A Stone Woman

It was commissioned specially for BBC 7 gothic tale.

Read by Penelope Wilton.

Acclaimed actress Penelope Wilton reads AS Byatt's sensuous and ultimately uplifting account of one woman's transformation into stone.

Ines is a middle-aged etymologist. When her mother dies, grief overtakes her. Then, after a minor surgery, she discovers her navel has turned to flint.

The first of three parts of a modern day gothic fable that muses on grief.

Producer: Claudine Toutoungi

Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in December 2004.

Penelope Wilton reads a sensuous and uplifting gothic tale about a woman's transformation.

AS Byatt's gothic tale

As Byatt's gothic tale.

Ines is mourning her mother when she sees her navel turn to flint.

Ines is grieving for her mother when she sees her navel has turned to flint.

Ines is grieving for her mother when she notices her navel has turned to flint.

Acclaimed actress Penelope Wilton reads AS Byatt's sensuous and ultimately uplifting account of one woman's transformation into stone.

Ines is a middle-aged etymologist. When her mother dies, grief overtakes her; she feels insubstantial, moth-like, as if she might disappear. Then, after a minor surgery, she discovers her navel has turned to flint. She starts to shed stone-dust. Her limb sockets become marble balls in marble curves. Ines is gradually petrifying- literally.

Every day Ines notices more outcrops of crystals, more mineralogical developments on her body. She begins to find it impossible to stay indoors; she prefers the outside elements and particularly standing in wind and rain. When she meets Thorsteinn, a cemetery stonecutter, she realises he may be the one person to whom she can confide her transformation?

A modern day gothic fable that muses on grief and in its moving ending, ultimately discovers fertility and rebirth in the stoniest of places.

Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in 2004.

Penelope Wilton reads a sensuous and uplifting gothic tale about a woman's transformation.

Then she meets Thorsteinn, the mysterious stone-cutter who offers her help in the form of a visit to Iceland.

Penelope Wilton continues AS Byatt's sensuous and ultimately uplifting account of one woman's transformation into stone.

Producer: Claudine Toutoungi

Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in December 2004.

A modern day gothic fable that muses on grief and transformation. Read by Penelope Wilton.

AS Byatt's gothic tale

As Byatt's story continues.

Ines worries about her petrification.

The stone-cutter Thorsteinn says the answer lies in Iceland.

Thorsteinn says the answer lies in Iceland.

As Byatt's story continues.

As Byatt's gothic tale continues.

Winter falls in Iceland and Ines's transformation has a dramatic conclusion.