The story behind The Photograph

Exploring how the past can interfere with the present

The Photograph is Penelope Lively's intriguing and compelling new novel which examines the nature of loss, love and relationships, it asks the question: how well can we truly know another human being?

Click here to watch our discussion with Penelope Lively.

The book's central character Glyn Peters, recently widowed, is clearing out an old cupboard when he discovers an envelope marked "don't open - destroy".

Inside is a photograph of his wife, Kath, holding hands with another man, unseen to all in the picture except the photographer.

Disturbing questions force their way into his mind: Could she have had an affair? Did she want him to find the photograph? Who else knew?

Embarking on a quest to find out the truth about Kath and the other person in the photograph, Glyn confronts those closest to his wife. The emerging reality begins to distort the memories that he has held dear.

Initial shock and rage turn into a consuming need to find a new way of living with the past, as Glyn discovers the image of the woman he loved has been shattered.

The initial spark for The Photograph was the time-consuming process of clearing and sorting through two houses over the past eight years.

First there was the death of Penelope's aunt in 1995 and dealing with her estate and then, after the loss of her husband in 1998 she decided to consolidate her life.

"I felt drowned in paper, and you kept coming across things that you had forgotten about which often threw some sort of revealing light on the past.

"I can't say I ever found a photograph that told me anything I didn't know but you would find a letter or document that reminded you of something. I realised that the sort of detritus that any of us have in our houses is in a curious sense a time bomb.

"The photograph itself is a preserved memory of an unfortunate moment which then comes back to disrupt lives and I wanted to write about the way in which the past can interfere with the present in a disastrous way." Says Penelope Lively.

The book has several themes, but Kath, who really is the central figure isn't there at all.

"It seems to me impossible not to be interested in memory. It is such an extraordinary phenomenon and there are endless different ways of thinking about it and looking at it.

"I realise I have got a whole shelf of books about various ways in which people look at memory. It's the one thing that we have all got - that is inescapable. And also we are completely scuppered by it."

Biography

Penelope Lively won the Booker prize in 1987

Penelope Lively grew up in Egypt but settled in England after the war and took a degree in history at St Anne's college, Oxford. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of PEN and the Society of Authors.

She was married to the late Professor Jack Lively, has a daughter, a son and four grandchildren, and lives in London.

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children.

She won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger but has also twice been short listed, in 1977 for her first novel The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark.

She has also written radio and television scripts and has acted as presenter for a BBC Radio 4 programme on children's literature.

She is a popular writer for children and has won both Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was awarded the CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List.

The Photograph by Penelope Lively is published by Penguin, price £14.99, ISBN 0670913928