Podcast Episodes

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 8 hours 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 1 week 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 2 weeks, 3 days 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 2 months 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 2 months, 2 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 3 months ago

Being Handy

Episode 81

‘Enid’s hands are always kept busy caring for other people…’

This week, Sally continues her theme of developing characters from objects by presenting a portrait of Enid Bagot, a young woman used to w…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Katherine Mansfield

Episode 80

‘His straw hat hurt him, it pinched his forehead and started a dull ache in the two bones just over the temples…’

This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Katherine Mansfield, focusing on chara…

Published on 4 months ago

A Fragment of May

Episode 79

For Emilie: may you always sing.

We return this week, for a special micro-episode, to Mrs Dalloway’s London. Listen for a brief meditation on the fragmentation of life, interruption, and finding mean…

Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Mrs Dalloway

Episode 78

‘Now it was time to move, and, as a woman gathers her things together, her cloak, her gloves, her opera-glasses, and gets up to out of the theatre into the street, she rose from the sofa and went to …

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago