe, and then spends the night with the actress before his review goes to press.

So when the actress sees the review in the newspaper the next morning, she feels completely betrayed and humiliated, and she decides to get revenge in the most public way possible by turning her show into a one star review of Alex's entire life, essentially. And it's a novel about art, performance, relationships, and the fine line between accountability and revenge.”

Tim then asks why Charlotte writes the book from the perspective of a wrong writer covering the Edinburgh Fringe:

“I actually didn't initially tell the story from her point of view. I tried telling it from Alex's point of view, and then I tried telling it from Haley's point of view and from Alex's point of view, it became very kind of vain and self-justifying.

And from Haley's point of view, it became almost not that interesting because she's more straightforwardly heroic in what she does. She's very justified in how she acts for a lot of the story. But then I realized that the story I was really telling was about complicity in what we watch and what we consume because we are living in an age now where we feel that we have to have an opinion on everything.

_“We're invited to submit a review of everything we buy by email after we buy it. And in social media. It feels like we have to have an opinion on everything, have a stance on, on every news story that happens.”_

And so the reason I told it from Sophie's point of view is because Sophie is the reader in a sense, and she enables us to watch what's unfolding and examine how we as an audience are complicit in things going awry for somebody and how it can be gleeful and tempting to see someone be taken down to get a comeuppance. But what does that say about us? We are not just passive observers ever, really, we are living in a more interactive age than ever, and how does that affect us and what responsibility does that place on us, those were some of the issues I really wanted to explore when it came to art and performance.”

Tim asked what Charlotte’s favourite independent bookshop is:

“Of course, but they're all my favourite. But I have my nearest one, which is Rossiter Books in Monmouth, which I always love popping in and seeing what they've got because they are small but mighty. They always have just excellent taste in getting all the new releases that are exactly the kind of thing I want to read. I love the book sellers there so much. In Edinburgh. I also love Golden Hair Books where I worked for a short time, which is a very beautiful indie bookshop with an incredible selection, especially of art and design books, as well as contemporary fiction and they have a lovely wood-burning stove and a comfy chair and a brilliant children section, and I love it there.”

Tim finally asked Charlotte to share her favourite piece of classical music and tell us why she chose it:

“I have chosen Swan LK 243, composed and performed by Catriona McKay. It's a beautiful harp piece, which was composed in honour of a boat named the Swan LK 243, and I first heard it when it was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. So to me, it reminds me of all the joyful, creative freedom that you can find at the Edinburgh Festivals, but also just as a piece of music it has such a sense of freedom and optimism and possibility that it always makes me feel better.”

If you want to listen back to Tim's full interview with Charlotte Runcie, click here to see all of Tim's past shows.