Paula McLain - The Paris Wife (BBC) torrent

The Paris Wife

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.