From BBC Radio 4. Written by Paula McLain; Full cast dramatisation starring
Laurel Lefkow, Julian Ovenden, Martin Reeve and Kim Hicks; Adapted by Sheila
Yeger; Directed by Sara Davies.
Paula McLain's fictional memoir told by Hadley, Ernest Hemingway's first wife.
Episode 1: The Wives' Corner
Hadley is older than Hemingway by nine years, and when the newlyweds arrive
in Paris in 1921 she finds herself missing home and feeling like a fish out
of water. But Hemingway adores the city right from the start, and Hadley
adores Hem, so she determines to get over her homesickness and fall in love
with Paris too. Before long Hemingway is introduced into the circle of writers
and artists who have made the city their own, but after invitations to tea with
Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, Hadley realises with dismay that she's expected
to join the wives' corner.
Episode 2: A First Anniversary
As the couple settle down in Paris, and Ernest spends more and more time writing
in the room he has rented not far away from their apartment, Hadley tries not to
resent the time she spends on her own. She's promised him she'll never stand in
the way of his work, but when he's asked to go to Turkey to report on the war
there she begs him not to go, although she knows she'll make him angry.
Her attempt to make amends ends in utter disaster.
Episode 3: A Disappearance and an Arrival
The couple have now spent over a year in Paris, and have become friends with
the circle of expatriate writers and artists who have made the city their home.
Their love for each other has already been tested by Hemingway's single-minded
ambition, and now Hadley has to tell him that she's lost a suitcase containing
his entire work to date. As if that isn't bad enough, not long afterwards she
has an even more unsettling piece of news for him.
Episode 4: A New Friend on the Scene
While Hadley enjoys her new role as a mother, Hemingway is becoming increasingly
well-known and admired in the circle of expatriate writers and artists who have
made their home in Paris. Hadley's glamorous new friend Pauline introduces them
to her fast-living Right Bank crowd, and becomes Hem's champion in his struggle
to find a publisher in America. It's not long before Hadley is feeling that
despite all her efforts to be a good and loyal wife, once more she's being left
on the outside.
Episode 5: The Final Betrayal
Hadley's marriage to Ernest Hemingway is coming under increasing strain, both
from the pressure of his ambition and from the attentions of the woman Hadley
thought was her friend, Pauline Pfeifer, who, it's now clear, is in love with
Ernest. When the three of them are together in the South of France, surrounded
by the fast-living crowd gathered at the Murphy's villa, matters come to a head.
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