A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

For Miss Braithwaite, who gave me eloquence. ‘I need to summon the spirits of place…' This week, we join Sally in rehearsal for a performance, given last week at Somerville College as part of Oxfordshire Mind's evening of ‘Connections.' Listen for an invocation of character, both in fiction and of those figures in our own lives that become part of our stories. Both Gladys and J.M.W. Turner feature in Sally's recent novel, The Green Lady (William Collins, 2023). This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Enid's hands are always kept busy caring for other people…' This week, Sally continues her theme of developing characters from objects by presenting a portrait of Enid Bagot, a young woman used to working with her hands, who will feature in Sally's forthcoming imagined biography, provisionally titled Mrs Parnell. Listen for a reflection on the routines and rhythms of life and work, interspersed with the moments from Sally's own life that provide her inspiration. The image of the cat by Edward Lear that Sally refers to can be viewed here. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Tuesday', by Paul Seba. More on Paul and his work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘His straw hat hurt him, it pinched his forehead and started a dull ache in the two bones just over the temples…' This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Katherine Mansfield, focusing on characters in her short fiction. Listen for a masterclass on openings, writing characters through objects, and making connections between and through them. The full text of the stories Sally reads can be found here. The passage read in the final section comes from Sally's forthcoming fictional biography, provisionally titled Mrs Parnell. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Emilie: may you always sing. We return this week, for a special micro-episode, to Mrs Dalloway's London. Listen for a brief meditation on the fragmentation of life, interruption, and finding meaning in art. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Now it was time to move, and, as a woman gathers her things together, her cloak, her gloves, her opera-glasses, and gets up to out of the theatre into the street, she rose from the sofa and went to Peter…' This week, we join Sally reflecting on the arrangement of character. Listen for a journey, via Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway (1925) through perspectives, cityscapes, and the means by which we navigate everyday life. The music accompanying the initial discussion of Mrs Dalloway is ‘Friday', by Paul Sebastian. More about Paul and his work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Sightlines produce a story, an avenue, a walkway, a space to move through…' This week, we join Sally reflecting on the idea of the sightline, and the stories they structure. Listen for a meditation on narrative, childhood, and a unique perspective of and from The Dreaming Spires… The text of the Sylvia Plath poem Sally references can be found here.  This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I try to live my life as though I were stitching together a book of songs.' This week, Sally offers us a tour through the stitched-together songs of her life, reflecting on the form of rhapsody. Join her for a series of vignettes on art, education, memory, and connection. This text of this episode is based on an address Sally gave at Wadham College Chapel, part of an evening of ‘Taking Heart in Poetry & Song' for St David's Day. More information can be found here.  The full text of Dylan Thomas' poem, ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower', quoted early in the episode can be found here.  The wonderful piano music in the opening and closing sections is, respectively, ‘Tuesday' and ‘Saturday' by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I see that she is thinking most of her canvas, and how she will get there…' This week, we join Sally after visiting her friend, the artist Emma Neuberg. Listen for a reflection of friendship, travel, and the connections art offers us. More information on Emma and her work can be found here. She can also be found on Instagram @emmaneuberg. The beautiful piano music in the closing section is ‘Tuesday', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Blithe came to me, not in flashing red or pink neon, but in pastels… in soft, painterly tones…' This week, Sally has been inspired by a dream of the word ‘blithe.' Listen for a meditation on the relationship between words, language, and the memories they ignite. The Muir poem Sally reads can be found here. The music used in the opening and closing section is, respectively, ‘Sunday' and ‘Thursday', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Rhythm seems to be the first or formal relation of part to part in any whole…' This week, Sally has been thinking about rhythms, in her life, writing, and the works of others. Listen for a meditation, via James Joyce, Jean Rhys' Good Morning, Midnight (1939), and Sally's work in progress, on the suturing of experience, and the spaces between moments of being. Joyce's reflection on rhythm, among others, can be found in full here.  Sally is currently in the early stages of writing out the rhythms and images of her next book – a passage from which appears in this episode - following an unlikely set of characters, including Katherine Parnell, from the realm of fable, fairytale, folklore, and history. The guitar music accompanying Sally's discussion of the fire is by Dylan Gwalia. The closing track is ‘Thursday', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This week, Sally has been reflecting on her ‘orphan power', a phrase once applied to her by Will Self, and her relationship with orphaned literary characters such as Jane Eyre. Listen for a meditation on isolation, belonging, and the communities that art can provide. The extracts performed here involving Jane Eyre and Miss Marple are from Sally's first coming of age novel, Girl with Dove (William Collins, 2018). The wonderful piano music in the opening section is 'Rain', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was partially inspired by Sally being asked to speak at a symposium on ‘The Impact of Lived Experience on Care Associated Research by Care Experienced Researchers', convened by Dr Annie Skinner, a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. More information on Dr Skinner's work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.    

