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Issued:17/06/13
The latest best-seller from a Sheffield Hallam creative writing professor has been brought to life for a major radio adaptation - by the author herself.
Jane Rogers, professor of writing at Sheffield Hallam University, has adapted The Testament of Jessie Lamb as a five-part radio play, airing this week on Radio 4.
The Testament.., long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and recipient of a number of top literary awards, is set in a not-so-different near future, but one in which pregnant women are dying of an incurable disease.
The adaptation features Jane Eyre actress Holliday Grainger as Jessie, with support from Mark Jordon (Heartbeat) and Joanne Mitchell (Emmerdale).
Jane said: "Adapting The Testament of Jessie Lamb for radio was much harder than I expected. In the end, in my attempt to reduce 78,000 words of novel to 12,500 of drama, I went cutting-crazy and even removed the frame of the story, the vantage point of captivity from which Jessie writes her testament.
"On paper the radio version looked awfully skinny to me, but fleshed out with strong sound and haunting performances, it has become something different – not a novel at all, but a drama. When I heard Holly Grainger confidently launching into Jessie’s story, I was hooked and thrilled, because Jessie was there, right there."
The Testament of Jessie Lamb, won the UK's top prize for science fiction, the Arthur C Clarke award, and several other accolades.It was also shortlisted for the Portico Prize and has been translated into seven languages.
Her latest book, the short story collection Hitting Trees With Sticks is shortlisted for the Edgehill Prize, which will be announced on July 4.
The Testament of Jessie Lamb airs on Radio 4 every morning this week at 10.45am, with an omnibus on Saturday, June 22.
For press information: contact Laurie Harvey in the Sheffield Hallam University press office on 0114 225 2621 or email laurie.harvey@shu.ac.uk
