The distinguished author Elizabeth Hay discusses her memoir All Things Consoled (McClelland & Stewart, 2018), a book about her childhood, her parents and their aging, with Joseph Planta.

All Things Consoled by Elizabeth Hay (McClelland & Stewart, 2018). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: All Things Consoled

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Elizabeth Hay joins me again. The bestselling, award-winning, and acclaimed author has just published a new memoir, All Things Consoled. It’s an often poignant, funny and relatable book about her relationship with her parents Jean and Gordon Hay, a most formidable pair, he a well-mannered school teacher, and she an artist who, as she herself said, “set the tone in the house.” Ms. Hay discusses what it was like growing up with her parents, with their wit, as well as their difficulties. Her mother was extremely frugal, while her father had a temper that was sometimes explosive. I’ll get Ms. Hay to tell us about her formative years, as well as her parents declining years, when she had to step in and look after her aging parents. Becoming elderly is not easy, and as you see in this book Elizabeth provides insight into their final years, but does so with dignity as she honours them as well as the process of aging. Elizabeth Hay is the author of the novels Alone in the Classroom, Garbo Laughs, A Student of Weather, and Small Change. She was a radio broadcaster at one point in her life; and has been fondly lauded for radio’s depiction in her novel Late Nights on Air, which won the Giller Prize. She was first on the program when that book came out, as well as when her last novel His Whole Life was published in 2015. She joined me from here in Vancouver, last week while in appearances for the book, which is published by McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Elizabeth Hay; Ms. Hay, good morning.

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