This week, we join Sally at home, on a sunny autumn day. Listen for a meditation on play, weather, and our relationships with everyday objects. The passage from David Copperfield can be found here. More from Sally on the kaleidoscope mentioned early in the episode can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies, / Yet now they fright me.' This week, we join Sally in the early morning, after a Shakespearean dream. Listen for a meditation on the boundaries between sleeping and waking, dreams and reality, and confidence and hubris. Calpurnia's full speech can be found here. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Tuesday', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I hate walking, it seems so pointless to me…' This week, Sally has been musing on the importance of mobility, reflecting on the increasing role of her blue scooter in her life. Listen for a meditation on the importance of transport, both physical and imaginative, via Thomas Bernhard, Agatha Christie, and Elizabeth Bishop. Miss Marple of Bourne End has previously appeared in Sally's first novel, Girl with Dove (2018). Available from all good booksellers. The guitar music in the opening section is by Dylan Gwalia, and the piano music in the closing section is ‘Doubt', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This week, Sally offers us a series of vignettes from her travels, both past and present. Follow her on a journey around Europe, through the eyes of the child, adult, and writer. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Sunday', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. A note on the sound: This was recorded on location, while Sally taught at the Rosemary's House writing retreat in Greece, without Sally's usual recording equipment. As such, we regret that the audio quality is not up to its usual standard!

‘A gift, a love gift / Utterly unasked for / By a sky' This week, Sally has been reading Sylvia Plath's ‘Poppies in October' (1963). Join her for this brief mediation on living generously and the restorative powers of reading poetry. The text of the poem can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘There's always hope where there's poetry…'   This week, Sally is preparing for her narrowboat, Cerian, to journey upriver for maintenance. Join her in her engine room for a discussion of Somerset Maugham's novel The Painted Veil, meditations on kindness, and reflections on how poetry helps us to create our own rhythms in a noisy world.    More information on The Painted Veil (1925) can be found here.    The poems read from in this episode are ‘Auguries of Innocence' by William Blake, ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers' by Emily Dickinson, and ‘The Waste Land' by T.S. Eliot.    The original piano music is ‘Doubt' and ‘Sunday' by Paul Sebastian. The original guitar music is by Dylan Gwalia.    This episode was edited and produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.    Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. 

