BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire

Starting the new decade with a radio broadcast tomorrow morning (Sunday) on BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire, who have a 'reading the newspapers' show that I sometimes get invited to do, along with one or two other guests. We discuss local and national news stories live on radio, and get to eat some lovely cakes during the traffic and other news breaks.

It's a fun way to spend the morning.

For those who might like to listen in, the host of the show is Liz Kershaw, and this is the webpage: Liz Kershaw 10am.

Afterwards, I intend to shop, since the BBC studios are right in the heart of the old city centre, below the world-famous cathedral and only three minutes' walk from the main shopping area. 

Books, of course, will be my main purchase tomorrow. But I do need some new slippers too.

In Bed with John Keats

I forgot to say, by the way, that the shortened version - almost an extract, really - of my radio play In Bed with John Keats was indeed broadcast on RaW last Friday, the University of Warwick radio station, and while the production was not entirely as I had envisaged it, it did leave me eager to write more radio drama.

Consequently, I've been working on the first draft of a new radio play, set slightly earlier than the Keats one, in the late eighteenth century, aboard a sailing ship of all places. It's an idea I've been playing with for a few months, though I'd originally thought of it as being a stage play.

Now, however, I can see how some great sound effects would be possible with that setting, though perhaps without much variation as the play progresses: creaking timbers, roll and lap of the waves, sails slapping against masts, etc.

I could always work a talking parrot in somewhere, I suppose.

Keats and Gawain: a Dynamic Duo?

I fell ill last Thursday with a really nasty illness of some kind, which I can only describe as 'bronchial flu', and am only just recovering. Still a little groggy, light-headed, and am on the verge of losing my voice, I fear.

So apologies for my absence from Raw Light, but since we've been discussing the writing of poems in the voice of the opposite gender, amongst other things, here is a sneak preview of the poem sequence I've been playing with.

This is one of the less successful poems, out of about ten that I've written so far, in the voice of Gawain - or a modern-day Gawain-like character - from the anonymous Middle English verse romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (I'm posting up a possible reject to avoid publishing one which I might subsequently like to place somewhere else, i.e. in a print publication.) It's just to give you a taster of what I mean, really, and to open up the topic for discussion, if there is any discussion left in this topic.

On Friday, by the way, at 9pm, a shortened version of a radio play I wrote on spec a few years back will be broadcast on RaW, which is the University of Warwick radio station. They don't yet have a Listen Again facility, but may do later in the year, but for now, if you click on the following link to RaW just before 9pm on Friday 16th January, you should be able to listen to the play live!

The play is called IN BED WITH JOHN KEATS and is approximately 15 minutes long - condensed down from 45 to fit their scheduling requirements, believe it or not. I originally wrote it for a Radio 4 slot, but then couldn't decide if it was ready to send off or not, so just never sent it off.

I haven't heard it recorded, so can't comment on what it's like. But it's short and I wrote it, so if either of those things turn you on, I'd be really pleased if you are able to listen in and let me know what you think.

I remember mentioning the title of the play in a phone call to Barry MacSweeney once - that's how long ago I wrote the thing; he's been dead a good few years now, sadly - and he loved it, and the concept. But he was always a rum 'un, was Barry.

Remember, 9pm on Friday 16th January, at RaW.

Now here's that poem I promised you. I've chosen a 'modern' one, written in the first person, and the action - I suppose - comes from Fitt II, where Gawain is travelling through the forest - cold, hungry and desperate - just before he comes across the isolated castle of Hautdesert. Some of these lines are indented, but as usual, I can't be bothered to do the required HTML. Sorry!

Wheels spin in the deepening ruts


Wheels spin in the deepening ruts,
smoke-whine of an engine
going nowhere.

I clamber out, boots sunk
in morass,
to examine the failure.

Around me in the darkness
trees creak
and a stuttering ribbon of white light
flutters over the hills
directly across the valley hollows,
then vanishes.

No signal on the mobile.

I straighten from the wheel
embedded in mud.
It will take chains or thick rope
to get it out; a job for a tow-truck.

I stand a long while, uncertain,
searching the limits
of that drop-down thicket,
hunting for a light,

unseen ocean above me,
black tide washing
in and out.

"Start the Week" this Monday, 9am

Just to let you know I'll be talking about Horizon Review on "Start the Week" this Monday, 20th October - at 9am, if you're ever up that early on a Monday! - which is BBC Radio 4's flagship arts programme.

