Podcasts Education Self-Improvement Conversations with Tyler Katherine Rundell on the Art of Words

Katherine Rundell on the Art of Words

Published: Jan. 11, 2023, 1 p.m.

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Katherine Rundell is, in a word, enthusiastic. She\\u2019s enthusiastic about John Donne. She\\u2019s enthusiastic about walking along rooftops. She\\u2019s enthusiastic about words, and stories, and food. She has often started her morning with a cartwheel and is currently learning to fly a small plane. A prolific writer, her many children\\u2019s books aim to instill the sense of discovery she still remembers from her own unruly childhood adventures\\u2014and remind adults of the astonishment that still awaits them.\\xa0

She joined Tyler to discuss how she became obsessed with John Donne, the power of memorizing poetry, the political implications of suicide in the 17th century, the new evidence of Donne\\u2019s faith, the contagious intensity of thought in 17th century British life, the effect of the plague on national consciousness, the brutality of boys\\u2019 schooling, the thrills and dangers of rooftop walking, why children should be more mischievous, why she\\u2019d like to lower the voting age to 16, her favorite UK bookshop, the wonderful weirdness of Diana Wynne Jones, why she has at least one joke about Belgium in every book, what T.S. Eliot missed about John Donne, what it\\u2019s like to eat tarantula, the Kafka book she gives to toddlers, why The Book of Common Prayer is underrated, and more.

Read a\\xa0full transcript\\xa0enhanced with helpful links, or watch the\\xa0full video.

Recorded September 2nd, 2022

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 Photo credit: Nina Subin
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