Released 20.02.25

The Conversation

In this episode, Liverpudlian screen, stage and radio writer, Jeff Young, discusses his latest book, Wild Twin. The book is written in hallucinatory, dreamlike prose, describing Jeff’s youth drifting between Paris and Amsterdam in the 1970s.

Sophy and Jeff have a lively conversation that delves into his writing process, including how Jeff fills his space with intricate Joseph Cornell-esque collages, built using objects with meaning to him. They discuss how memory is held in items, and how music is a kind of ‘coded signal’ that connects people across ideas and time. Jeff loves David Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’. He draws a picture of his Liverpool childhood, including the bond he shared with his parents, and the creative influence of a city that was filled with musicians, poets and painters. 

Under Jeff’s gaze, the candlelit squats of Amsterdam are transformed into a scene reminiscent of a Caravaggio, his empathy and affection for the people he meets illuminating each page into complex layers. Sophy and Jeff discuss the work of Henry Miller, George Orwell and Werner Herzog, and how — with caveats — each informed and inspired Wild Twin.

They finish with a candid discussion of the devastating decline Alzheimer's wrought on Jeff’s father. Ultimately, Sophy and Jeff agree that Wild Twin is really a book about the privilege and importance of memory, and how in exploring the past, we can animate the present and the future.