The other guests with me this Monday are Rupert Goold, theatre director - who's currently directing Pete Postlethwaite in King Lear, along with Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Audience at the Gielgud Theatre, Pinter at the Duke of York AND Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane - also Duncan Wu, writer and biographer (his most recent work is a biography of William Hazlitt) and Jackie Wullschlager, chief art critic for the Financial Times, who's just written a comprehensive tome on the Russian emigré artist Chagall.

If you miss it on Monday, "Start the Week" should be available for about a week using the Listen Again facility on the BBC Radio 4 website.

I'll be visiting the Poetry Library at the South Bank afterwards, having lunch with poet, critic and creative writing tutor George Ttoouli at the Poetry Society, and generally swanning about London in search of lattés and good poetry.

Ah, the life of a literary editor ...

Poets Jo Bell & Julie Boden at Radio Wildfire this Monday, August 4th

Back from my beach holiday in North Cornwall, and not quite ready to blog in any meaningful way, mainly down to sheer pressure of work on the poetry front, but here's something worthwhile that needs to be flagged up for poetry lovers: Radio Wildfire will be broadcasting live from central Birmingham on Monday 4th August, and you can listen online that night (and then to selected highlights on permanent loop a few weeks later).

Radio Wildfire
Monday 4th August 8.00-10.00 pm (UK time).

August … and there'll be Gusts of Awe aplenty this coming Monday night for Radio Wildfire's live transmission with live guests in the studio and some dead good stuff on cd too. Sun, sea, and buildings insurance, Batman, it must be the British summer again! Last year it was central England turned into one great Lido, this year it's another historical seaside icon defying the smoking ban in style. Dave Reeves gets the hots for Weston Pier!

While some of you lounge around the poolside, we're taking our first serious dip into poet Julie Boden's privately distributed recording of a performance in Leamington Spa titled 'Nightmare on Clarendon Street' with music from harp and piano plus saxman Dutch Lewis. You won't have heard it before as there are only a handful of copies in existence, so tune in for a first hearing.

And opening the door to another holiday state, the man who gets to be writer-in-residence in Florida Keys every year, Michael W. Thomas will be joining us to pour out some 'Rye doom and gloom' as he puts it – or was it 'wry' doom and gloom that he said? Join us to find out and drink deep of these extracts from a sequence of short short stories.

There'll also be reflections on England from Jo Bell and tracks from the Wolverhampton Band The Lines, plus the usual eclectic mix of spoken word and music, comedy, storytelling, poetry, song and aural art, taken from cd and from our own ever-expanding sessions archive.

Join us: Monday 4th August 8.00-10.00 pm UK time at www.radiowildfire.com Build castles in the sound at the world's holiday hotspot … RadioWildfire.com

We look forward to your company,
The Crew @ Radio Wildfire.

In the Loop on Radio Wildfire

I was interviewed a few weeks back by Dave Reeves on Birmingham's Radio Wildfire and, as promised, here's a link to the Loop - i.e. edited highlights of their monthly broadcast, playing continuously online - and some further information about the June show, which you can read below.

Enjoy!

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The Loop has been updated on Radio Wildfire. Now playing 24/7 a completely new mix of poetry, story, spoken word and music.

The longest days of summer are with us, and here at Radio Wildfire we've The Loop to fill the longing of your daze. There's a brand new, never-before-heard, track from Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Chris Rowley; and an absolutely exclusive performance of his poetry from Derrick D, until now better known as a spoken word DJ – something that is guaranteed to start changing: excellent stuff. There's chat with and poetry from Warwick Poet Laureate Jane Holland, one-time professional snooker player and star of baize and screen, recorded here live in our studio. And we've programmed in previews from a reading with musical accompaniment from Julie Boden, privately recorded live on 6 June 2007; and from Richard Rathwell's intriguing cd/booklet combination Ultraeye - both of which we'll be featuring more fully in forthcoming live transmissions. There's more poetry from Brendan Hawthorne, musing on the hair raising topic of Perm Mutation; from Purple Patch's Geoff Stevens; and from the pen of Mardin Ibrahim with accompaniment by Zirak Hamad on Kurdish violin. Other music comes from multim-instrumentalist Manni; and in the shape of a previously unheard ranted squeezebox blues when The Wooden Horse of Dr Troy bellows The Slow Drip of The Blues.

And to bring even more solace to your solstice celebrations we've seasonal drama in the shape of an extract from The Elves Pantomime by Kate Sharp, one of the Crystal Clear Creators collective – 'Seasonal,' we hear you cry, 'But panto season is behind you!' 'Oh no it isn't,' we reply, it's a permanent pantomime here at Radio Wildfire.

