Podcast appearances and mentions of John Clare

On this week's episode of Local Legends, the very last episode of Series 6, Martin is joined around the campfire by award-winning storyteller, performer, author, poet, lyricist, and very nice man, Hugh Lupton!Hugh's career spans over 40 years, both in terms of his solo projects and his partnerships with other artists, writers, musicians, illustrators and performers.As we discussed on Monday's episode, there is a sense in which Hugh is the golden thread that binds together modern British storytelling and several folk traditions, with his glimmer and shine helping to guide the oral tradition into the 21st century.He has, of course, toured both nationally and internationally, and has performed at the RSC, the National Theatre, and the Barbican. His repertoire ranges from Greek epics to the Grimms Fairy Tales, from Norse and Celtic myth to East Anglian folk-tales, and from the Great War to John Clare.Plus, in addition to his award-winning songwriting work, he has also written several excellent books, including Norfolk Folk Tales. You can learn more about Hugh and his work on his website, https://hughlupton.co.uk/, and do check the Diary section - he gets about, so do try to go and see him!For now though, let's gather in close around the Three Ravens campfire, have a sip of whatever's in your nut brown bowl, and listen in, to a chat about the life and work of perhaps the most influential storyteller alive today, the county of Norfolk, and tales such as the Peddlar of Swaffham, Black Shuck, those of fenland folk hero Tom Hickathrift, and so much more, with a true Local Legend: Hugh Lupton!Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ian McMillan's guests celebrate hedges, with poetry from Alison Brackenbury and Testament, singing from Sam Lee, Michael Symmons Roberts explores a poem with a nightingale at its centre, and hedgelayer Paul Lamb records himself walking a hedgerow that's rich in wildlife.This hedge-themed special features a haunted hedge from poet Alison Brackenbury, part of the anthology 'Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined' (ed, Anna Milon and Rory Waterman). Alison's hedge started off life as a talking hedge in her non-fiction book 'Village' which is all about her childhood home in Lincolnshire (to be published online in July)Testament, a world record-breaking beatboxer, rapper and poet, performs a poem called 'The Lig', based on his experiences observing three generations of farmer hedge-layers in Cumbria. Testament is a member of the Hot Poets Collective which explores climate change through spoken word poetry.Sam Lee's most recent album is 'Songdreaming' - and he sings, not only in front of human audiences, but also with and alongside nightingales. Sam takes musicians and small groups of people into woodland for annual 'Singing With Nightingales' events - events which celebrate this vulnerable bird and our creative connection with it. Sam sings 'Bushes and Briars' on the show and explores the poetry of 19th century poet John Clare.Poet and professor Michael Symmons Roberts chooses a 'neon line' for The Verb's ongoing series about stand-out lines in poems . His choice is from a poem that features a 'deconstructed hedge' and a singing blackbird. Michael listened carefully to the blackbirds in his garden whilst writing his new book 'Quartet for the End of Time: On Music, Grief and Birdsong', - inspired by his relationship with the music of the composer Olivier Messaien.Ian also dips in and out of a very long hedge with the help of Paul Lamb, a hedge-layer who walks the Gower Peninsula to bring us hedge language. Paul's new memoir is called 'Of Thorn and Briar - A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer'

Send us a textTonight, we float upon a starfield of hawthorn blossom under a waxing moon. Why not join us as we continue with the final part of Mum's account of the ‘totally worthwhile risk that was never regretted.'    Journal entry:9th May, Friday“A westering sunLays long shadows acrossThe towpath and canal.Two geese in a fieldwatch me from across the water.A pheasant's raspThe scent of may.”Episode Information:In this episode I read the first part of John Clare's (1793-1864) ‘In suns and showers luxuriant May came forth' published posthumously in Madrigals and Chronicles (1924).For photographs accompanying the reading from Mum's account, please go to this episode's page on noswpod.With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.Mind ShamblesClare HollingsworthGabriela Maria Rodriguez-VeinotteKevin B.Fleur and David McloughlinLois RaphaelTania YorgeyAndrea HansenChris HindsDavid DiromChris and Alan on NB Land of Green Ginger Captain Arlo Rebecca Russell Allison on the narrowboat Mukka Derek and Pauline Watts Anna V. Orange Cookie Mary Keane. Tony Rutherford. Arabella Holzapfel. Rory with MJ and Kayla. Narrowboat Precious Jet. Linda Reynolds Burkins. Richard Noble. Carol Ferguson. Tracie Thomas Mark and Tricia Stowe Madeleine SmithGeneral DetailsThe intro and the outro music is ‘Crying Cello' by Oleksii_Kalyna (2024) licensed for free-use by Pixabay (189988). Narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. Support the showBecome a 'Lock-Wheeler'Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.Contact Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/noswpod.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon. For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.

Iain Sinclair is one of the UK's greatest living writers. Famed for his novels, such as Downriver, and documentary prose, of which London Orbital is perhaps the best known, Sinclair began his career self-publishing his own poetry on his Albion Village Press in the 1970s. 2013 saw the publication of three books – two poetry collections and a longer book on his relationship with the Beats, American Smoke. Colin Waters travelled to Sinclair's home in Hackney, where he asked Sinclair about his Scottish roots, John Clare and his lost 1970s collection Red Eye, which was being published by Test Centre. Picture of Iain Sinclair by Luca Del Baldo.

Episode: 3310 Nature, Romanticism, and the Poetry of John Clare.  Today, we look closely at Romantic nature.

Amanda Holmes reads John Clare's “The Yellowhammer's Nest.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you'll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman. This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textIt's a bitingly cold, sleety night. There's a warning of snow in the forecast for later. It's a perfect night to sit together around a warm stove snug inside the Erica's cabin, while the wild world rages outside. The kettle is singing, the biscuit barrel is full. The night belongs to us.    Journal entry:7th February, Friday.“Yesterday's spectacular Blood-orange dawn Has given way to a dawn Without colour or feeling.We pick our way between Rutted potholes of slippery mud To the Magpie's scalding laugh.A wicked wind cuts In from the north-east And reminds me that I am, After all, an embodied being.”Episode Information:In this episode I read ‘Where does Comfort's Bosom Glow?' by John Clare from his Madrigals and Chronicles: Being newly found poems and ‘The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy (1900). I also quote from William Blake's (1796/7) The Four Zoas (Night the Second). With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.Kevin B. Fleur and David Mcloughlin Lois Raphael Sami Walbury Tania Yorgey Andrea Hansen Chris Hinds David Dirom Chris and Alan on NB Land of Green Ginger Captain Arlo Rebecca Russell Allison on the narrowboat Mukka Derek and Pauline Watts Anna V. Orange Cookie Mary Keane. Tony Rutherford. Arabella Holzapfel. Rory with MJ and Kayla. Narrowboat Precious Jet. Linda Reynolds Burkins. Richard Noble. Carol Ferguson. Tracie Thomas Mark and Tricia Stowe Madeleine SmithGeneral DetailsThe intro and the outro music is ‘Crying Cello' by Oleksii_Kalyna (2024) licensed for free-use by Pixabay (189988). Narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. Support the showBecome a 'Lock-Wheeler'Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.Contact Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/noswpod.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon. For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.