‘Silence, quietness, that's a way of living…' This week, we join Sally in the attic room of her family home, where she has been reading Rose Tremain's first novel Sadler's Birthday (1976). Follow her on a journey through the spaces in life where we find quietness, and the ways we make ourselves fit into them, in writing or otherwise. The piano music in the closing section is ‘Tuesday', by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘But the darkness is a kind of blanket, and she comforts me…' This week, we join Sally on a sleepless night, on a journey through Millet's The Gleaners (1857), via her character Pond Man. Follow her through this meditation on voice, place, and the spaces in between events. More information on the painting can be found here. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Doubt', by Paul Sebastian. The guitar piece is by Dylan Gwalia. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘London. Michaelmas Term lately over and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall…' This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Charles Dickens' Bleak House (1852). Follow her on a journey through his London, in the company of its climate, characters, and the bewildering legal bureaucracy not very far from our own…. Music used throughout includes ‘Tuesday' and ‘Thursday' by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I'm wondering what happiness sounds like, these days…' This week, Sally has been reading Nan Shepherd's The Weatherhouse, and reflecting on her relationship with happiness and contentment. Join her for a meditation on acceptance, simplicity, and our connections to life's natural rhythms. The guitar music throughout is by D. Gwalia. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This week Sally is experimenting with location and atmosphere for her character Pond Man. She asks her friend Dylan, to come and join her, as they improvise their way into Pond Man's world. This episode celebrates the value of creative collaboration and experiment.   Music by D. Gwalia. Produced by D. Gwalia.  

“She glanced up at the great broken tower-columns of the vanished nave of the Abbey Church….”  This week, Sally continues to read John Cowper Powys' 1932 novel A Glastonbury Romance, dwelling on the character of Mary Crow, whose form gives shape to the flat Glastonbury plain. Join her for reflections on visual art, our search for meaning through symbolic structure, and our deeply human need for form and rhythm.  More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html The guitar piece (05:28) is by D. Gwalia.  This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

“On this particular day the weather conditions had assumed a cloud-pattern…” This week, Sally continues to read John Cowper Powys' 1932 novel, A Glastonbury Romance, asking: how does writing produce depth and dimension? And what role do images play in our creative and emotional lives? Join her on a spring morning by the river for reflections on craft, inspiration, and literature as a visual language.  Note: in Greek mythology, Clytemnestra traps and murders her husband, king Agamemnon, by tangling him in a net. More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html The original piano piece (08:47) is ‘Monday' by Paul Sebastian. The original guitar piece (14:53) is by D. Gwalia.  This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘There's no life that frees anyone so completely from unhappiness as does the mystic life…' This week, Sally has been reading John Cowper Powys' 1932 novel, A Glastonbury Romance. Join her for a meditation on attachment, possession, desire, and being with others. More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Paul Clarke, and Maeve Magnus.

"What is it this material life we find ourselves captured by?"  This week Sally is developing her character, Pond Man as she considers the opening line of James Joyce's experimental epic, Ulysses, and the tradition of ritual - secular and religious - in everyday life. In the tradition of Joyce, we observe Pond Man across the length and breadth of his day as he prepares to sleep.  This episode was edited and produced by D. Gwalia. The guitar music is by D. Gwalia.  The opening and exiting voice is Emma Fielding.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, James Bowen, Lucie Richter-Mahr, Kris Dyer, Violet Henderson, and Maeve Magnus.

‘You see, I go and live with Pond Man when the pain becomes too much…' This week, we join Sally at home, as she tries to live with a pain that has become familiar with the help of imagination, community and her young neighbour Maeve. Follow her as she escapes the everyday through the figure of Pond Man, an inhabitant of her latest work, seeking solace in the world of her forthcoming novel (2025), Pond Life. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘We have forgotten what it is to look at one another and to notice.'   What does it mean to really see? This week, Sally is meditating on the power of images to connect us in a busy world. Join her as she reflects on José Saramago's novel Blindness, on empathy and attention, and how literature offers us ways of tuning in to our surroundings.    Guitar music by D. Gwalia, piano music by Paul Sebastian.    This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.    Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Kris Dyer, Violet Henderson, and Maeve Magnus. 

A special episode this week, as we join Sally at Brasenose College in a conversation titled ‘A Reading Life, A Writing Life', with fellow writers Aida Edemariam and Joanna Kavenna. Join them for a discussion on memory, storytelling, and the porous boundaries between reality and fiction. Aida is a writer and journalist whose debut book The Wife's Tale received the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Award. More information on her and her work can be found here: https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/edemariam-aida/ Joanna, whose 2016 novel A Field Guide to Reality has appeared in a previous episode, is a novelist, essayist and current Frankland Visitor at Brasenose College, Oxford. More information can be found on her website: http://www.joannakavenna.com/ This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.    

