In the final programme of the run, Paul Allen and guests reflect on the changing relationship between British writing and the landscape, and listen to the best bits from Night Waves' recently commissioned series of letters for the BBC's A Picture of Britain season, including new work from Beryl Bainbridge, David Lodge, Louis de Bernieires and Michael Morpurgo.
Programme Details
The relationship between landscape and the literary imagination is the subject of tonight’s Night Waves, the last programme in the current season. Its a special edition in more ways than one as Paul Allen and his guests - the cultural historian, Patrick Wright and Joanna Kavenna, the author of the highly acclaimed travelogue, The Ice Museum - will be revisiting “A Picture of Britain”. Night Waves’ contribution to this joint venture between the BBC and the Tate Gallery was to commission eight writers to reflect on landscape and the bearing it has on their work. Among those you can hear this evening will be: Louis de Bernieres, who writes lyrically about Norfolk and Surrey; David Lodge, who describes his adopted home, Birmingham, with great affection and amusement; and Beryl Bainbridge, who evokes the Liverpool of her childhood. What do we mean by landscape? When did the notion first have any real currency? And why do we seem to prefer the remote and transcendental to the quotidian? You can hear some of the answers and a few more questions in Night Waves with Paul Allen.
Night Waves, live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3
Night Waves now makes way for the Proms on BBC Radio 3 but will be back in the autumn.
Presenter: Paul Allen
Producer: Zahid Warley
Additional Information:
The writers in Night Waves’ Picture of Britain series were: Louis de Bernieres, Beryl Bainbridge, David Lodge, Paul Farley, Michael Morpurgo, Kathleen Jamie, Owen Sheers and Tara West.