In Episode 27, we gather in a merry bunch of Big Ones and Little Ones to celebrate the Vigil Christmas Mass and read the Gospel together, until the Little Ones take charge and Kate and Antonia stitch together an episode out of scraps of loved literature on the theme of Christmas. Briefly featuring Katherine, Martin and Maria Earle; Theo, Antonia, Arthur and Gabriel Shack; Kate and Afra. The selection from Kate and Antonia's library includes: John Clare, GK Chesterton, Thomas Hardy, Luke Hathaway, Patrick Kavanagh and Olivier Clément. Music: Malpas Wassail by The Watersons and Gabriel's Message by Sheku Kanneh-Mason Florilegium is a programme on Radio Maria which seeks to weave together liturgy, literature and  gardening in rambling, hopefully fruitful ways. It is written and presented by Kate Banks and Antonia Shack. You can follow them on SubStack at substack.com/@florilegiumpodcast  About the Creators Antonia leads a patchwork life with jobs including but not limited to mother, book designer, editor, actor and teacher. She and Kate began discussing poetry, liturgy and gardening at the Willibrord Fellowship reading group in London and are delighted to be continuing these conversations on Radio Maria.  Kate is a teacher of Literature, Philosophy and Theology, with a particularly keen regard for the poet and artist David Jones around whom many of her studies and her teaching-subjects have been based. She also briefly worked as a gardener in London, though she now lives with her little boy on the river Exe in Devon. If you enjoyed this programme, please consider making a once off or monthly donation to Radio Maria England by visiting www.RadioMariaEngland.uk or calling 0300 302 1251 during office hours. It is only through the ongoing support of our listeners that we continue to be a Christian voice by your side.

Welcome to our Festive Calendar, a special series of The Reader Podcast. Every day this December we will share with you a seasonal poem or a short extract from a novel or story, read by one of our staff or volunteer Reader Leaders. Today's reading is the poem 'Schoolboys in Winter' by John Clare. It's read by Ginny Hopton, who works for The Reader. Support our Christmas Appeal and make a difference to the lives of people living with dementia. Please give what you can at www.thereader.org.uk   Production by Chris Lynn. Music by Chris Lynn & Frank Johnson

Send us a textJoin us tonight under the soft light of a veiled full moon as we consider the wash of winter tree colours, when to start looking for a mooring, and how practical do you have to be to live on a boat? Journal entry:11th December, Wednesday“All week, a north-easterly Has raked across the bevelled Waters, aching and raw, Rattling the stern hatch doors.The reeds whisper cold Lullabies to the moorhen. A kingfisher darts dimly Through the dusk.”Episode Information:In this episode I read two short extracts from John Clare's ‘December' from his Shepherd's Calendar (1820). I also read ‘The Long Village (Oct 2024)' by Mind Shambles. You can read the about the names of the full moons (in the UK) at the Royal Museums Greenwich website.With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.Lois Raphael Sami Walbury Tania Yorgey Andrea Hansen Chris Hinds David Dirom Chris and Alan on NB Land of Green Ginger Captain Arlo Rebecca Russell Allison on the narrowboat Mukka Derek and Pauline Watts Anna V. Orange Cookie Mary Keane. Tony Rutherford. Arabella Holzapfel. Rory with MJ and Kayla. Narrowboat Precious Jet. Linda Reynolds Burkins. Richard Noble. Carol Ferguson. Tracie Thomas Mark and Tricia Stowe Madeleine SmithGeneral DetailsIn the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org. Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. Support the showBecome a 'Lock-Wheeler'Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.Contact Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/noswpod.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon. For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.

