Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in East London, as the capital starts to wake up. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Louis MacNeice, an extract from Autumn Journal . " September has come, it is hers Whose vitality leaps in the autumn..." From the show: Lamentations 3:22-23 On this day: 7th September, 1895, the first games of what would become rugby league are played across the north of England On this day: 7th September, 1533, Elizabeth I is born, daughter of An...
Sep 07, 2020•5 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Rudyard Kipling, Dane-geld . " Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you. We will therefore pay you cash to go away... " From the show: Matthew 24:27 The Gardener's Year , Karel Capek On this day: 10th August, 991 AD , the Anglo-Saxons failed to turn back a Viking invasion at the Battle of Maldon. The defeat leads King Ethelred ...
Aug 10, 2020•5 min•Ep. 69
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Edward Thomas, How At Once . "How at once should I know, When stretched in the harvest blue..." From the show: 1 John 2:17 The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton On this day: 3rd August, 1914 , Edward Grey says "the lamps are going out all over Europe" On this day: 3rd August, 1803 , Joseph Paxton, designer of the Crystal Palace is born in Bedfordshire Music ...
Aug 03, 2020•5 min•Ep. 68
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by RS Thomas, The Other . " There are nights that are so still that I can hear the small owl calling... " From the show: Ezra 10:4 Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo On this day: 27th July, 1586 , Sir Walter Raleigh introduces tobacco (and potatoes) to the English court On this day: 27th July, 1857 , Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge is born in Bodmin. He would ris...
Jul 27, 2020•5 min•Ep. 67
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With an extract from Virgil's Georgics . " So all things are fated to slide towards the worst, and revert by slipping back... " From the show: Song of Solomon 5:2 A letter from John Keats to his brother Tom, written on a walking tour of Scotland On this day: 20th July, 1304, Edward I takes Stirling castle On this day: 20th July, 1804, Richard Owen, who gave dinosaurs the...
Jul 20, 2020•6 min•Ep. 66
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Adam Zagajewski , Try to Praise the Mutilated World . " Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered... " From the show: Deuteronomy 31:8 The amazing (and perhaps even lucky) hummingbird hawk-moth The Mating Season by PG Wodehouse On this day: 13th July, 1568 , Alexander Nowell, Dean of St Paul's, accidentally invent...
Jul 13, 2020•5 min•Ep. 65
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by AE Housman, an extract from Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff . " And malt does more than Milton can To justify God’s ways to man... " From the show: Proverbs , 15:29 The Gardener's Year , by Karel Capek and the Growing Stone of Blaxhall, Suffolk On this day: 6th July, 1348 – Pope Clement VI issues the first of two papal bulls stating that Jews were falsely ac...
Jul 06, 2020•6 min•Ep. 64
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Vagabond . " Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I seek, the heaven above And the road below me... " From the show: The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald Isaiah , 3:4-5 On this day: 29th June, 1613 – The Globe theatre, where some of William Shakespeare's greatest plays were first performed, burns down durin...
Jun 29, 2020•6 min•Ep. 63
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by RS Thomas, Raptor . " You have made God small, setting him astride a pipette or a retort studying the bubbles... " From the show: Jeremiah 20:9 Sam the Sudden by PG Wodehouse On this day: 22nd June, 1633 – Galileo Galilei is forced to deny in public that the earth goes around the sun. By tradition, immediately afterwards he stamped his foot on the ground a...
Jun 22, 2020•5 min•Ep. 62
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by CP Cavafy, Waiting for the Barbarians . " What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today.... " From the show: On this day: 15th June, 1215, King John sets his seal to Magna Carta , explicitly establishing the rule of law, governing the ruler and the ruled alike On this day: 15th June, 1911, Wilbert Vere Awdrey was born i...
Jun 15, 2020•6 min•Ep. 61
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Dale Wimbrow, The Guy in the Glass . " When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf, And the world makes you King for a day... " From the show: Proverbs 18:21 Weekend Wodehouse: Ice in the Bedroom On this day: 12th June, 1381 – John Ball preaches to a crowd at Blackheath during the Peasants Revolt. He asks, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was t...
Jun 12, 2020•6 min•Ep. 60
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Robert Frost, Mowing . " There was never a sound beside the wood but one, And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground... " From the show: Colossians 3:13 On this day: 11th June, celebrating Barnabas the apostle On this day: 11th June 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert receives letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I , giving him authority to colonise north ...
Jun 11, 2020•5 min•Ep. 59
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bright is the Ring of Words . " Bright is the ring of words When the right man rings them... " From the show: Daniel 3:16-18 'William the Reformer' from William – Again , by Richmal Crompton On this day: 10th June 1540, Thomas Cromwell is arrested and stripped of property and titles at the orders of King Henry VIII On this day, 10th...
