29 April 2006
Saturday 29 April 2006 22:45-23:15 (Radio 3)
How can running a marathon across the Sahara desert or winning the Antarctic marathon in minus 30 degrees help Booker-nominated Michael Collins write? He talks to Ian McMillan about the power of endurance and whether battling against the elements is comparable with the battle of the imagination against the blank page.
Playlist
The Verb this week begins with Ian McMillan on the roof of Broadcasting House in London , dangling over a dizzy drop, he says, on a strong thin rope. Ian intends to abseil 10 floors straight down into his studio while introducing this week's guests.
They are Michael Collins, the inspiration for this unusual behaviour, a booker-prize nominated writer who has run marathons in the Sahara desert, the Arctic and around Mount Everest . Ian talks to Michael Collins about his new book, and hears about the parallels between novel writing and long distance running - and Michael Collins' secret for success in both.
Also in the studio, the great Welsh poet Dannie Abse. Abse is a doctor as well as a poet: both professions, he notes, rely on close and accurate observation. Dannie Abse talks about his life's work, from early collections in which he now struggles to enjoy, to his New and Collected Poems - his life's work, he says. Funny, penetrating and fiercely unsentimental, Dannie Abse reads three of his poems on the programme, including a masterpiece - Letter from Ogmore By Sea.
And there is a new play by Rachel Joyce, an expert radio playwright who has been commissioned by the Verb to write a short drama reacting to current affairs and events. She was given 48 hours to identify her subject and start writing. The result is a powerful piece about a crisis in Zimbabwe : economic disaster and government taxation have left hundreds of thousands of women unable to afford sanitary products. The actresses Niamh* Cusack, Prunella Scales and Chipo** Chung star in 'In the Wind', by Rachel Joyce. You can hear the Verb at the slightly later time of ten forty five tonight / tomorrow.
