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The cinematic vision of Robertson Davies

Broadcast Date: Sept. 29, 1991

Robertson Davies has higher hopes for the afterlife than the "gorgeous vegetable existence" envisioned by so many. Best known for his Deptford Trilogy of the 1970s, Davies has a new book in 1991 – Murther and Walking Spirits, a tale told by a dead man. In a conversation with Eleanor Wachtel of CBC Radio's Writers and Company, Davies explains how the book uses film – "one of the great artistic developments of our era" – to explore what happens in the afterlife.  

The cinematic vision of Robertson Davies

• Fifth Business, the first book in the Deptford Trilogy and a staple of Canadian high school reading lists, was Davies's 22nd book. His previous works had mostly been met with indifference, but Fifth Business became a bestseller in the United States.

• Davies was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1986 for his novel What's Bred in the Bone.

• In this clip, Robertson Davies says he believes Murther and Walking Spirits will be his last novel. He was wrong; in 1994 he published The Cunning Man.

• Davies died on Dec. 2, 1995, but he had yet to debut another work: The Golden Ass, an opera for which he furnished the libretto. He had written the words but died before the music was ready; the Canadian Opera Company staged it in 1999 to positive reviews.

The cinematic vision of Robertson Davies

Medium: Radio

Program: Writers & Company

Broadcast Date: Sept. 29, 1991

Guest(s): Robertson Davies

Host: Eleanor Wachtel

Duration: 43:31

This clip was edited for copyright reasons.

Photo: AP Photo/Tom Keller

Last updated:
Aug. 13, 2008