Log on and linger where the literature loops – by going to www.radiowildfire.com and clicking on The Loop. The Loop will play online continuously for the next month, except during our live broadcast on July 7th 2008, starting at 8.00pm UK time with a full programme of pre-recorded tracks, live studio guests and conversation.

Interview on Radio Wildire - coming up on Monday 2nd June

Radio Wildfire - this Monday, June 2nd

A Message from Radio Wildfire:

It's the middle of the year, midsummer is on the doorstep, and the UK so wet that only a digital Wildfire can rage across the land. And that is just what will happen on Monday 2nd June when Radio Wildfire's live June transmission takes place. This month we're pleased to welcome into the studio the current Warwick Poet Laureate, the irrepressible Jane Holland; bringing summer warmth to the frets will be Wolverhampton based guitarist and singer songwriter Chris Rowley; and, carrying his sunny demeanour to the mike, spoken word DJ Derrick D. Plus, we've got some spoken word and music from cd that we'll guarantee that you've never heard before.

Jane Holland has been a professional snooker player, a literary magazine editor, a novelist and is now Warwick Poet Laureate. Her first novel, Kissing the Pink, was published by Sceptre in 1999, her poetry collection, 'Boudicca & Co.', was published by Salt in 2006, and her next book of poems, Camper Van Blues, is due out in October 2008. With interests which include astrology and American pool, Jane is always bursting with life and good humour – and excellent poetry.

Guitarist and songwriter Chris Rowley's latest cd features collaborations with those well known lyricists Shakespeare and Tennyson, but with them both being otherwise engaged he'll be alone in the studio talking about his songwriting and playing live.

And finally, needing little introduction to Radio Wildfire audiences is, Derrick D. A DJ with a weekly FM programme concentrating on spoken word which he presents alongside a genre-defying musical selection he'll be joining us in the studio with a few select words of his own.

Plus, as always, there'll be an eclectic mix of spoken word and music, comedy, storytelling, poetry, song and aural art, taken from cd and from our own expanding archive. So start celebrating midsummer early by taking your laptop into the garden and getting into festival mood by listening to us in the rain, or just turn on your computer and listen in comfort. Whichever you choose -

Join us: Monday 2nd June 8.00-10.00 pm UK time at www.radiowildfire.com

Light Verse, Hot Gossip and Tongues of Flame … at RadioWildfire.com. And to keep your interest smouldering between live shows there's the constant transmission we call The Loop. Listen in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.radiowildfire.com – here to wildfire your imagination.

WHAT IS RADIO WILDFIRE?
Radio Wildfire is an independent online radio station which blends spoken word, poetry, performance literature, comedy, storytelling, short stories and more with a novel selection of word/music fusion and an eclectic mix of musical styles. www.radiowildfire.com broadcasts live 8.00-10.00pm on the first Monday of every month.

Weird fiction, writing methods, and radio plays

The novelist China Miéville has just joined the Creative Writing faculty team at Warwick University and was reading from some work-in-progress tonight at Warwick Arts Centre.

I went along to hear him with my husband, who's a big CM fan and massively well-read in the fields of sci-fi, fantasy and weird fiction. Which is more than I am, unfortunately. I have my compulsive favourites from which I rarely deviate, like most people who read fiction of those kinds, but my general understanding of 'fantastic' fiction is nowhere near comprehensive. So it was good to have him along with me, to answer my occasional whispered questions and to fill me in on China's background and development as a writer.

Yet even though China Miéville isn't the kind of writer whose work I would normally read, I did find the extract from his current ms draft interesting and challenging, and the Q&A at the end particularly useful to me as a writer.

I asked about his basic writing methods during the Q&A. CM explained that he doesn't follow any set pattern or routine as a writer. During some novels, he may write 1000 words a day; with others, as much as 4-5000. And that daily word tally doesn't seem to have any discernible connection with quality. Often, he told us, the steaming 5000 word session has produced excellent writing, whilst the slower 1000 word effort has ended up being scrapped!

Apparently, his methods of revision are equally changeable from novel to novel. Some books have been revised only after finishing the first draft. With others, revisions have been necessary during the initial writing. With some of his earlier books he resisted the advice of editors; later on, he learnt to accept the editorial process and now feels it can be a good thing for writers.

He later revealed that he works with a flow-chart of the novel, preferring to plot his books down to the last detail. The chart is pinned up on the wall beside him as he writes, and if he deviates from the scheme in any way, he marks the deviation on the chart and re-jigs the whole schema to make sure he still knows how the book is going to end.

But the only certain thing he could say about the actual writing of a novel - for the benefit of those in the room who might be struggling with first novels in draft - was that every word you manage to write is one less that has to be written.

