29 January 2005
Saturday 29 January 2005 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Ian McMillan with another cabaret of language. Tom Paulin concludes his series the Secret Life of the Poem and award winning audio cartoonist Peter Blegvad is in the studio.
'A Darkling Plain'
View photos from Stephen Raw's exhibition, 'A Darkling Plain'
View photos of the exhibitionProgramme details
The Verb Programme details - Jan 29th 2005 at 21.45
Cult novelist RUPERT THOMSON makes his Verb debut, reading an exclusive extract from his new novel 'Divided Kingdom'. The novel presents a twisted vision of a parallel Britain in which the population has been divided according to each individual's humour: Melancholy, Choleric, Phlegmatic or Sanguine. Rupert diagnoses Ian McMillan as a Sanguine Melancholic: Sanguine for his ebullient, positive and outgoing personality; melancholic for his private, poetic side. Ian is not convinced...
They discuss the medieval idea of the humours, and the ways in which contemporary Britain might be reflected in Thomson's dystopian fantasy.
'Divided Kingdom' is published by Bloomsbury on April 4th
TOM PAULIN concludes his series on the secret life of poems with a close reading of 'Sunlight' by Seamus Heaney, the introductory poem to Heaney's fourth collection 'North'.
Looking forwards and backwards into Heaney's work, studying his associations of sound and sense and his love of Old Norse, Tom uncovers a clash of vowels and consonants throughout the piece, and explains how they create the poem's tension, and its network of uneasy currents.
And there's performance from POLLY PAULUSMA, who has been described as one of the most exciting young singer-songwriters currently working in Britain. Polly came to song writing through a failed attempt to be a novelist - her decision to devote herself entirely to music was vindicated by critical acclaim for her first album, Scissors In My Pocket (One Little Indian) and finding herself supporting Bob Dylan.
STEPHEN RAW is an artist who specialises in the illustration and painting of poems - both in works in which poems' texts become parts of paintings, and covers for collections. His current exhibition at the Poetry Library in the Royal Festival Hall in London is 'A DARKLING PLAIN' explores what happens to language when it is made visible. He talks to Ian McMillan about his art, and they explore Raw's ideas about what happens to letters and words when an artist takes them beyond typography.
'A Darkling Plain' is in the poetry library at the Royal Festival Hall until March 28th
JO SHAPCOTT is a leading British poet, a former winner of the Commonwealth Prize, the Forward Prize and, twice, the Nation Poetry Competition. She premieres two new poems on this week's Verb - both thoroughly engaged with the everyday, both funny, and provoking and moving. The Verb sincerely recommends you hear them, at 21.45 on Saturday night, or by clicking 'listen again' on our homepage.
