Mighty Beast

Available for over a year

Sean Borodale's long poem, Mighty Beast, was created using interviews, a range of voices and overheard conversations he gathered from many visits to cattle markets in towns across Somerset, where he lives. This radio documentary version is told in the voice of the auctioneer: a brilliant, shifting stream of patter that is by turns harsh, lyrical, cajoling, admonitory and consoling. Through this tour de force of poetic writing come the real voices of some of the people who inspired the poem, men whose memories are of the gradual gaining of skills and experience, of childhoods spent in a landscape that has changed beyong retrieval, and the deep love for the animals who provide their livelihood. These voices, real and imagined, are given a rich and lyrical soundscape created by composer Elizabeth Purnell. The auctioneer is played by Christopher Bianchi The poem is written by Sean Borodale The soundscape is created by Elizabeth Purnell The Producer is Sara Davies.