I was thrilled to be invited to take part in the popular literary podcast Backlisted, hosted by Andy Miller and John Mitchinson and with special guest Andrew Male. The Halloween episode focused on Daphne du Maurier’s brilliantly unsettling 1959 short story collection The Breaking Point and it was wonderful to take part in the discussion. You can listen to the episode online and download it here: Backlisted on Du Maurier.
As well as discussing Du Maurier’s life, work, and literary reputation (with some wonderful audio clips from her appearance on Desert Island Discs, amongst other things), we focused on particular stories in this unusual Du Maurier collection: I championed ‘The Blue Lenses’; Andrew gave a wonderful reading of ‘The Alibi’; John explored the atmosphere of ‘The Pool’; and Andy analysed the humour of ‘The Menace’. And with it being Halloween, we couldn’t resist discussing Du Maurier’s terrifying short story ‘Don’t Look Now’ from her 1971 collection Not After Midnight (you can find out more about that story and the Nicolas Roeg’s film adaptation in my article on the Du Maurier website here).
Huge thank you to Backlisted for having me and I hope Du Maurier fans will enjoy the discussion!
(Some of my editions of The Breaking Point, reissued as The Blue Lenses and other stories by Penguin)
Dr Laura Varnam 
I like du Maurier. I read Rebecca (it was my best book read in 2017) and now reading The Scapegoat. I have her other books, too, but I have yet to read them. I will endeavor to find her short story collections. Will listen to the podcast. Thanks.
Thanks for the comment, Nancy, I hope you are enjoying The Scapegoat and that you enjoy the podcast! Du Maurier’s short stories are brilliant and well worth reading.