radio
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I should have written this post about a fortnight ago, but in my defence I was really under the weather until last week. Anyway, I was interviewed on Radio Scotland’s “Sunday Morning with Tony Kearney” on 3 November. They got in touch after hearing about Quirk!, the group I’ve started for LGBTQ+ folk at the
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Ruth Padel’s Radio 4 programme “Poetry Workshop” is back for another series. I missed the first one in its entirety, and only noticed this evening when I wandered to the iplayer for “The Verb” that it was back for a second round. So I listened and enjoyed. I listened even more closely when I heard
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Merry Christmas! I hope you’ve had a Christmas full of light, blessings and peace. I trust you haven’t eaten too much turkey (or whatever you dined on for Christmas day — some rather delicious pork in our case*). Equally well, I hope you’re not staring at a fridge full of leftovers for the next three
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Little did I know when I stepped on to the stage in Wigtown that it would lead to my appearing on Radio Scotland’s main Christmas morning broadcast. It just so happened that the producer of “Christmas Morning with Cathy MacDonald and Ricky Ross” was in the audience, not that I knew that until an e-mail
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It’s been a day of Impossible Journeys*. I’m sitting here basking in some of Paul Thomson‘s music to accompany Claire Askew‘s poem for the project, and I’ve also been absolutely loving Alastair Cook‘s film for my poem. All of which simply stokes my already considerable excitement about the fact it’s all going to come together
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Tania Hershman’s The White Road and Other Stories is a wide-ranging and imaginative debut collection of short fiction, some of it very short. Much of this moving, gripping, entertaining and thought-provoking work is inspired by articles from the New Scientist, making it a unique fusion of the two cultures. I was thrilled when Tania agreed
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I can’t let today pass without noting that it would have been the 100th birthday of that great 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen, a favourite of mine. I’ve blogged before about what makes him so great for me, and my enthusiasm only deepens the more I hear his music. Radio 3 is celebrating the centenary
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It’s a good season for poetry on Radio 3. The Essay last week was deeply under the influence: five contemporary poets each on a poet who influenced them. I’d recommend in particular Michael Symmons Roberts on David Jones; WN Herbert on Edwin Morgan (don’t ask me what the picture of Eilean Donan castle is about!);
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I love the work of Michael Symmons Roberts. He’s one of the finest writers in Britain at the moment and quite possibly the best religious poet we have. This year, he has published two books: his second novel, Breath, and his fifth collection of poems, The Half-Healed. Both fine books, of which I intend to
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Interesting to hear Tom Paulin talking so much about the sound texture of poems on yesterday’s edition of The Verb. Worth listening to while you still can (seven days). It’s a trailer for his new book, The Secret Life of Poems, which Faber describes as a primer which offers [47 poems] – or on occasion
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On last week’s edition of The Verb, Paul Farley opined that “we” are “in denial about rhyme” because, when “we” rhyme, “we” use relative rhyme*. If you’ve read my Reasoning Rhyme posts, it won’t surprise you to learn that this is, in my opinion, utter tosh. Far from being a denial of rhyme, relative rhyme
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1 I recommend a listen to this week’s edition of “Poets and the Nation”. It’s a good, intelligent piece of broadcasting about how cultural change in Scotland has been reflected in poetry through the ages. It bounces about time a bit more than last week’s, which is one thing in its favour. 2 Radio 3
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After the horror of the photoshoot, we settled down to writing, with Ken first recording an introduction to the renga for the BBC Radio Scotland arts show Radio Cafe. Elspeth had to shuffle off for a live studio interview with them at lunchtime, but Richard and I were left voiceless on the airwaves. Participating in
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Not that I’m given to watching Sunday morning TV, but I happened to see the art historian Brian Sewell pontificating disdainfully about modern art in churches on BBC 1 this morning. I assume the item, which was part of the Heaven & Earth show, was a brief televisual extension of his BBC Radio 3 show
Amy Jo Philip 