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Did you know oak supports over 2,300 species of wildlife? Discover this and more fascinating facts in our episode dedicated to the nation's favourite tree. We join Trust experts, Jules and Kate, at Londonthorpe Woods, near Grantham, to find some fascinating growths on oak trees, known as galls, and learn why hunks of deadwood are so important.  We then visit the star of the show and 'Lincolnshire's best kept secret' - the astonishing 1,000-year-old Bowthorpe Oak. It's one of 12 amazing oaks in the running for 2024 Tree of the Year. Which one will you vote for? Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive.  Adam: Well, in this podcast, we're looking at the Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year competition, which is all about oaks and is on a quest to find the nation's favourite one. And there are lots to choose from. There is the Elephant Oak in the New Forest, the Queen Elizabeth Oak in West Sussex, the Darwin Oak in Shropshire, the Capon Oak on the Scottish Borders and plenty of others to choose from across Wales, Somerset, County Fermanagh, Cheshire and well, lots of other places as well. And you can vote for your favourite oak by going to the shortlist of them at the voting site woodlandtrust.org.uk/vote, so that is woodlandtrust.org.uk/vote and we'll repeat that again at the end of this podcast.   Well, today I'm going to see one of the oaks in contention for the Tree of the Year, the Bowthorpe Oak in Bourne, in Lincolnshire, a tree which has a hollow interior and had previously, that interior had been fitted with seats and had been used as a dining room for 20 people in the past, 20 people! It must have been an enormous oak and that's not a practice I think that's recommended these days. Well, certainly not. But nonetheless it's a great oak which has played a great big part in the local landscape and is much loved, not just in the UK but attracts plenty of visitors from abroad as well. Now, oaks have an amazingly important part in our culture and in days gone by were, I think, central in Druid folklore, for instance, in fact one amazing fact I have learnt making this podcast is that the name Druid comes from druer, the Celtic for oak for the word oak and wid means to know, so Druid means oak-knower, so there's a good fact for you. Anyway, enough of me. I'm off to meet some people who know all about oaks and unusually I am not starting by a tree. So, unusually, we're starting in a car and I'm joined by two women from the Woodland Trust. So first of all, introduce yourselves.  Kate: I'm Kate Lewthwaite. I am citizen science manager at the Woodland Trust.  Adam: Wonderful. And our driver for the day is...  Jules: Hi, I'm Jules Acton. I'm a fundraiser with the Woodland Trust.  Adam: So we're going to look at a few oaks today, one of which is actually in the running to be the Tree of the Year, and you can vote on that still and I'll give you details a little later on on how to do that. But first of all, you were telling me that you have a little present for me. I always like to start the day with a little present.  Jules: It's always good to start the day with a little present, I think and here's a little one for you.   Adam: Oh, and it's wrapped up in tissue paper. It's an early Christmas present. How very good. So what is that? OK so do you want to describe it?   Jules: OK so it's a little, it looks like a little woody marble really, doesn't it? And it's got a little tiny hole you can see just there and some extra other little tiny holes. That is an oak marble gall.  Adam: An oak marble...ghoul?  Jules: Gall.  Adam: And how do you spell that?  Jules: G A double L.  Adam: G A double L and what what is it?  Jules: So this is this is incredibly special, so this has in many ways changed human culture, this little tiny thing. Certainly amplified human culture. So this is a gall, which is made by, and it's made by a little tiny wasp. And the wasp lays a an egg in the in the bud of the tree of the oak tree. And it makes the oak change and it sort of changes chemically. It's really strange. And it makes the the oak form this little marble shaped thing on the end of a twig. And that becomes home for the gall wasps' larvae, and so that the little larva grows up inside it and it has this its own special home, but it's also full of lovely food. So that's interesting itself and that it's it's it's it's got this sort of little little home but it what's particularly interesting human, from the human perspective is that these kind of galls were used to make ink for about 1,000 years and the the kind of ink that they made, it was used, I think, until the middle of the 20th century. So kind of until quite recently. So Shakespeare's plays were written on oak gall ink, Newton's theories, the American Declaration of Independence, huge amounts of historic documents.  Adam: So just trying to understand that, Shakespeare's plays were written on ink created by this thing?  Jules: By a gall like, yeah, this kind of thing by by a gall. Yeah. But you can you can still now you can make gall gall ink from these little little things here. So it in many ways it it amplified, this little tiny thing we've got here, amplified the whole course of human history, culture, etcetera in our part of the world.  Adam: Quite an extraordinary place to start our journey today. Wonderful. So, OK, so we're, yes, we'll put that away nice and safe and we'll start our journey. Kate, do you just want to start by telling me what we're going to do when we get out of the car?  Kate: We're going to have a walk round Londonthorpe Wood, which is one of the Woodland Trust sites, one of our thousand woods that we own and we're going to see an oak tree that Jules has found for us to go and talk about.  Adam: Fantastic. All right, well, let's go.  Jules: Well, well so we've just seen some amazing galls on what looks like quite a young tree, it's probably about 30-years-old, would you say, Kate, this one?   Kate: Maybe, yes.  Jules: And, yeah, they're they're bright red and they're on the underside of the oak leaves and they look a bit like cherries and   Adam: I was going to say, the one you showed me was all grey, you gave me an old rubbish one, didn't you? This is what they look like when they're on the tree. It's red, it does look like a cherry.  Jules: Yeah, this is a particularly stunning one, isn't it? And they they are literally called cherry galls. And they again  Adam: They're called cherry balls?  Jules: Cherry galls.   Adam: Galls, cherry galls.  Jules: And they're about the same size as the marble gall that we saw earlier. And I believe they are also caused by a gall wasp. And but what is good about these kind of galls is that they're relatively easy to spot. So once you get your eye in, you start seeing them everywhere, so it's a really lovely thing to start doing, you know, with children or just looking yourself when you're out on a on a walk, you know.  Adam: Wow. So that shows that a wasp has formed that?  Jules: Yeah  Adam: And these are non-stinging wasps, aren't they?  Jules: These are non-stinging wasps. They're teeny, teeny, tiny wasps. They don't look like your your black, you know the big black and and and yellow stripey things that come at your ice cream, not that there's anything wrong with those wasps, they're lovely too.  Adam: Inside that gall is baby wasps? Is that?  Jules: There will be a little larvae inside there.  Adam: And that's what they're using as as food, or is it?  Jules: Yes, that's their home but it's also their food source. And I'm not at some point in the year the the the little tiny wasp, once it's developed, will will kind of drill its way out and then be set free to the to the wider world. But I think we'll find some other kinds of galls, actually. So it might be worth us moving on a little bit and just see if we can.  Adam: OK. Moving on, yeah, that's politely telling me to be quiet and start walking.  Jules: Oh sorry *laughs*  Adam: Sorry, there's a, oh it's a tractor going up and down the field next to us. So that's what the noise is in the background. But the fact that we we sort of just held a branch here and and Kate was already, you know, lots of wildlife, jumped onto her jumper, does raise the issue about how many, how much wildlife an oak supports. And I was hear some fantastic number. Just tell me a little bit about that.  Jules: We know that the oak supports more than 2,300 species and that they could be species that that feed off the oak, that live inside it, that live on, on, on or or around it, that you know they perch in it. So species using the the oak tree in all different ways and they are, they they they're birds and mammals, they're lichen, fungi, invertebrates. All sorts of different kinds of species, but what's important, I think, is that they're only the species we've countered, and I think there are a huge number more that we just haven't got around to counting would, would you agree, Kate? You probably know more about this than me.  Kate: Yes, definitely. And some of those species can live on other types of tree, and some are only found on oak trees, so they're particularly important. And of course, we haven't started talking about the value of deadwood and all those wonderful rare beetles whose larvae live in the wood. So there's lots to be said about that as well.  Adam: I'll tell you what, let's just walk all further away from this tractor, which sounds closer than it is, and you can tell me about the importance of the deadwood.  Jules: Well we might see some spectacular deadwood.  Adam: Oh well, we might see some, OK. OK, so we have stopped by some deadwood and you're going to explain why, is that right? Right. OK. Kate is going to explain. Well, why have we stopped here, Kate?  Kate: Because deadwood is absolutely fantastic and we have a history of a nation of being a little bit too tidy and taking it away and using it for firewood and other things, when actually it's an amazing habitat in its own right. I'm just looking at the variety of rot holes, of larval galleries where the insect larvae have fed, and then the adults emerged. And it is like a whole habitat in its own right. And actually deadwood is really rare. Much of the woodland in the UK is not felt to be in good ecological condition and one of the reasons for that is a lack of deadwood. So it's incredibly important habitat and we don't have enough of it.  Jules: One of the things I didn't understand until recently and Kate, you might know more about this than me, but there's there's different kinds of deadwood. So if you have, it's important to have deadwood in different formats, so standing deadwood so when the old tree is still standing upright, and and deadwood that's lying down on the ground.  Adam: Right. What what why, so it matters if it's vertical or horizontal?  Jules: It it it matters that you have both kinds.  Adam: And why?  Jules: Because, I feel like I'm at the edge of my knowledge, so it's because about it's about different habitats, isn't it Kate, is that right?  Kate: Yeah, I think so. And the the wood will rot at a different rate. It's quite ironic because the one we're standing at now is actually at a 45° angle. So it's neither vertical nor nor horizontal. And of course, oak trees are absolutely full of of tannins, which I think are the same compound you find in the oak galls that enable the writing. But they also mean, you know this huge, great piece of deadwood here could be around for hundreds of years because it won't, it will rot very, very slowly.  Jules: And and one of the great things is when you have deadwood right next to living wood as well, because that creates all these different conditions which will suit different kinds of invertebrates and fungi as well, so that that's really important to have this collection of of different kinds of wood in in you know in a similar area.   Adam: Excellent. OK, we've, we've stopped. We've stopped Kate, and you've got very excited.  Kate: It happens quite easily when I'm out in nature. And there's a whole pile of knopper galls on the floor here, and they're black. You know, they've dropped off the tree. They've done their job. The the wasp has flown off. But I wondered if we could, I've no idea if this is gonna work, I wondered if we could actually try writing with them because they are oozing black.  Adam: Oh my, right, this is so exciting. OK, so this is like this is a modern day Shakespeare. Have you got? OK. The line is to be or not to be. I see. Hold on a second. So you've picked it up, right, I I think you might do something to it.   Kate: Well, I might have to. Shall we see, shall we see if it just?  Adam: Right, but you're not, you're just gonna?  Jules: Ohh there we go.  Kate: There is a brown ooze and it's I think it's not just from the path.  Adam: I was going to say, it's not just mud.  Kate: It's not. It's this kind of coffee colour.  Adam: Wow, OK. And you are writing to be or not to not be.  Kate: I am writing to be or not to be, I I don't know if I break it open a bit more if you might get. Ohh. This is gonna stain my nails, isn't it?  Adam: OK. Ohh dear, don't worry I'll I'll pay for the the visit to to the nail parlour.  Kate: *laughs* I shouldn't worry. Yes, we are actually getting some.  Adam: To be or not to be. Well, I'm sure that would have actually been mixed with water or something.  Kate: Most likely  Adam: Or some alcohol and put into a quill, but that does what hold on, let me just rub it, see. Well, I can confirm that is not just what we have now created ink. Proper exciting.  Kate: Absolutely.  Adam: Thank you very much. Well, we're heading away from our ink gall-bearing oaks to see the main attraction of the day, which is a short drive from here. It is the Bowthorpe Oak, one of the contenders for Tree of the Year. It is rooted in a grass paddock behind the 17th century farmhouse nearby. In 2002, the Tree Council, in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, designated the Bowthorpe Oak one of 50 great British trees. One of the 50 greatest British trees in recognition of its place in our national heritage. And I'm meeting the current custodian of the oak who runs the farm in which it lives.  George: My name is George Blanchard and I am one of the family members here that farm at Bowthorpe Park Farm.  Adam: Right. And you have, we're standing by this famous tree. People come here to see this tree?  George: They do, yeah, we get them from all over the world. A lot of lot of UK, obviously, Europe and America, we get a lot of interest from America.  Adam: Well, tell me a bit about this tree.  George: So this tree, the Bowthorpe Oak, is the UK's largest girthed oak tree. It's absolutely stunning as you can, as you can see, fully in leaf at the moment it looks amazing and yeah, that's it's claim to fame.  Adam: Right it's wide the widest I think it was the second widest tree in the UK. Is that right?  George: We know it's the largest largest oak tree in in terms of it's it's the most complete, you know. So I think there could be wider ones, but not quite as complete.  Adam: Not quite as good as your tree!  George: Yeah, exactly. This is yeah *laughs*  Adam: No, I agree. And and is is this a family farm? Is this?  George: It is yeah.  Adam: Right so you've grown up, you've you played under the boughs of this tree.  George: I have. Yeah, yeah and and inside it as well. Remember it is hollow so.  Adam: Right. Yeah. So tell me a bit about the sort of the folklore and the stories around the tree.  George: Yeah so oak trees naturally start to hollow at around 500 years old, but this one was hollowed even further, back in the 1700s by a chap called George Pauncefort and  Adam: It was, it was, it wasn't naturally hollow, he hollowed it out?  George: They they do, they do naturally hollow, but he hollowed it even further. And you can tell this when you're looking inside it, because the the sides are quite flat. It's very unnatural. You can see so the hollowing has been done by by tools. And so he also put benches around the inside of it and a and a doorway on on the west side and even even sort of paved the flooring but and and put a pigeon loft in the crown, which I think, I think back in the day in the 1700s, if you had a pigeon loft in your tree, you were somebody *laughs*.  Adam: Ohh really that's like Lamborghini time, right? OK, forget your Lamborghinis, I've got a pigeon loft in my tree.   George: Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And he would have parties in there as as you would, wouldn't you?  Adam: Well, yeah, of course. I mean, you've gone to all that trouble. Was he a member of the family? Was this being passed down?   George: No, no, there's no there's no relation, no relation. We've we've only been farming here since the sort of late 40s.  Adam: Right. OK, amazing. Amazing stuff. And I mean, and it looks in fairly, I mean as you say, it's in good leaf, it's in also just it looks to the untutored eye in good nick as well, generally healthy.  George: It is yeah. Really good really good condition currently. We lost a a limb off the back and that was that was quite concerning because it's it's quite dramatic when they shed a shed a limb, but it is what they they naturally do. We have an inspection done on the tree annually, but at the time of losing the limb, we were, we were quite concerned. So we upped the type of inspection we had done. And they were quite, quite invasive, I say invasive it was, you know, using really small drills, to see if there's any adverse rotting in any places. But no, they were really happy with the condition of the tree and and how healthy it is so other than any sort of man-made issue, I don't see why it shouldn't carry on growing as it is.  Adam: And it's amazing because, I mean, you know, it's taken us quite a while to get here and people come here all this way just to see this tree.  George: They do, yes, yes, seek it out, we call it Lincolnshire's best kept secret.  Adam: Right. Amazing. From all over the world?  George: They do yeah yeah. From all over the world. Like I say, a lot of a lot of Europe people come from Europe and a lot of people come from America. We find that the two two types of people from America, those that really appreciate it and those that just can't get their head around it because it's nowhere near as big as their redwoods *laughs*  Adam: Right? Call this big. Call this big, you should see...  George: Exactly. Yeah, call this big, we've got bigger.  Adam: Yeah OK. Brilliant well thank you very much, I will take a tour round it.  George: Thank you.  Adam: So one of the other, now I have to say, first of all, let me have a look at the front front, we've taken a book with us because Jules has published a book called Oaklore and you've brought it out here because there is a poem about this oak in your book.  Jules: There is and it was written well over 100 years ago by a poet called John Clare and but the interesting thing is when he wrote this poem this would have already been an ancient tree, so it's it's quite an interesting record that he was standing in awe, looking at this tree, just like we are now really.  Adam: Right, right. So when did he write this?  Jules: I don't have the exact date in front of me, but I know it's over well over 100 years ago.  Adam: OK, well over 100 years and you're going to put on your best poetry reading voice.  Jules: *laughs* I'll have a go.  Adam: Go on, give us, I always love, I mean, we did this in the Sherwood Forest podcast where we took a book about Sherwood Forest and a book about a tree to the tree it's about. So we're now going to read a poem about the tree we're standing by. So this poem by John Clare.  Jules: And it's called Burthorp Oak. So here we go. Burthorp Oak.   Old noted oak! I saw thee in a mood  Of vague indifference; and yet with me  Thy memory, like thy fate, hath lingering stood  For years, thou hermit, in the lonely sea  Of grass that waves around thee! Solitude  Paints not a lonelier picture to the view,  Burthorp! than thy one melancholy tree  Age-rent, and shattered to a stump. Yet new  Leaves come upon each rift and broken limb  With every spring; and Poesy's visions swim  Around it, of old days and chivalry;  And desolate fancies bid the eyes grow dim  With feelings, that earth's grandeur should decay,  And all its olden memories pass away.  Adam: Brilliant. That's that's a lovely poem to read by by the tree.  Jules: I think it's quite interesting that he says age rent and shattered to a stump so it it sort of suggests that the tree is in a worse condition than now, wouldn't you say so Kate? And it looks like it might be happier now than when Clare saw it.  Kate: I was just looking at it and I mean it looks like some of those shoots have put on a good foot of growth this year. So that's the amazing thing about ancient oaks is they they so-called retrench. So all the limbs, the limbs drop off, they become shorter and and and wider and then they might all just start to sort of grow again and it sort of goes through these amazing cycles. Certainly there's a lot more vegetation on it than when I last saw it 15 years ago. It looks fabulous.  Adam: And also a lot of oaks grow very tall. This isn't so tall it it is wider, isn't it? It's a squatter tree. Is that because it's actually not had to compete, because it's actually in a field by itself isn't it? It's not competing for light with lots of other trees.  Kate: Yes, maybe. And also trees like this do, the really ancient trees they do tend to become short and squat and it's part, and hollow, and that's part of their survival strategy is that they'll shed some of these top branches and they'll, they'll shorten and and widen.  Adam: Right. I mean, oaks are really important, aren't they in the UK especially, they're part of the national identity, really, aren't they? And and a lot of that's got to do with folklore, which I know, Jules, you've written about as well.  Jules: Yeah, I mean the the oak has been part of our culture well, as far as as, as as far as we know as far as written records go back and even we we believe that the the Druids themselves were very also very interested in oak trees and they worshipped in oak groves and they particularly worshipped mistletoe, the rare mistletoe that came off off oaks. Of course, we don't have written records on the the Druids, so we don't, we know very little about them, but that's certainly what we believe. And then it's been threaded throughout our our history and our culture that the oaks right up to the present day, you know people are still writing about it and painting painting oak trees and you've got wonderful ambassadors like Luke Adam Hawker who is very inspired by oak trees and goes out drawing them.  Adam: Why do you, I mean I don't suppose there's an answer, but do you have a take on why we've landed on the oak as such a a central part of our mythology and identity?  Jules: Well, I I think I think all of our native trees will play a role in that in our folklore and our mythology and and our culture, I think the oak is is is a particularly impressive tree isn't it, especially when you're standing next to a tree like this that that is so majestic and and you know the words like majestic, kingly, queenly, grand, they they just sort of pop into your head. There is just something incredibly awe-inspiring about the oak tree. And then, as we've we've seen before it, it just has such a huge impact on our ecology as well. So I think I think it's just something it it does a lot of heavy lifting culturally and also naturally the oak tree.  Adam: And almost every pub is called the Royal Oak.  Jules: Yes, yes, I think there's at the last count there's well over 400 pubs called the Royal Oak.  Adam: And you know that personally by visiting them?   Jules: Well, I've yes, I've I've tried to count them all. I've still got some way to go *both laugh*  Adam: Yeah. OK, OK, alright. Well, it's it's a good project to be having.  Jules: So there's an interesting story behind the that name the Royal Oak. And the reason the pubs are called that relates back to a very special oak tree, the Boscobel Oak. Now we have to go back in history a few hundred years. And it takes us back to the Battle of Worcester and the son of Charles I was in in battle with the with, with, with the parliamentarians, and he took a drubbing at the Battle of Worcester, and he needed to escape. And he reached this place called Boscobel House, and he was going to hide out in, in that house and try and escape the the soldiers, the the enemy. But it was very insecure and one of his advisers suggested he, instead of hiding in the house, he hid in the oak tree. So they spent the whole night in the oak tree, which subsequently called called the Boscobel Oak, and this and and and they escaped capture and the king spent the whole night with this chap called William Careless as he as he was called   Adam: William Careless?  Jules: William Careless who turned out not to be careless at all because he actually saved the king. And apparently the king sort of curled up with his head on Careless' knee and and he, they they got away. They got away with it and because of that you know that then obviously led into a whole series of events which ultimately led to the restoration of the monarchy and said King became Charles II and and because of that there was an enormous celebration of oak trees. So they they they were raised in status even further. So we've got all the Royal Oak pubs which are effectively commemorating that occasion. But there's also a great day of celebration was declared. It was the 29 May. I think that was the King's birthday, and it was 29 May. And it became oak apple day. And that was when we would all when people across the land would would gather and and celebrate the restoration of the monarchy. And one of the things they used to do was they people would bring branches with oak apples, which is another of those amazing galls. And the more oak apples you had on your branches, the better the better you were, you know, the, the, the cooler you were at the party. And if you didn't bring oak branches with you, apparently people would be mean to you and they'd whip you with nettles.   Adam: Blimey, this story took a turn!  Jules: Yeah, these parties got these these parties got quite out of hand. I actually think we should bring these days back. Not, no nettles. But I think actually wouldn't it be great if we spent every 29 May celebrating our amazing oak trees and and and also the wider nature around us.  Adam: Yeah, we've missed it this year, but I'm putting a date in for us to meet at a Royal Oak somewhere between us on 29 May.  Jules: Yeah, let's do it. Let's party. Yeah. And maybe drink a glass of oak flavoured wine or whisky.  Adam: OK, never had that, but I'm I'm up for it. I'm up for it. Kate, this is also important because this is in the running for Tree of the Year.  Kate: Absolutely. So the Woodland Trust hosts the UK Tree of the Year competition, and this year we've focused on oak trees.   Adam: So so they're all oaks.  Kate: All of them are oak trees this year, so we've got 12 candidates from across the UK and the wonderful Bowthorpe Oak here is one of them. It's my local tree so I'm a little bit biased, but these trees all tell amazing stories. We've got one that's shaped like an elephant in the New Forest. We've got one that has survived being in the middle of pine plantation in the Highlands of Scotland and we've got one that's sadly under threat from a bypass in Shrewsbury. So we've got some amazing stories from these trees and the public can vote. So voting closes on the 21 October 2024 and you can go to the Woodland Trust website so it's woodlandtrust.org.uk/vote.  Adam: There were some cow noises just as you said that in the background! Just to prove that we're in a farm *all laugh*.  Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join us next month when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff partners and volunteers. And don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes or wherever you are listening. And do give us a review and a rating. If you want to find out more about our woods and those that are close to you, check out the Woodland Trust website. Just head to the visiting woods pages. Thank you. 

