5 November 2005
Saturday 5 November 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Ian McMillan presents the weekly magazine about language. With a specially commissioned poem about dark places for Guy Fawkes Night, and a discussion about the new literary phenomenon of fan fiction.
Programme Details
This week Ian McMillan presides over another uniquely eclectic edition of The Verb, with a diverse range of scintillating guests. He talks to the renowned writer Rose Tremain about her latest collection of short stories, The Darkness of Wallis Simpson. The title story fictionalises the last days of the dying Mrs Simpson at a time when her mind has all but erased any memory of Edward the Eighth. Ian asks Rose about the ethics of giving life to the recently deceased and about Wallis 's enduring allure to fiction writers.
Also on the programme, what do you get when you invent a story involving Dr Spock from Star Trek and Dr Watson from Sherlock Holmes ? Fan fiction, that's what. `Fanfic', as it's known to aficionados, takes existing literary or television characters and extends their fictional lives. It's a hugely popular and growing phenomenon largely taking place online, and in recent years it's evolved into a complex and sophisticated literary domain. Poet Sheenagh Pugh and author Roz Kaveney join Ian to give fascinating insights into the strange and marvellous world of fanfic.
There's also uncompromising and graphic description of Manchester 's youth culture from performance duo Thick Richard, and for Guy Fawkes night, a hauntingly beautiful poem, composed in darkness, from Frances Presley written especially for The Verb. Plus Adam Jacot de Boinod offers an amusing look at brevity of language with examples from around the world.
That's all on The Verb with Ian McMillan and his guests at 9.30pm , here on BBC Radio 3.
Producer: Aasiya Lodhi
Additional Information
1) The Darkness of Wallis Simpson by is published by Chatto and Windus
2) The Meaning of Tingo by is published by Penguin
3) The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context by is published by Seren
4) Paravane: New and Selected Poems 1996-2003 by is published by Salt
