28 January 2006
Saturday 28 January 2006 22:15-23:00 (Radio 3)
Stig Dalager, one of Denmark's greatest living writers, has just had his first novel published in English. It's been heralded as a masterpiece, and is a fictional account of the complex life and loves of another Danish master storyteller - Hans Christian Andersen. Ian McMillan talks to Stig in his first British interview.
Programme Details
I must have been dreaming, the first who saw it said,
I could have sworn I just saw water streaming
Up from a whale's blowhole
So begins playwright Colin Teevan's specially commissioned poem about the whale which visited the Thames last week. But why does Colin's piece build the image of a city in the belly of the whale? He makes that clear when he talks to Ian McMillan in the first of this year's topical turnaround pieces.
Also on the programme, one of Denmark 's top all time writers. Playwright, novelist, and poet, Stig Dalager, talks about his experimental reworking of the life of another great Dane - Han's Christian Andersen. He'll be joined by Vicki Feaver, who unravels the appeal of Andersen's fairy tales on young and old alike, and pays homage with a special poem, The Snow Queen.
We also have the astounding Welsh performance poet Rhian Edwards. She started her professional life as a financial analyst, and has only been writing for the past two and half years. But her performances are rhythmic and get you in the emotional gut.
And we have the latest in award-winning Tash Aw's eye-opening introduction of South East Asian writers. This week's great novelist is the Malaysian KS Maniam and his semi-autobiographical first novel, The Return. Why has Tash nominated a first work?
That's all on The Verb with Ian McMillan and his guests at 10.15pm, here on BBC Radio 3.
Producer: Ariane Koek
Additional Information:
1) The Return by K S Maniam is published by Skoob Pacifica and is available by special order
2) Journey In Blue by Stig Dalager is published by Peter Owen 3) The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw is published by Harper Perennial
4) Missing Persons: Four Tragedies And Roy Keane by Colin Teevan receives its premiere at the new Trafalgar Studios2 on Tuesday 31 January and will run until Saturday 25 February. For details visit www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios
5) The Book Of Blood by Vicki Feaver will be published by Jonathan Cape in April. You can also read her work in Machinery of Grace: A Tribute to Michael Donaghy (1954-2004) , published by the Poetry Society