This week's Local Legends episode sees Martin gather round the Three Ravens campfire with the rather extraordinary Dr Kevan Manwaring, a multi-talented son of Northamptonshire who is also a true champion of the underdog.Kevan has written in the region of 30 books, including his collections of Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire Folk Tales, and his tremendous collection Ballad Tales - and that's not to mention his academic writing on the Bardic tradition, or his poetry and novels!These days he is the course leader for the MA in Creative Writing at Arts University Bournemouth, with his current academic focus being around ecofiction – a subject we'll explore in some depth during our conversation. For many people though, he will be more familiar as a storyteller and performance poet, in which guise Kevan has performed all over the place, including live on BBC One, at Glastonbury Festival, and at innumerable bookshops, museums, heritage sites, and in schools. Touring both solo and in group shows, he has performed internationally in Germany, Italy, Greece, and North America, and has written so much, across so many forms, it's frankly a bit ridiculous.Elsewhere, he has contributed articles to journals including English Review, was an academic consultant for BBC 4's The Secret Life of Books, and is a panellist on BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking.In our chat we cover a dizzying array of topics, from Dungeons & Dragons to Kevan's friendships with the likes of Alan Moore and Ronald Hutton, the life and legacy of the poet John Clare, Northampton's role in the birth of the Goth movement, ghosts, animism, the Bardic tradition, and much more besides.You can learn more about his work on his website at https://thebardicacademic.wordpress.com/, though before you do, have a listen to him in conversation, as he's outstanding company!Otherwise, we'll be back on Monday with a bumper-length county episode (bumper-length as it's our last for a little while) all about the history and folklore of Westmoreland, all before we begin our month-long miniseries of ghost stories and spooky content for October - our second annual Haunting Season! The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drawing on her own experience restoring a walled garden in Suffolk, and moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton's Paradise Lost to John Clare's enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Olivia Laing's The Garden Against Time interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth. She was joined in conversation with writer, critic and frequent LRB contributor Jon Day.Get The Garden Against Time: https://lrb.me/gardenlaingFind more events at the Bookshop: https://lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Who is a provincial? In Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (Yale UP, 2024), Sumana Roy assembles a striking cast of writers, artists, filmmakers, cricketers, tourist guides, English teachers, lovers and letter writers, private tutors and secret-keepers whose lives and work provide varied answers to that question. Combining memoir with the literary, sensory, and emotional history of an ignored people, she challenges the metropolitan's dominance to reclaim the joyous dignity of provincial life, its tics and taunts, enthusiasms and tragicomedies. In a wide-ranging series of “postcards” from the peripheries of India, Europe, America, and the Middle East, Roy brings us deep into the imaginative world of those who have carried their provinciality like a birthmark. Ranging from Rabindranath Tagore to William Shakespeare, John Clare to the Bhakti poets, T. S. Eliot to J. M. Coetzee, V. S. Naipaul to the Brontës, and Kishore Kumar to Annie Ernaux, she celebrates the provincials' humor and hilarity, playfulness and irony, belatedness and instinct for carefree accidents and freedom. Her unprecedented account of provincial life offers an alternative portrait of our modern world. Arnab Dutta Roy is Assistant Professor of World Literature and Postcolonial Theory at Florida Gulf Coast University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art

