Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchA Country Doctor
Episode 12
In this special, double-length episode, Sally leaves her boat to seek refuge at a friend’s house on another island in Oxford, as the rains have flooded the meadow of her narrowboat community. Returni…
Published on 2 years, 10 months ago
Pond Life
Episode 11
Sally wakes up at dawn and thinks about the book she's currently writing – Pond Life, a fictional biography of two women who live on the south coast of Britain in the years after the Second World War…
Published on 2 years, 11 months ago
Evelyn
Episode 10
Sally takes time off from trying to unblock her sink to conduct a creative writing lesson with her student, Evelyn. They discuss a single sentence in a short story written by Katherine Mansfield, the…
Published on 2 years, 11 months ago
Reading Jean Rhys
Episode 9
Sally takes a trip on her shiny blue electric scooter to Oxford Public Library, where she picks up a novel by the iconic British modernist writer Jean Rhys. After a disturbing experience at the hospi…
Published on 2 years, 11 months ago
Let Me In
Episode 8
Temperatures on the narrowboat dip below zero, so Sally takes the advice of Virginia Woolf and stays in bed to read poetry. She immerses herself in The Child’s Story, by the Oxford writer Elizabeth J…
Published on 3 years ago
The Green Lady
Episode 7
On a cold boat, Sally is warmed by her fire, the sound of her neighbours, and the cathartic practice of “speaking in tongues”, a technique she learned as a very young child from her aunt, who ran an…
Published on 3 years ago
These Words Will Not Wait
Episode 6
Sally leaves a frosty boat and travels to Gloucestershire to meet her friend and fellow author Alice Jolly. They talk about Alice’s epic experimental novel, Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, which is written …
Published on 3 years ago
Sweet Airs
Episode 5
Sally takes a swim in the river after a few days’ absence from the boat, reflecting on how her natural surroundings fuel her writing. Her thoughts turn to her mother, who loved music; and she plays a…
Published on 3 years ago
Cerian
Episode 4
A robin visits Sally’s boat, and she reflects on the importance of quietness and concentration in the creative process. Inspecting a patch of the meadow which she shares with other boat owners, she t…
Published on 3 years ago
A Reading Life, A Writing Life with Sally Bayley
Episode 3
Sally invites us into her life on the boat, a life lived in close connection to nature, powered by sunlight from her solar panels. We hear how a water pump works, and witness a daddy long legs making…
Published on 3 years, 1 month ago