‘If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one…' This week, Sally has been reading José Saramago's Blindness, and thinking about the ways we see, or don't see, the world around us. Drawing on J.M. Barrie, join her for a reflection on seeing and writing through the dark places of the world. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian, and the guitar music was written and performed by D. Gwalia. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Kris Dyer, Violet Henderson, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Where do images come from?' This week, Sally is thinking about the importance of sound and rhythm to writing. Join her for a discussion of George Orwell's Coming Up for Air (1939) and a reflection on how to find your writing voice.  Guitar music composed and performed by Dylan Gwalia. This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Let words pass through you in a small contained space' This week, we join Sally for a meditation on creating and inhabiting a space in which to write, and to be held, via the work of the novelist V.S. Pritchett. Follow her as she begins to lay out her meditative practice of reading and writing, drawing on the restorative power of words on the page. An account of Pritchett and his work can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/feb/22/vspritchett This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.'   This week, Sally is reading Elizabeth Bishop's ‘Insomnia', a poem full of shifting, uncertain geographies and marvellous depths. How do we navigate the strange land of sleeplessness? Join Sally as she meditates on the power of reading closely and the solace of poetry as a place of rest.     ‘Insomnia' is available to read here: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493531-Insomnia-by-Elizabeth-Bishop   This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.    For Summer and Dylan, both students. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I shall be late!' Sally has been following the White Rabbit this week, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and reflecting on the ever-increasing demands on the writer's time. Follow her down the rabbit hole on a journey through time, lateness, and rest… This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. The wonderful piano music in the closing section was composed by Paul Clarke. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘How do you remember people first?' We join Sally on New Year's Night, staying with a relative in Chichester, a familiar city from her childhood. Join her for a meditation on embodiment, memory, and authority, via a vision of John Milton's hell from the epic Paradise Lost. Satan's speech, read partway through the episode, can be found here: https://poets.org/poem/paradise-lost-book-i-lines-221-270 This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This week, we join Sally in the middle of a winter night. Follow her reflections on festive traditions, via Christina Rossetti, and on seeing the world through illness, with Emily Brontë, and John Milton. Rossetti's poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53216/in-the-bleak-midwinter This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Demi. ‘And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating / Of dark habits, / keeping their difficult balance.' This week, Sally has been living with Richard Wilbur's ‘Love Calls Us to the Things of the World', and reflecting on living with pain. Balance with her on the precipices we all exist on… The poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43048/love-calls-us-to-the-things-of-this-world This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Keyang. ‘Where can we live but days?' This week, Sally has been reading and living with Philip Larkin's poem ‘Days', from The Whitsun Weddings. Join her for a meditation on how we spend our days, drawing on prayer, hope, hymns, and reading. The poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48410/days-56d229a0c0c33 Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally's latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘This is how I prefer to live…inside a narrow passage…' Sally is still living with Wuthering Heights this week, as she meditates on the nature of life in confined spaces, both in fiction and on her narrowboat. Join her as she muses on the narrow passages that we live in and move through, reflecting on the nature of freedom, grief, and love. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I can't live without story now…it feels like breathing.' This week, Sally is travelling to Sicily, for a conversation with Marina Warner on ‘Life Writing, Memory and Fiction.' Before leaving, she offers a brief meditation on the local artist Gabriella Bailey, telling us a story of two figures outside a city, and the spaces outside of life. The painting described can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKavmGtbl-/?igshid=MWFzaTYzano3eTN5cg%3D%3D This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. The podcast will return, as normal, next week…