Who defines paradise, and who gets to live in its verdant incarnation on Earth? This is the question animating Olivia Laing's new book, The Garden Against Time, which ranges across the history of the English landscape, from John Milton's writing of Paradise Lost to Laing's own restoration of a walled garden. Alighting on the heartbreaking pastorals of 19th-century poet John Clare and the queer visions of 20th-century artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, Laing pulls strands of history, literature, and resistance from the green blur that, for now, still surrounds us, even as it deceives us. Landscape architects like Capability Brown—so named for his capability to impose his will on any vista—were, as Laing writes, able “to fake nature so insidiously that even now those landscapes and the power relations they embody are mistaken for being just the way things are, natural, eternal, blandly reassuring, though what has actually taken place is the seizure of once common ground.” The author of five books of nonfiction and a novel, Olivia Laing joins Smarty Pants this week to explore both the powers that shaped the garden as we know it, and the power it has to change how we treat the earth, and ourselves. Go beyond the episode:Olivia Laing's The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common ParadiseListen to John Clare's “I Love to See the Summer Beaming Forth” on our sister podcast, Read Me a PoemIn the essay “Jane Austen's Ivory Cage,” Mikita Brottman looks over the ha-has of Mansfield Park to see who else might be enclosed alongside the gardenWe have visited stately houses and their grounds twice before on Smarty Pants: with Adrian Tinniswood, who discussed the history of the country house after World War II, and with Hopwood DePree, who was attempting to restore his crumbling ancestral pile Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes/Apple • Amazon • Google • Acast • RSS FeedHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Clare (1793 - 1864) was a farm labourer in the village of Helpstone, Northamptonshire, who became arguably England's greatest nature poet. He rose to fame when his 'Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery' was published in 1820. His language preserves many local dialect words in a mixture of classical forms and heart-felt love of country life and nature. This volume comprises fifteen of his bird poems.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

John Clare (1793 - 1864) was a farm labourer in the village of Helpstone, Northamptonshire, who became arguably England's greatest nature poet. He rose to fame when his ‘Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery' was published in 1820. His language preserves many local dialect words in a mixture of classical forms and heart-felt love of country life and nature. The poems in this collection are from his early career, and are largely free of pointers to his later mental illness. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Sometimes episodes have a mind of their own and take you to unplanned places they think you need to go. This is one of those episodes. One ‘soft' Sunday morning in May in John Clare country.Journal entry: 31st May, Friday“Standing looking south-west Across the vale. Four ducks circle above the water. Then swoop down and land in unison.The fields and hills in the distance Fade into soft light.” Episode Information:In this episode I read John Clare's poem ‘Day-Break' and a very short extract from his Shepherd's Calendar. You can visit Deborah Vass's beautiful website here: Still Sketching.  Cally Conway's gorgeous nature inspired linocuts can be viewed here: Cally Conway Prints. You can view Karen and Jason Politte's videos: Just Two People.The soundscape was recorded in Weldon Woodland Park on 26/05/24.With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.David Dirom Chris and Alan on NB Land of Green Ginger Captain Arlo Rebecca Russell Allison on the narrowboat Mukka Derek and Pauline Watts Anna V. Orange Cookie Donna Kelly Mary Keane. Tony Rutherford. Arabella Holzapfel. Rory with MJ and Kayla. Narrowboat Precious Jet. Linda Reynolds Burkins. Richard Noble. Carol Ferguson. Tracie Thomas Mark and Tricia Stowe Madeleine SmithGeneral DetailsIn the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org. Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. Support the Show.Become a 'Lock-Wheeler'Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.ContactFor pictures of Erica and images related to the podcasts or to contact me, follow me on: Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoswPod Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon. For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.

