Hebrew poetry in medieval Spain
Friday 16 March 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Playlist
Political Speech Writing
This week Ian explores the art of political speechwriting with novelists who have previously ventured into the arena. Some of the most memorable lines in the history of speechwriting - including The Lady's Not For Turning - have been penned by novelists and playwrights.
Can the novelist's techniques help craft the perfect speech and can speechwriting illuminate the novelist's task? Ian grapples with these questions with two writers who have crossed the boundary between page and political stage, Richard Heller and Justin Cartwright.
The Song Before It Is Sung by Justin Cartwright is published by Bloomsbury.
Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson, Author of the award memoir 'Keeping Mum', which recounted his experiences as a child during the Second World War, discusses his new prose piece, 'Randolph', written specially for 'The Verb'.
He explains why the artifice of writing has become increasingly important to him as his memoir writing career takes off.
Keeping Mum and Clever Girl by Brian Thompson are published by Atlantic Books.
Scroobius Pip
There'll also be arresting performance from the spoken word artist Scroobius Pip and a pair of new short dramas from the Sparks initiative, a BBC new writing scheme.
More details of the BBC writersoom Sparks initiative can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/
More details about Scroobius Pip can be found at: http://lastwords.com/servlet/LastWords/action/Biography/id/13780/ and www.myspace.com/lesacvspip.
Hebrew Poetry in Medieval Spain
And the flowering of Hebrew poetry in Medieval Spain - the translator Peter Cole sheds light on an amazingly fertile and hybrid period of European literary history.
The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492 by Peter Cole is published by Princeton University Press.