‘Are you brave enough to follow me there?' This week, Sally has been reading Emily Bronte's 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. Fixated on the dreams of its narrator, join her for her reflections on rage, the histories of homes and places, and the distracting intrusions of life into writing. The beautiful piano music in the middle and closing sections is by Paul Clarke. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Alice Colquhoun. In this episode, Sally muses on J.M.W. Turner's famous 1830 painting, Shoreham. Join her for reflections on art, life, and on writing from the faint lines of existence. Turner's work makes frequent appearances in Sally's latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘A writer's notebook is full of the sound of atmosphere…' This week, Sally is teaching a course on detective fiction. Emerging from her meditations on Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone, follow her on a journey through the light and the dark places of the world, and the variegated truths of writing and life. Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally's latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Continuing this week's Shakespearean theme, Sally describes a recent trip to a screening of a new cinematic adaptation of Kenneth Macmillan's 1988 balletic interpretation of Hamlet, Sea of Troubles. Join her for a meditation on choreography, interpretation, and prayer. Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX), who made the screening possible, run a wide variety of events relating to dance at St. Hilda's College, Oxford. More information is available here: https://dansox3.wordpress.com/about/ This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘All the world's a stage…' Sally is thinking this week about a photograph of her foster grandmother in Shakespearean costume. Who is she? How did she find her part? Did she have her experience, like Jacques, the man of the world? Listen to her meditations, extemporised and recorded in a single take, to find out. The speech from As You Like It, read at the end, is available here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56966/speech-all-the-worlds-a-stage For those in and around Oxford, Sally will be speaking about her latest book, The Green Lady, at 3pm this Saturday, the 28th of October, at Blackwell's Bookshop. Tickets for this free event can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sally-bayley-the-green-lady-with-triona-adams-tickets-681607986837 The wonderful piano music in the closing section is by Paul Clarke. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Feelings: oh, I have those; they govern me.' In this special episode, Sally reflects on the work of the late poet Louise Glück as she travels around Oxford. Join her as she muses on feeling, poetry, family, and names. The poem, ‘The Red Poppy', featured in this episode, can be read here: https://poets.org/poem/red-poppy-0 The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Clarke. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

"In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than other girls." Sally and her neighbour discuss tree spirits and magical bracelets on her narrowboat. As the rains draw in, Sally settles down to read J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. She thinks about clouds and feelings, listens to chamber music, and follows the story of Peter Pan from Kensington Gardens to Rustington-on-Sea. Our feelings have always been with us, like the weather. And on rainy days, it's good to dance more.  Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally's latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers.  Original music, ‘Wednesday', by Paul Clarke.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. For Laetitia. 

In this special bonus episode, follow Sally on an adventure of mistaken identity, Marmite ice cream, and Miss Cull. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Is there a plot to life?' This week, Sally has been reading Daniel Martin, by John Fowles. Follow her musings as she considers the relationship between the writer's public and private selves, anonymity, and the nature of plot. Daniel Martin, now published by Vintage Classics, is available from all good booksellers. All quoted materials are the property of the Estate of John Fowles. The poem, ‘Burnt Norton' from the Four Quartets, parts of which Sally performed last week at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, is available to read here: http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. Tune in tomorrow for a bonus episode…

‘How do you face the void?' This week, Sally presents a series of linked meditations around the character of Miss Cull, illustrating how characters can be made by, with, and through everyday objects, and how her biography, like anyone's, is still being written. For writers struggling to face the blank page, follow Miss Cull as she emerges from Sally's observations of life, its rhythms, and the animate world of the writer's imagination. Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally's latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Other echoes inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?'   This week, Sally is reading T. S. Eliot in preparation for her performance at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival on the 6th of October. She explores the landscape of ‘Burnt Norton' (1936), improvising scenes on the theme of memory via rose leaves, purses, lightbulbs, and dry crackling lawns. The Oxford Chamber Music Festival, run by Priya Mitchell, takes place from the 4th to the 7th of October. All are welcome, please come along!   The Festival website is here: https://www.ocmf.net/2023-festival/   The poem, ‘Burnt Norton' from the Four Quartets, is available to read here: http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm   The wonderful music is by Paul Clarke. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen   Special thanks to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.