As the slow march of Spring travels along the canal and towpaths, tonight I answer two more questions: How do we keep the boat from freezing when we have to leave it unattended, and how long does it normally take to buy a narrowboat?Journal entry:7th March, Thursday.“A grey wind blows From a grey sky Troubling the surface Of the canal.Damson blossom Torn from branch Spun snow-like With each gust.Sweet smell of woodsmoke And the throat-catch of coal Crosses my path, head high, And is lost along the towpath.þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg  (That passed over… so may this)Episode Information:In this episode I refer to Miles Hadfield's (1950) English Almanac and Eleanor Parker's (2022) Winters in the World. I also read a verse from John Clare's ‘Last of March written at Lolham Briggs.' With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.Chris and Alan on NB Land of Green Ginger Captain Arlo Rebecca Russell Allison on the narrowboat Mukka Derek and Pauline Watts Anna V. Orange Cookie Donna Kelly Mary Keane. Tony Rutherford. Arabella Holzapfel. Rory with MJ and Kayla. Narrowboat Precious Jet. Linda Reynolds Burkins. Richard Noble. Carol Ferguson. Tracie Thomas Mark and Tricia Stowe Madeleine SmithGeneral DetailsIn the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org. Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. Support the showBecome a 'Lock-Wheeler'Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.ContactFor pictures of Erica and images related to the podcasts or to contact me, follow me on: Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoswPod Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon. For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.

Today's poem is 'The Old Year' by John Clare. It's read by Jamie Barton from The Reader. Production by Chris Lynn. Music by Chris Lynn & Frank Johnson.

Recorded by Academy of American Poets staff for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on December 17, 2023. www.poets.org

I've always felt that there is something rather singular about the month of November. Tonight I try to find out what it is and end up recounting the time when Guy Fawkes wore my old dressing gown (which might or might not have anything to do with it!). Journal entry:8th November, Wednesday.“Look down for the healing. A reluctant dawn this morning, South wind plays with stray raindrops And birch leaves. Scars of grey paving slabs lined with green. Willowherb, spurge, dandelion. Green healing the grey. Always there's the healing. Look to the healing Beneath your feet.”Episode Information:In this episode I read very short extracts from: Ruth Binney's (2010) Weather Lore published by David and Charles. Miles Hadfield's (1950) An English Almanac published by Dent and Sons.I also read a brief extract of John Clare's ‘November' from his The Shepherd's Calendar (1827).   ‘Norfolk Greg's' blog post on Banbury Canal Day.    With special thanks to our lock-wheelers for supporting this podcast.Allison on the narrowboat Mukka Derek and Pauline Watts Anna V. Sean James Cameron Orange Cookie Donna Kelly Mary Keane. Tony Rutherford. Arabella Holzapfel. Rory with MJ and Kayla. Narrowboat Precious Jet. Linda Reynolds Burkins. Richard Noble. Carol Ferguson. Tracie Thomas Mark and Tricia Stowe Madeleine SmithGeneral DetailsIn the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org. Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. Support the showBecome a 'Lock-Wheeler'Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.ContactFor pictures of Erica and images related to the podcasts or to contact me, follow me on: Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoswPod Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon. For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.

It's the launch day for Sally's new book, The Green Lady, and Sally is feeling the pressure, especially as her neighbours have left her alone on the boat. In the middle of the night, she reads an 18th century classic, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, finding commonality in its psychological upswings and downswings, the melodrama, the despair and the comforts, of its narrator, who has turned to writing in his journal to cope with his lonely castaway life. Brought back to the world by the sound of children playing outside, Sally has to rely on the kindness of a Girl Friday neighbour to refill her water tank. She reflects on the importance of willpower, determination, and the practice of paying attention. Robinson Crusoe, published by Daniel Defoe in 1719, is often said to be the first English novel; a form of spiritual autobiography and the beginnings of realistic fiction in English.  I Am is a poem written by John Clare in 1844 or 1845, while the author was a patient in the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum. Clare (1793 to 1864) was the son of a farm labourer and struggled for most of his life to earn money for his family while pursuing his literary ambitions, living for some time as a vagrant. I Am is his most famous poem, expressing his deep sense of isolation from society and his family as he struggled with his mental health. The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding. Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.      

