"The Verb"

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 30 September 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan presents. On this programme:

Diana Athill, the revered editor, novelist and memoirist writes and performs a new letter for the Verb and talks about her new book "Instead of a Book" - a collection of the letters she's written over the past thirty years to her friend the poet Edward Field.

Diana Athill, winner of the 2008 Costa Biography Award - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am1IPG5qZDc

Edward Field - A Reading in New York City - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQtKuK39McY

On a ship-to-shore telephone line, Horatio Clare, who's currently writer-in-residence for the Maersk shipping line, tells Ian how he's being inspired by the solitude of sailing.

Horatio Clare's website - http://www.horatioclare.co.uk/

There's more from The Verb's New Voices, a scheme run between Radio 3 and the Arts Council, supporting emergent talent on the spoken poetry scene. This week we feature poets from Stockton and their mentors.

At Stockton Arts Centre - http://www.arconline.co.uk/detail.php?id=2539

And as the Forward Poetry Prize celebrates twenty years since its inception, founder William Sieghart and previous winner Jane Duran discusses the effect of the prize, which rewards both established and up-and-coming poets.

Forward Poetry Prize - Since 1992 - http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org...izewinners.htm

Jane Duran - Biography at Poetry Archive - http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetrya...o?poetId=11663

The Verb - Friday, 10pm, Radio 3

Also available for seven days on BBC I-Player

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Most people have heard of lookalikes but what about sound doubles. William Sieghart and Jonathon Porritt may just be voice boxes that were separated at birth. But while Porritt was seeing green long before Nick Clegg was setting light to cactus plants, Sieghart is more a Hamas kind of guy. You might have seen him discussing the Palestinian crisis on Al-Jazeera as a part of his project Forward Thinking. Much like a multinational corporation, the Forward brand is a spread eagle. Fortunately, it was the Forward Poetry Prizes that were brought on Friday to The Verb round table. Sponsored by the Forward Arts Foundation, they are presented annually on National Poetry Day. And that day was, wholly logically, the invention of Sieghart too.

In the discussion, we were introduced to the likeable - but is she any relation? - Jane Duran. In 1995, she won the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection with a slim volume "Breathe Now, Breathe". She read two of the poems from that collection and both were enjoyable enough. She is in good company as among the other past winners are Leontia Flynn and Daljit Nagra. I am not sure whether I would see any of these poets as overtly political. It was therefore interesting to hear Sieghart partially justifying the existence of such prizes on political grounds. Poets, he suggested, often tackle the big themes before other writers would dare. He added perhaps more convincingly that journalists love prizes so they are a way of making poetry more accessible.



Jane Duran

The talk inevitably turned to charts. Wasn't it all a bit like Top of the Pops? One could imagine listeners to Breakfast on 3 choking on their croissants. As for me, I welcome the initiatives as I would a toy in my box of corn flakes. Who knows? Maybe it does provide encouragement to our brightest writers. It almost certainly enables many on the nation's omnibus to question their prejudices. Hey guys, it isn't just about clouds and daffodils but then it wasn't in the almost halcyon days of Attila and John Cooper Clarke. So it was then once again to the Verb New Voices, some of whom are of the age to be JCC's grandchildren. There were two more of them on the programme this week. In terms of catchment area, we moved north from dear old Norwich to Stockton. Ah, I can see Harold now looking down proudly on the birth place of Peter Smithson, Will Hay and Flying Freddy Dixon.

The first of the new voices, Degna Stone, stopped playing the cello at the age of 13. That happened a few years after her parents separated and a few years before she first left home. In her project, "Songs From Whenever", she focusses on these three important times in her development, drawing on musical influence. Her choice of mentor was Zena Edwards, a poet and performer who uses song, movement and global influences as a jump-off for her words. Stone's poem "Smoke Signals" was a glosa in which she explored the loss of self-identity which can come with the onset of dating. By contrast, Michael Edwards prefers comedy as a way of standing outside himself. To help him with "The Rise and Fall of the Poetry Bandits", a project based on a fictitious poetry collective, comedian Simon Munnery chatted to Edwards on the streets as if he were one of his characters. All good stuff and my best wishes are offered to both Degna and Michael as they seek to make the most of these opportunities.