So it was a fascinating Q&A session, during which he also spoke at length about the increased focus on politics in children's writing in general, and the background to the writing of several of his novels. He also said that 'Iron Council' was his personal favourite amongst his books to date.

As I didn't take notes verbatim, I hope I haven't misrepresented China Miéville's views and comments here.

I took great heart from his description of varying writing methods, knowing how impossible it is for me to stick to any one way of writing anything. I've always considered it one of my great weaknesses as a writer, but if I can just keep pushing the words out, I suppose it doesn't need to be.

I also met someone who works in radio script development for the BBC, over drinks in the bar afterwards, and spoke to her briefly about a radio play of mine that has been languishing for several years on my - rather over-crowded! - back burner of ongoing projects. It would be good to work on that again, hard graft though it was; a particularly demanding medium, radio, coming close to poetry in its need for accuracy and a fearless grasp of the 'less is more' school of writing.

Plenty of work to keep me busy this winter, then. So much choice, so little time. But as China Miéville said, every word you write ...

The Verb, Radio 3, featuring David Morley and THE INVISIBLE KINGS

Until Friday 28th September, I think, you should be able to catch the latest Verb show by clicking this link to Radio 3.

I've just been listening to the programme myself online and particularly enjoying the delights of David Morley reading from his brand-new Carcanet book of poetry, THE INVISIBLE KINGS, which Ian MacMillan, poet and Verb presenter, describes as 'a book that seems to redefine the things that poetry can do.'



THE INVISIBLE KINGS is a book of poetry about the Romani. David Morley is a Gajo, which means half-Romani, and has long avoided writing about his Romani heritage because discussing Romani business is considered 'bad manners' as he puts it on this radio show, with most family history kept secret or passed on orally. Following a reading in Sweden, however, he met an old family friend whose comments inspired him to go home and write these poems about his rich and often tragic tribal heritage, poems which are highly musical, declamatory and steeped in the Romani language. David Morley says, in fact, that this book 'completely wrote itself'.

I am in the middle of reading THE INVISIBLE KINGS myself, so was very interested to listen to this programme, not least because I felt it shed much-needed light on some of Morley's unusual and stirring poetry.

Listening to David Morley read the title poem here was a revelation. For a start, the lines are riddled with Romani words - translated on a separate page - and I was able to hear how they should be correctly pronounced and emphasised. I was also fascinated to learn that the title poem is written in the voice of a tribal shaman who is, like Morley himself, a Gajo - half-Romani. His thoughts, dreams, visions, stories and declarations make up the long poem - written in couplets and divided into several sections - that lies at the heart of THE INVISIBLE KINGS.

Here's the full line-up for last week's Verb (Radio 3):

David Morley
Ian McMillan talks to David Morley, the author of what promises to be one of the most thrilling volumes of poetry published this year - The Invisible Kings. Written partly in English and partly in Romani his poetry moves and sounds like music ... it zings with images from the natural world and gives voice to a culture that's emerging from the shadows.

Sarah Hall & D.J. Taylor
There are also two brand new pieces of writing inspired by water in general and flooding in particular. A short story by Sarah Hall, whose novel, The Electric Michelangelo was on the Booker Shortlist not so long ago and a meditation on words and water by her fellow novelist, D.J.Taylor.

Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad has composed one of his inimitable audio cartoons on the perils and pains of persistant scriptorum carborundum, also known as writer's block.

Beardyman
The Verb resonates to the sound of Beat Boxing - we have a short, not to say punchy guide to the history and practice of Beat Boxing from the acknowledged master, Beardyman.
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You can buy David Morley's THE INVISIBLE KINGS here.

Does the Male Muse exist?

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday 10th July, from 11.30am - 12.00 noon, you can catch My Male Muse on Radio 4. In this potentially controversial programme, "poet Clare Pollard dispels the popular female image of a muse. She argues that men can also be a source of beauty and inspiration, and contradicts poet Robert Graves, who famously claimed that the male muse doesn't exist."

The programme is produced by Clare Pollard and Tamysn Challenger. Other poets taking part will be Eva Salzman, Catherine Smith, Annie Freud, Melanie Challenger and Penelope Shuttle.

And as if the excitement of finding so many women poets on Radio 4 at once wasn't enough for one week, you can also listen to Fiona Sampson, poet and editor of Poetry Review, on Woman's Hour, Thursday July 12th between 10am and 10.45.

On that programme, Fiona will be reading from her brand-new poetry collection, just out from Carcanet, entitled Common Prayer. The programme will also feature discussions on the dreadful problem of endometriosis and 'how to moan without losing friends and alienating people'.

It could be worth my while to listen just for that last piece alone ...