In this latest episode of The Poetry Exchange, we revisit our conversation with the extraordinary poet & artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths about the poem that has been a friend to her: 'Remember' by Joy Harjo.This beautiful and transformative conversation was originally released in 2020 and has been a friend to many of our listeners so far. We felt it was one to bring into the light all over again!We are hugely grateful to Rachel Eliza Griffiths for sharing her profound story of connection with Joy Harjo's life-filled poem, and to Joy Harjo and her publisher W.W. Norton & Co. for giving us their blessing to share it with you in this way.Rachel Eliza Griffiths is an American poet, novelist, photographer and visual artist, who is the author of five published collections of poems. In her most recent book, Seeing the Body (2020), she "pairs poetry with photography, exploring memory, Black womanhood, the American landscape, and rebirth." (Sarah Herrington, Los Angeles Review of Books). Seeing the Body was the winner of the 2021 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in Poetry, the winner of the 2021 Paterson Poetry Prize, and nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image award. Rachel Eliza's debut novel, Promise, will be published by Random House on 11th July 2023, and is available to pre-order now. You can find out more about Rachel Eliza Griffiths' work at: www.rachelelizagriffiths.com.Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022 and is the author of ten books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed, Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years. Her many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. You can find out more about Joy Harjo's work at: www.joyharjo.com.Two poems by John Clare also feature in this episode: 'All Nature has a Feeling' and 'A Spring Morning'.*********Rememberby Joy HarjoRemember the sky that you were born under,know each of the star's stories.Remember the moon, know who she is.Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is thestrongest point of time. Remember sundownand the giving away to night.Remember your birth, how your mother struggledto give you form and breath. You are evidence ofher life, and her mother's, and hers.Remember your father. He is your life, also.Remember the earth whose skin you are:red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earthbrown earth, we are earth.Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have theirtribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,listen to them. They are alive poems.Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows theorigin of this universe.Remember you are all people and all peopleare you.Remember you are this universe and thisuniverse is you.Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.Remember language comes from this.Remember the dance language is, that life is.Remember.'Remember' reproduced from She Had Some Horses: Poems by Joy Harjo (c) 2008 by Joy Harjo. Used with permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘I would like to be remembered as a good writer and a good man . . . Writers are observers. We are natural lookers, watchers . . . it seems to me quite wonderful that I have so long been able to make a living from something I love so much.' So wrote the writer, editor and famed chronicler of rural life Ronald Blythe for the Mail on Sunday in 2004. That Ronald (or Ronnie, as he preferred to be known), who died aged 100 in early 2023, will be remembered as a good writer is irrefutable. Many Slightly Foxed listeners will know and love not only Akenfield – his bestselling 1969 portrait of a fictionalized East Anglian village – and the ‘Word from Wormingford' column for the Church Times but also his unparalleled collection of short stories, poems, histories, novels and essays and, most recently, his year-long diary published as Next to Nature, which celebrates the slow perpetual turn of the farming year, the liturgical calendar and the rhythms of village life. In this episode Ronnie's fellow writers and friends, Julia Blackburn and his biographer Ian Collins, lead us down the rough-hewn track to the ancient yeoman's cottage he inherited from the artist John Nash and into the nooks and crannies of his private world, tracing a life well lived and well written. We meet the changeling boy obsessed with books and nature and the self-taught youth whose good looks and charisma caused queues at the Colchester Library reference desk where he worked until he was discovered by the painter Christine Nash. It was she, recognizing his rare talent, who insisted he leave his job to pursue writing fulltime. We track Ronnie's rich literary life path through his friends' personal recollections, touching on tales of mid-winter meetings with E. M. Forster and an unlikely tryst with Patricia Highsmith. We muse on his spirituality and sexuality, his great love for life and his deep connection to the rural world with all its harshness and all its beauty, before heading for Bottengoms Farm where we hear how this great man and great writer saw out his last days in the company of good books and close friends. For our book-lovers' day out we head to the quintessential English cottage of Ronnie's hero, the poet and keen gardener John Clare. And, to finish, a round-up of book recommendations including another East Anglian delight in Adrian Bell's A Countryman's Spring Notebook, an unusual fishing memoir by the writer of the Killing Eve series that's about much more than just fishing, and the intricately plotted revenge tale No Name by Wilkie Collins, one of Ronnie's favourite writers. Books mentioned We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles listed below. Please get in touch with Jess in the Slightly Foxed office for more information.   Subscribe to Slightly Foxed magazine Ronald Blythe, Akenfield (0:19) Ian Collins, Water Marks: Art in East Anglia is out of print (1:30) Julia Blackburn, The Emperor's Last Island is out of print (2:22) Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy (21.59) Ronald Blythe, The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 is out of print (24:18) Ronald Blythe, The View in Winter: Reflections on Old Age (31:06) Simone de Beauvoir, A Very Easy Death (31:38) Adrian Bell, Corduroy (37:30) Ronald Blythe, Word from Wormingford (41:38) Ronald Blythe, Next to Nature (43:36) Nicholas Fisk, Pig Ignorant (52:54) Adrian Bell, A Countryman's Spring Notebook (53:59) Luke Jennings, Blood Knots (54:11) Luke Jennings, Codename Villanelle (54:13) Annie Ernaux, The Years (55:15) Wilkie Collins, No Name (55:47) A. N. Wilson, Confessions (56:51) Julia Blackburn gave the eulogy for Ronald Blythe at his funeral which took place at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds on 1 March 2023. She has kindly given us permission to share the full transcript.  Related Slightly Foxed articles & podcast episodes Mellow Fruitfulness, Melissa Harrison on Ronald Blythe's Wormingford books, Issue 40 Light Reading, Ronald Blythe on pocket-size volumes, Issue 17 A Private, Circumspect People, Maggie Fergusson on Ronald Blythe, Akenfield, Issue 11 Where There's a Will, Andrew Lycett on Wilkie Collins, No Name, Issue 48 (56:29) Episode 38 of the Slightly Foxed podcast: Adrian Bell: Back to the Land (53:59) Episode 42 of the Slightly Foxed podcast: Jean Rhys: Voyages in the Dark (59:30)  Other links John Clare Cottage, Helpston (50:20) Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No.3 in E Major by Bach   The Slightly Foxed Podcast is hosted by Philippa Lamb and produced by Podcastable

Life and Remains of John Clare, The "Northamptonshire Peasant Poet"

The Life of John Clare

Strap on your toughest boots.  Now dodge the speeding cars as we match strides with Robert Hamberger.  We discuss two works: his exceptional poetry collection Blue Wallpaper and his memoir A Length of Road -- recalling a time when Robert (facing a life crisis) retraced the footsteps of the 'peasant poet' John Clare who had, in 1841, escaped an asylum in Epping Forest. Robert walked the same 80 miles as John Clare,  who had walked to Northamptonshire in the vain hope of finding Mary, his first love. And Robin has been enjoying Ian Duhig's masterful New and Selected Poems  learning en route what can be made to rhyme with Castor and Pollux, while Peter tarries in the twilight of Thomas Gray's  Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard -- 'mopeing owl' and all.  Support the show

We begin talking about Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" and what makes comic poetry what it is -- making the arbitrary tight (the way OuLiPo does, so this is this semester's excursus on OuLiPo).  Then a little about the plot that some of the students may have missed.  Following which, an introduction to John Clare, and the first stanza of his poem "The Winters Spring," which we'll continue with next class.

This is a reading of the poem, I am, by John Clare.

Support the podcast: patreon.com/thehemingwaylist War & Peace - Ander Louis Translation: Kindle and Amazon Print Host: @anderlouis

Recorded by Academy of American Poets staff for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on October 23, 2022. www.poets.org

Read By Harold GoldProduction and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman

Amanda Holmes reads John Clare's poem “I Love to See the Summer Beaming Forth.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you'll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman. This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

durée : 01:32:59 - Les Nuits de France Culture - En 2002, Yves Bonnefoy, Philippe Jaccottet, Isabelle Berman, Philippe Jaworski et Pierre Pachet rendaient hommage au traducteur et écrivain Pierre Leyris, disparu en 2001, dans un numéro de "Surpris par la nuit" produit par Marie du Bouchet. Né en 1907, mort en janvier 2001, Pierre Leyris traduisit quantité d'auteurs anglophones parmi lesquels William Blake, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, dont il dirigea l'édition des ouvres complètes au Club français du livre dans les années 1950, mais encore Yeats, Hawthorne, Stevenson ou Edith Wharton.  Il fit également découvrir au public francophone la poésie de John Clare, de Gerard Manley Hopkins ou celle de TS Eliott. Fondateur en 1964 de la prestigieuse collection Domaine anglais  au Mercure de France, auteur de plusieurs anthologies de poésie anglaise et américaine, il fut l'un des traducteurs les plus réputés de sa génération.  En 2002, peu après la publication posthume d'un journal rédigé la dernière année de sa vie, intitulé Pour Mémoire, Ruminations d'un petit clerc à l'usage de ses frères humains et des vers légataires, Marie du Bouchet lui consacrait une émission pour Surpris par la Nuit.  Yves Bonnefoy, Philippe Jaccottet, Isabelle Berman, Philippe Jaworski et Pierre Pachet y évoquaient ses qualités de traducteurs et d'écrivain. Timidité et excentricité, curiosité et discrétion, création empêchée, art de comédien, rigueur, effacement, souplesse, humilité, travail intuitif, modestie et autorité étaient quelques-unes des notions qu'ils évoquaient pour tâcher d'esquisser le portrait, sensible, à la fois pudique et intime, de celui qui fut aussi, tout simplement, leur ami. Un documentaire réalisé par Gaël Gillon, et diffusé pour la première fois sur France Culture le 29 mai 2005 Par Marie du Bouchet Réalisation : Gaël Gillon Surpris par la nuit - Pierre Leyris, un traducteur à l'ouvre : 1907-2001 (1ère diffusion : 29/05/2002) Indexation web : Documentation sonore de Radio France. 

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We host a conversation with two incredible poets: Diane Mehta and Jordan Smith, whose poems were published in Air/Light Issue 3.Diane was a student at Union College, where Jordan teaches, and even though they were never in the classroom together the resonance between their work is obvious. Both are poets of the particular, of the moment; the world around them provides entryways into deep memories both personal and historical. Diane and Jordan write poems that bend time and space and the ancient world is a constant presence in the now--in Jordan's poem “Good Morning,” burnt coffee in Schenectady sits alongside the ferry to Piraeus in classical Athens. Tree trimming, in Diane's “Rock Garden,” connects us to the Iliad and the blood sacrifices of early religion.  Jordan Smith is the author of eight full-length books of poems, most recently Little Black Train, winner of the Three Mile Harbor Press Prize, Clare's Empire (The Hydroelectric Press), a fantasia on the life and work of John Clare, and The Light in the Film (University of Tampa Press). He has also worked on several collaborations with artist Walter Hatke including What Came Home and Hat & Key. The recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Ingram Merrill Foundation, he lives with his wife, Malie, in upstate New York, where he is the Edward Everett Hale Jr., Professor of English at Union College.Diane Mehta is the author of the poetry collection Forest with Castanets (Four Way Books). She received a 2020 Spring Literature Grant from the Café Royal Cultural Foundation for her nonfiction writing. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Agni, American Poetry Review, The Common, Harvard Review, and Southern Humanities Review. She's completing an essay collection and a novel set in 1946 India. Diane Mehta's poems in Air/Light: https://airlightmagazine.org/airlight/issue-3/rock-garden-in-the-back-yard-with-a-ghost-tree-and-an-evergreen-stay-disappearing-act/Jordan Smith's poems in Air/Light: https://airlightmagazine.org/airlight/issue-3/good-morning-wrong-question/

Poet David Wojahn reads their poem "Homage to John Clare" from MQR's Winter 2020 issue.

This week is about insects, Or relationship with them, their symbolism, myth and folklore. Our guest is Jacqueline Durban.Learn Religions Butterfly Magic and Folklorehttps://www.learnreligions.com/butterfly-magic-and-folklore-2561631Universe of Symbolism Butterfly Symbolismhttps://www.universeofsymbolism.com/butterfly-symbolism.htmlLearn Religions Insect Magic and Folklorehttps://www.learnreligions.com/insect-magic-and-folklore-2562520Ivy Sedwick Dragonfly Folklorehttps://www.icysedgwick.com/dragonfly-folklore/Dazzle of dragonflieshttps://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/forrest-l-mitchell/dazzle-of-dragonflies/9781585444595?Digital Dragonflieshttps://agrilife.org/dragonfly/dragonfly-catalog/aeshnidae/ Celtic Lore of the Honey Bee - James Slavenhttps://owlcation.com/humanities/Celtic-Lore-of-the-Honey-BeeAnimal wisdom - Jessica Dawn Palmerhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007102186/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_HRKFDVMJXJ5D2MBWC8JQCrossbones http://crossbones.org.uk/ Jacqueline Durban Social Media LinksFacebook https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.durbanInstagram https://www.instagram.com/radicalhoneybee/ Twitter https://twitter.com/radicalhoneybee Website http://radicalhoneybee.blogspot.com/Kofi https://ko-fi.com/radicalhoneybeeJacqueline's book reviewsBallad of John Clare by Hugh Lupton https://www.waterstones.com/book/ballad-of-john-clare/hugh-lupton/9781907650000Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder's Meditations on Hope and Courage by Steven Charlestonhttps://www.waterstones.com/book/ladder-to-the-light/charleston-steven//9781506465739 

In this episode, I had the great privilege of speaking to Paul Farley. Paul is a poet originally from Liverpool who has won multiple awards for his work, including the Sunday Times Young Writer of Year, is a member of the Royal Society of Literature and also had the esteemed honour of teaching me creative writing in his post as professor at Lancaster University.  We discuss:  Poets he believes are most worthy of study in state educated classrooms The inspiration he takes from the Northamptonshire ‘peasant poet', John Clare.  The IB's decision to include musicians in their prescribed reading list as poets and whether this suggests poetry has a waning influence on newer generations. Paul's views on the changing face of form in poetry.  His relationship with Liverpool now and the ways in which he includes the city or cadence of the accent in his work.  And finally, advice he would give to students who find it difficult to access poetry as an art form. Thanks again to Paul for putting up with my questions so early in the morning and providing ideas that I've been considering ever since.  If you haven't already, subscribe via Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts if you'd like to be made aware of when more educational chat like this becomes available! Alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter by searching for @chrisjordanhk Links https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Farley/e/B001HD3K4C?qid=1627019169&ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4&sr=8-4 (Paul's publications) on Amazon

A memoir about love and loss, fatherhood and masculinity, class and belonging. In 1841 the 'peasant poet' John Clare escapes from an asylum in Epping Forest, where he had been kept for four years and walks over 80 miles home to Northamptonshire. Suffering from poor mental health, Clare was attempting to return to his idealized first love, Mary, unaware that she had died three years earlier. In 1995, with his life in crisis and his own mental health fragile, Robert decides to retrace Clare's route along the Great North Road over a punishing four-day walk. As he walks he reflects on the changing landscape and on the evolving shape of his own family, on fatherhood and masculinity, and on the meaning of home. Part memoir, part travel-writing, part literary criticism, A Length of Road is a deeply profound and poetic exploration of class, gender, grief and sexuality through the author's own experiences and through the autobiographical writing of poet John Clare.

The alienated, the one who curses God. Let's take a look at what it is to be an outsider. Oh and a poem by John Clare, the romantic.

No matter how hard I fight to stay away, I keep returning to The Crypt-Keeper's haunted hideaway for more ghoulish goodies! This week on The Blind Rage Podcast, it's television royalty Moses Gunn and Teddy Wilson, as well as CHILDREN OF THE CORN III's John Clare, in “Fitting Punishment,” a nasty tale of abuse, neglect, and revenge…from beyond the grave! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/blindragepod/message

Although Carry Akroyd, who is is President of the John Clare Society, grew up in the countryside, as a child she was never shown or taught anything of the natural world around her. It was not until adulthood that a revelatory moment occurred. Walking one day in Wicken Fen, that she heard an unfamiliar noise above her, which she discovered was the drumming flight of an overhead snipe, a bird whose long bill the peasant poet John Clare described as "...of rude unseemly length" . Carry has chosen 5 episodes from the back catalogue to share with you, which you can hear Monday to Friday and in the Tweet of the Week Omnibus. Producer Andrew Dawes

The composer and artist Oliver Beer discusses his new acoustics project in which he explores the resonant frequencies of the empty spaces of buildings and everyday vessels.To mark her 70th birthday the composer Nicola LeFanu talks about her career in the world of contemporary classical music, from her childhood making music for the plays she wrote to the recent premiere at the Barbican of her latest large-scale work, The Crimson Bird. On 17 July 1717 George Frideric Handel premiered his Water Music for King George I, and to mark the 300th anniversary of this musical landmark Front Row has commissioned a new piece by Grace Evangeline Mason, the 2013 winner of the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composer Competition. Before beginning work on the piece she came in to meet John and discuss her early ideas.To celebrate May Day, poet Alison Brackenbury discusses the joy of spring in verse and reads a section of John Clare's The Shepherd's Calendar and her own poem May Day, 1972.Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Hannah Robins.

Twenty-one years since the release of Trainspotting, the film based on Irvine Welsh's novel, the sequel is about to be released. T2 Trainspotting is set in the present day with the main characters now in middle age. Irvine Welsh and screenwriter John Hodge discuss the challenges of making a film to satisfy both fans and newcomers and why, despite the comedy, it's a much bleaker film than the original.How do you write a successful stage play? As the biggest national prize for playwriting, the Bruntwood Prize, opens for submissions, Sarah Frankcom, the artistic director of the Royal Exchange in Manchester, and writer Tanika Gupta discuss the craft of the playwright.As part of Radio 4's Reading Europe series, the Norwegian writer Agnes Ravatn discusses her prize-winning novel, The Bird Tribunal, a tense psychological thriller which begins its serialisation on Book at Bedtime tonight. Locals are mourning the destruction of 200 mature beech trees near Caerphilly which have been destroyed by a mystery feller and it won't be long before someone writes a poem about their loss. The writer and academic Jonathan Bate reflects on how Gerard Manley Hopkins, Charlotte Mew, John Clare and William Cowper all wrote poems lamenting the felling of loved trees. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Angie Nehring.