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Diana Athill is nearer 94 than 93 but she sounds so youthful it feels impudent to mention her age. Obviously she is a Sagittarian. At André Deutsch, she was one of the most respected editors of her generation and as an author her books have been published since the early 1960s. It wasn't though until 2009 that she won the Costa Biography Prize for "Somewhere Towards The End", a memoir about old age. The Guardian has said "Athill tackles the big questions through small increments. Her subject is daily life". While this is true, it is her directness that impresses. Most young people in the arts use enormous amounts of energy to convey that they are real to the point of gritty. That "no bullshit" mantra is a warning on authenticity and it is placed starkly in its context whenever one sees the genuine thing.

Athill's emotional life has rarely been easy. While she was fortunate to have been of the background which enabled her to go to Oxford, there are many in the average concept of hood whose lives by comparison have been field trips. One senses regrets. There is also vigour and a practical stoicism that preclude warped glamorization and histrionics. Yes, her correspondence with the earthier writer Edward Field shows that differences in vocabulary can matter. After all, Athill's upbringing was the kind to accentuate refinement so her style will automatically appear gentile. However, she shows in her writing, among other things, the significance of the harder facts of life. When you have been the practical carer of two people, and had few of the fundamental rewards of ordinary family life, you are unlikely to be overly flowery, however such conceit is expressed.



Diana Athill

This is not to say that Athill lacks a poetic sensibility. In the piece she read on the programme, she described a holiday to Corfu taken in the 1950s with her cousin. Following the post-war austerity, and preceding the decade of flights to Torremolinos, this had for them the feeling of a real adventure. Two women taking off and enjoying time on a campsite abroad was not exactly the norm. The imagery in this short memoir was simple and yet evocative - the herb scented air, the voice of a scops owl, the citron presses, and the languorous tangos under the moon. Romance was everywhere in the text but it was never cloying, oppressive or phony. That it should ever have been felt at all is remarkable for there had been some very strict conditions to accommodate the local people's delicacy. And yet on two return trips in a changing world, those things had gone, with a loss too of the warmth and simplicity that accompanies early natural impression.

Adventures come in many forms and some are experienced in stormier climes. For the second consecutive week, "Moby Dick" was mentioned on the programme. To quote East Anglian poet, John Osborne, "I don't know what that means". I have to admit here that anthropomorphism and existentialism were never my strongest points. However, the uncannily named Horatio Clare has a bit of a thing about Herman Melville and other classic writers of the sea and its fevers. So much so that he is learning the language of seafarers under a typhoon on the South China Sea. Clare spoke by telephone from a cargo ship on which, he said, were maps of the oceans with oddly named locations, but he seemed quite unconcerned by the lack of transparency. Officially, he is Writer in Residence for the Maersk shipping line and, yes, he is having a whale of a time blogging and drafting pen portraits as required.

On the surface it could sound like an easy life. What it entails in practice is mucking in with 18 others, several of whom have the patchiest of English. Still, all of the radio communication is in our nation's tongue as are many of the formalities. The standard daily greeting is "Good Morning Gentlemen" and that's not Estuary stuff. The ship, says Clare, is a fascinatingly different planet and he feels like he is mining a gold seam. There is a lesson here for everyone who thinks that good old blighty has become Bluewater. It is possible to find a version of Britain "as it was" almost anywhere on the globe but to do so you have to be prepared to take your chances at Terrible Bank and then Flora Temple Reef. Look, if you really want to give it a try, I promise I won't stand in your way.

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 7 October 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan takes to the stage in front of an audience at MAC in Birmingham to introduce the first of the Verb New Voices performances.

Two emerging spoken word artists, Fatima Al Matar and Bohdan Piasecki premiere the pieces they've developed over the Summer.

Fatima Al Matar - Face - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEEzHpQVWjA

Bohdan Piasecki - Following Your Feet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psneCpw6w5E

Novelist, biographer and playwright David Lodge first started exploring ideas around consciousness in his novel 'Thinks' ten years ago. Now, he's adapted the book for the stage and called it Secret Thoughts. For The Verb he reflects on what working in different genres has taught him about how his characters think.

Secret Thoughts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQF3z...eature=related

The memorist Sathnam Sanghera wrote about secrets, lies and family love in his memoir of his Wolverhampton childhood 'The Boy With The Topknot'. For The Verb he reads a commissioned piece about eating beef for the first time, by mistake.

The Boy With the Topknot - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCK4e_kGjkw

And, the writer Catherine O'Flynn champions Birmingham in fiction.

