Cultural Life: Laura Marling, Singer

Books

I just started reading a collection of Raymond Carver's short stories, Where I'm Calling From. I've only read two of the stories. "A Small, Good Thing" is very quickly heartbreaking. It is about a woman whose son is hit by a car while she is buying cakes. I am still reading A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd.

Television

I don't have a television where I live in west London – I'm away so much – but whenever I'm in a hotel, I love to watch American comedies such as Friends and 3rd Rock from the Sun. There is something familiar about watching them away from home.

Film

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is one of those documentary films I've been meaning to watch for a long time but often I'm too scared about how it is going to affect me. Daniel Johnston is a manic-depressive singer-songwriter. He is convinced he is both God and the Devil. I've had to watch it 10 minutes at a time.

I got given Fried Green Tomatoes. It is quite "chick-flick"... I went to see The Dark Knight. I fell asleep for about 30 minutes in the middle and completely lost the plot. Heath Ledger's performance was unbelievably good, though.

Music

I listen to a lot of Love at the moment, particularly Forever Changes because it is summery and it's not very summery here. To me the music is hippie-like and bright-sounding. They are quite a heart-warming band I don't know much about. I also like Bill Callahan's band, Smog. In my opinion, his best song is "Let Me See the Colts"; it's melancholic folk.

Theatre/opera

I went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway a few months ago. It was an amazing cast with Terrence Howard. It was three hours long. I was really impressed I managed to keep interest in it, as there were no set changes.

Laura Marling's album, 'Alas, I Cannot Swim', has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize