I'm A Lumberjack

BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with 'I'm A Lumberjack' featuring peripatetic English writer, James Lasdun.

When James moved to wooded New York State his wife gave him a chainsaw. He had to either learn to chop down trees or risk his home and garden being taken over by the resurgent forests of the eastern states of the USA.

But how should a clumsy townee, good with his words but not with his hands, take to the woods? With help from some of the champion axemen of the Lumberjack World Championships at Hayward, Wisconsin, he learns the underhand chop, the standing block chop, the hot saw, and much of the wisdom and lore of the world of tall trees and tough men.

Produced in Bristol by Tim Dee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012.