Podcast Episodes

On Living in Hundred Acre Wood

Episode 91

For “Husband Ron” and Christopher Robin — may he come by again soon.

This week, we join Sally at home, seeing in the New Year in the company of the residents of A.A. Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood. Listen…

Published on 11 hours ago

River Ruminations

Episode 90

‘Writing for me is always an embodied experience of flow…’

This week we join Sally at home, as she prepares to start her day, thinking in particular about her morning swim. Listen for a meditation on…

Published on 1 month ago

The Choreography of Writing

Episode 89

‘A kind of choreography of intimacy, which I return to again and again…’

This week, we join Sally on a cold winter’s morning, as she tries to settle into the rhythm of the day and develop an image fr…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Arrivals

Episode 88

‘She brought so little personality with her that she seemed scarcely to disturb the air…’

This week, marking the arrival of Autumn, Sally has been thinking about literary arrivals, in particular thos…

Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago

A Conversation on Difficulty and Ambiguity

Episode 87

‘From Waterloo Station to the small country town of Ramsgard in Dorset is a journey of not more than three or four hours, but having by good luck found a compartment to himself, Wolf Solent was able …

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

Mrs Parsons

Episode 86

‘The fate of the writer is to dwell in that realm of shadows and apparitions and half-seen thoughts…’

This week, we join Sally sketching a scene for her new novel, Mrs Parnell, in which the stern hou…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

A Conversation on Objects and Symbols

Episode 85

‘He stood still in the gloom of the hall, trying to catch the air that the voice was singing and gazing up at his wife. There was grace and mystery in her attitude as if she were a symbol of somethin…

Published on 3 months, 4 weeks ago

The Other Side of the Fire

Episode 84

For Gabriella Kelly Davies.

‘On the last day of summer Mrs Bohannon fell in love. The poplars, fallaciously pathetic, looked horrified, their branches rising on the wind like startled hair, and a pil…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

The 27th Kingdom

Episode 83

‘Mrs Mason looked now through Aunt Irene’s rich windows, sparking like spring water and framing fat pink shrubs that grew with child-like health in the tiny London garden.’

This week, we join Sally n…

Published on 5 months, 4 weeks ago

The Green Lady

Episode 82

For Miss Braithwaite, who gave me eloquence.

‘I need to summon the spirits of place…’

This week, we join Sally in rehearsal for a performance, given last week at Somerville College as part of Oxfor…

Published on 6 months, 2 weeks ago