Poppies in October Revisited

‘Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts.’ This week, Sally returns to Sylvia Plath’s ‘Poppies in October.’ Listen for a mediation on the mouth, sound, and their essential role in approaching the lyric. The wonderful piano music in the closing section is ‘Sirens’ by Paul Seba. More information on Paul and his work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Enter Lillian…’ This week, we join Sally once again in conversation with the producer, James Bowen, on the subject of Sally’s latest work, Worm in the Bud: A Fable. Listen for a conversation on interpretation, ambiguity, and the instructive value of narrative. Worm in the Bud is published by the New Menard Press, and is available from all good booksellers. The wonderful piano accompanying Sally's reading of 'The Forest' is ‘Monday’, by Paul Seba. More on Paul and his work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. More information on James and his work can be found here. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘A paragraph made up of waiting…’ We join Sally this week in the process of editing her forthcoming work, Mrs Parnell, focusing in particular on a single paragraph. Listen for a meditation on the creation of space and time in writing, and how a text can carve out a space to pause. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Doubt’, by Paul Seba. More on Paul and his work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

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 for a reflection on domesticity, hospitality, and the physics of intimacy. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘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 writing and reflecting on one’s environment, embodiment, and the interaction between thought and space, featuring James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Tuesday’, by Paul Seba. More information on Paul and his work can be found here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.  

‘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 from her forthcoming work, Mrs Parnell. Listen for reflections on the writing life, and the development of character from everyday scenes, via the life and work of Katherine Mansfield and Arundhati Roy. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘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 those in L.P. Hartley’s 1957 novel, The Hireling. Listen for a meditation on the choreography of writing and the arrangement of characters, including those featured in Sally’s forthcoming work, Mrs Parnell. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘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 to indulge in such an orgy of concentrated thought, that these three or four hours lengthened themselves out into something beyond all human measurement.’ We rejoin Sally this week in conversation with the producer, James Bowen, discussing how to navigate, and ultimately teach, ‘difficult’ literature, drawing on John Cooper Powys’ Wolf Solent (1929) and James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Listen for a discussion of ambiguity, pedagogy, and the role of the author in narrative resolution. More information on Powys can be found here. Sally’s fable, Worm in the Bud, will be published in November of this year by The New Menard Press. It will be available from all good booksellers. You can also find out more about James and his work here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘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 housekeeper Mrs Parsons encounters a figure on the stairs. But who is this figure? An intruder? A suitor? Or even, perhaps, a reimagining of Gabriel Conroy, from Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead’ (1914)? Listen for an immersion in Sally’s creative process, developing an image and its home in a narrative. Gabriel was previously the topic of Sally’s conversation with the producer in the last episode. Listen here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘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 something.’ A special episode this week, as we join Sally in conversation with James Bowen, the podcast’s producer and a fellow teacher of literature. Listen for a conversation on the role of objects in narratives, and the way in which characters reduce one another to symbols in modernist literature, ranging across Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead’ (1904) to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). You can find out more about James and his work here. Alice Jolly’s novel, The Matchbox Girl, discussed near the end of the episode is forthcoming with Bloomsbury, and is available to pre-order from all good booksellers. The wonderful piano music in the closing section is ‘Monday’, by Paul Seba. You can listen to more of his work here. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. A note on the sound: We are still experimenting with this format, and apologise that the sound levels are a touch more uneven than normal. As such, you may need to set the volume at a slightly higher level than you normally might when playing this episode!