To 'earth' us this week, Ian McMIllan invites Owen Sheers, Jason Allen Paisant, Helen Mort, and David Morley to share poems that ground us - including work from the 2026 Laurel Prize for environmental poetry by the winner Fiona Benson.Helen Mort's latest book is 'Stepmother', Jas ...Show more
Poems to help us brave the elements
Ian McMillan's poets show how the tiniest poem can help us brave the fiercest elements - from a haiku that's inspired generation after generation - with its careful noticing of the splosh of a frog into a pond, to a thin poem that summons the forces that shape mountains, and whic ...Show more
This week, AE Stallings, the new Oxford professor of poetry, on the lives of poets; and Ann Kennedy Smith considers the different faces of Cornwall.'Sleeping on islands: A life in poetry', by Andrew Motion'The American poet laureate: A history of US poetry and the state', by Amy ...Show more
This week, we drop in on a conversation between Mary Beard and two former TLS editors; and Anne Enright joins us to talk about turning poet in her new novel.'Emperor of Rome: Ruling the ancient Roman world', by Mary Beard'Big Caesars and little Caesars: How they rise and how they ...Show more
This week, Jonathan Barnes joins us to explore the visionary work of Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale; and a wonderful conversation about literature and horticulture between Dame Penelope Lively and her daughter, musician Josephine Lively.'The Quatermass Experiment 70th Anniversar ...Show more
Join us for at the Hay Festival for a conversation encompassing portals to other worlds, rock bands, improbable giraffes and the travails of the M4.'Impossible Creatures', by Katherine Rundell'One Ukrainian Summer: A Memoir About Falling in Love and Coming of Age in the Former US ...Show more