The News Where You Are - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4To9bGi7wNk

The Verb - Friday, 10pm, Radio 3

Also available for seven days on BBC I-Player

Please note that from this month, the reviews will be occasional and feature guests who particularly appeal. The weekly previews will, of course, continue as before. Your feedback on the programmes would be of interest.

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 14 October 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts were discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan took to the stage in front of an audience at Norwich Arts Centre. The programme featured:

Two emerging spoken word artists, Deborah 'Debris' Stevenson and John Osborne who premiered the pieces they had developed over the Summer.

Applesandsnakes.com - http://www.applesandsnakes.org/page/84/Poets/402

Johnpeelsshed.com - http://www.johnpeelsshed.com/

The Norwich-based writer Philip Langeskov who has studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia and is a hotly tipped writer of short stories. For The Verb he read a new piece inspired by landscape of Dunwich on the Suffolk coast.

Christmas Eve, 1982 - http://www.untitledbooks.com/fiction...ilip-langskov/

Professor Karmadillo who is on a mission to make science fun and accessible by performing songs of science on topics ranging from particle physics to genetics. He performed his classic song 'You Must be Mendel' for the Verb.

Professorkarmadillo.com - http://professorkarmadillo.com/

And Chris Gribble from the Writer's Centre Norwich and poet Tim Clare who discussed how to evaluate spoken word poetry.

Writerscentrenorwich.com - http://www.writerscentrenorwich.org....s/theteam.aspx

Timclarepoet.com - http://www.timclarepoet.co.uk/

The Verb - Every Friday, 10pm, Radio 3

This edition is available on BBC I-Player until 21 October

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 21 October 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts are discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan takes to the stage in front of an audience at ARC in Stockton-on-Tees to introduce the last of the Verb New Voices performances:

Two emerging spoken word artists, Degna Stone and Michael Edwards premiere the pieces they've developed over the Summer.

Degna Stone - Biography on Write Out Loud - http://writeoutloud.net/profiles/degnastone

Michael Edwards - Biography on Apples and Snakes - http://applesandsnakes.org/page/84/Mike+Edwards/289

Richard Milward, whose novels 'Apples' and 'Ten Storey Love Song' gave an insight into the bleak, fascinating and sometimes shocking lives of Middlesbrough teenagers. For The Verb he'll be performing a commissoned piece about how he writes.

Ten Storey Love Song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-va7Ahswn0

Local playwright and performer Alison Carr returns to The Verb with a work in progress entitled 'The Illumination Of Beatrice Munroe'.

Rascally Scoundrels - http://www.rascallyscoundrels.co.uk/about/

And, why writers all over the country look forward to an envelope post-marked Stockton.

The Verb - Friday, 10pm, Radio 3

Also available for seven days on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

Friday 28 October 2011

The details of this week's programme:

(Not all the links and extracts were discussed in the programme. They are included to provide an introduction to, or reminder of, those featured.)

Ian McMillan presented.

Jarvis Cocker is widely regarded as one of the most original and memorable lyricists and performers of recent decades. He talked to Ian about his first book, a collection of lyrics, Mother, Brother, Lover, which he has selected and annotated himself.

BBC is a ‘religion’ while James Murdoch ‘is Satan’ - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...-is-Satan.html

Diego Marani is a senior linguist at the EU and writes a column for a Swiss newspaper about current affairs in Europanto, a language that he has invented. He read extracts from his work in Europanto and described how he devised the language.

New Finnish Grammar - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011...-marani-review

Australian poet John Kinsella read from his new book Armour.

Biography at The Poetry Foundation - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-kinsella

And poet and travel writer Kapka Kassabova is fascinated with the global subculture of Tango. She wrote and read a new commission especially for the Verb and took listeners through the language of the dance.

Street Without a Name - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...ardianreview27

The Verb - Friday, 10pm, Radio 3

Available until Friday on BBC I-Player

[Lateralthinking1]

BIG GAP........then......





The Teleprinter

Friday 13 January 2011 - Eliza Carthy, John Cooper Clarke, Simon Armitage, Joe Bone

- Available on the I-Player for 5 more hours - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018vdcb

Friday 20 January 2011 - 10pm. Details here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019765r

ALTERNATIVELY

Graham Norton (BBC1) Newsnight (BBC2), Eastenders (BBC3), Simon and Garfunkel (BBC4), News (ITV1), Miss Congeniality 2 (ITV2), Taggert (ITV3), Muhammed Ali (ITV4) Chris Moyles Quiz Night (Channel 4) or Celebrity Wedding Planner (Channel 5)

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The Verb Balloon Game -

http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/grammar/verb/balloon_game/

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THE VERB.......



Last Friday- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019m8yy

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THE VERB.......



This Friday - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019qj1r

[french frank]

Is this a special recommendation, Lat?

[Lateralthinking1]

Thank you for your interest, frenchfrank.

Last week's edition will appeal to the many people interested in Philip Larkin. I have what was the definitive collection of Larkin's poetry but there is now a new, very comprehensive, collection of his work. It is well known that Larkin was highly selective in what he chose to publish. The new publication includes work he might not have wanted others to read. In the programme, there was a discussion on whether it was right to publish that material. The programme can be listened to on the I-Player until Friday night.

The coming edition is largely on the theme of childhood. Most of the contributors are writers. However, one of the guests, Laura Veirs, is an interesting and intelligent musician who has some supporters on the world music boards. Her background is unusual for she originally studied studied geology and Mandarin Chinese. Her album "Year of Meteors" was selected by the New York Times as a "critics choice" and another, "July Flame" was praised by the Washington Post. Now she has released a fascinating collection of mainly traditional folk songs for children, accompanied by several esteemed performers including the wonderful banjoist Bela Fleck.

[french frank]

Thanks, Lat. I might give the Larkin item a listen.

It would be very hypocritical to say I give The Verb a miss on principle when it has singer-songwriters, or any musical items, on it when I don't listen anyway (hence missing your Larkin notice). But it does signify that nobody takes any notice when people plead for a programme on new writing with a more literary bias. However, it would be interesting to listen in order to see how much time is spent talking about the lyrics in detail and how much is just playing and singing.

[Lateralthinking1]

french frank

I have done it again. With an absent mind, I clicked on your post and then pressed "save". It now appears as having been edited by me. Anyway, it might be that the last edition is more to your taste than the next one will be.

My approach to "The Verb" is intended to inform and entertain in a not dissimilar way to the programme. I am not sure whether Ian McMillan would see it quite in that way but that is how I look at it, not that it is meant to be a mirror image. Certainly there is a lot of light and shade in the programme. The price you pay for eclecticism can be a falling between stools. Regular listeners accept the basic premise that it is a pot pourri. Other people might see the programme as having something of an identity crisis.

I can understand how the latter feel disinclined to sit waiting for one item that appeals to them. My reviews were intended to provide a steer but I am not sure that they brought in new listeners. At times, they probably reinforced others' opinions, not that this would be entirely a bad thing. And clearly what often underpins outlook is a strong sense about content that is right for Radio 3. The impression many have is that it is not a programme that sits comfortably in the context of the station's objectives.

Without wishing to offend contributors, I have switched off during, say, Peter Blagvad's Eartoons. I do therefore accept that others will do so during items that give me pleasure. When it comes to writing and performance - and "The Verb" is very much about both - a lot is about personal taste. Someone might find appeal in an interview with, say, Ridley or Kureishi. I would prefer to listen to Bella Hardy because she is closer to the folk tradition or even the punk poet John Cooper Clarke. I have also enjoyed readings from writers Carolyn Quinn and Daljit Nagra who many would no doubt think extraordinarily light.

Still, there is weight. In just the past twelve months, there have been interviews with Diana Athill, Anthony Browne, Garrison Keillor, Ben Okri, Billy Roche and John Schad and discussions about Iain Crichton Smith, Harold Massingham and Tennessee Williams. Athill was remarkably thought-provoking about old age; Noel Smith, Molly Murray and Toby Litt contributed to a a quite fascinating programme on the history of prison writing; Gwyneth Lewis and Sarah Magoso were wonderful on the subject of ill health; and personally I learnt huge amounts about Galician writing from Fiona Sampson, Marilar Aleixandre and Xesus Fresar.

So, yes, one never knows quite what to expect. Whether that is appealing or irritating depends on the individual listener. As you suggest, it appears to be a mainstay on Radio 3. There is no sign of it being about to change soon but it would be nice at times to have some feedback from the powers that be. As it is, some might like to try five or six editions in a row and then let me know whether they have altered their view of the programme in any way. It might just be what is needed to create a dialogue.

Lat