Jun 10, 2020•6 min•Ep. 58
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Hilaire Belloc, Tarantella . " Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Do you remember an inn?... " From the show: Matthew 6:14 St Ignatius of Loyola, author of the Spiritual Exercises and the evening Examen ritual On this day: 9th June, 597 – St Columba dies , warrior saint, Scottish evangelist and founder of the abbey of Iona On this day: 9th June, 1549 – the C...
Jun 09, 2020•6 min•Ep. 57
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Stephen Spender, The Pylons . " The secret of these hills was stone, and cottages Of that stone made... " From the show: Isaiah , 1:7 On this day: 8th June, 1949 – George Orwell publishes his novel of technological totalitarianism, 1984 On this day: 8th June, 1955 – Sir Tim Berners-Lee OM, inventor of the worldwide web , is born in London Music to wake you...
Jun 08, 2020•6 min•Ep. 56
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Ben Jonson. " It is not growing like a tree In bulk doth make Man better be... " From the show: Exodus 4: 10-12 Weekend Wodehouse: Something Fresh , a Blandings novel On this day: 5th June, 1833 – Ada Lovelace meets Charles Babbage for the first time On this day: 5th June, 1723 – Adam Smith is baptised in Kirkcaldy, Fife Friday film: Groundhog Day Music to...
Jun 05, 2020•5 min•Ep. 55
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, an extract from Maud . " Ah God, for a man with heart, head, hand, Like some of the simple great ones gone... " From the show: Proverbs 15:1 On this day: 4th June, 1927 – play begins in the first Ryder Cup On this day: 4th June, 1940 – Winston Churchill gives perhaps his famous speech, "We shall fight on the beaches" Music to wake yo...
Jun 04, 2020•6 min•Ep. 54
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Felix Dennis, An English Light . " 9:45 on a fine June night, I watch from the window and write and write... " From the show: 2 Corinthians, 3:2-3 William – The Dictator , by Richmal Crompton On this day: 3 June, 1989 – the Tiananmen Square massacre begins . It will see up to four thousand pro-democracy activists shot, bayoneted and deliberately crushed to...
Jun 03, 2020•5 min•Ep. 53
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Thomas Hardy, Drummer Hodge . " They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest Uncoffined – just as found... " From the show: A Month in the Country by JL Carr On this day: 2 June, 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II , remarkably similar in its ceremonial to that of King Edgar, which took place on 3 June, 973 , almost a thousand years earlier. On this day: 2 ...
Jun 02, 2020•5 min•Ep. 52
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by William Butler Yeats , The Lake Isle of Innisfree . " I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made... " From the show: On this day: 1st June, 1785, King George extends a grudging hand of friendship to John Adams , first US ambassador to the Court of St James. On this day: 1st June, 61, the defeat of t...
Jun 01, 2020•5 min•Ep. 51
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Philip Larkin, an extract from The Whitsun Weddings . " All afternoon, through the tall heat that slept For miles inland, A slow and stopping curve southwards we kept... " From the show: Weekend Wodehouse: "Honeysuckle Cottage" from Meet Mr Mulliner On this day: 29th May, 1940 – the evacuation of Dunkirk continued On this day: 29th May, 1953 – Edmund Hilla...
May 29, 2020•6 min•Ep. 50
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by TS Eliot, and extract from East Coker . " I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing... " From the show: Silas Marner by George Eliot On this day: 28th May, 1883 – the architect of Portmeirion , Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis is born in Gayton, Northamptonshire On this day: 28th May, 1936 – Alan Turing subm...
May 28, 2020•5 min•Ep. 49
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Christian Wiman, Prague . " When I was learning words and you were in the bath there was a flurry of small birds and in the aftermath... " From the show: Poetry by the remarkable Christian Wiman Marilynne Robinson's prize-winning novel Gilead On this day: 27th May, 1679 – the Habeas Corpus act guarantees English citizens against arbitrary arrest On this da...
May 27, 2020•5 min•Ep. 48
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by ee cummings, i thank You, God . "i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees ... " From the show: Backpacking with the Saints by Belden Lane On this day: 26th May, 604 – the death of Augustine , first Archbishop of Canterbury On this day: 26th May, 1868 – the last public hanging in England sees the execution of Micha...
May 26, 2020•5 min•Ep. 47
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by GK Chesterton, The Rolling English Road . " Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road... " From the show: Weekend Wodehouse: Thank You, Jeeves – in which Bertie and Jeeves struggle over the master's banjolele habit On this day: 22nd May, 1945, the RAF drops the first issue of The Flying...
May 22, 2020•6 min•Ep. 46
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, A Walk . " My eyes already touch the sunny hill. going far beyond the road I have begun... " From the show: Warlight by Michael Ondaatje On this day: 21st May, 1894, Queen Victoria opens the world's longest river navigation canal, the Manchester Ship Canal On this day: 21st May, 1602, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold of Otley Hall, Suffolk, ...
May 21, 2020•6 min•Ep. 45
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a poem by Alcuin, The School of York . " To some he made the grammar understood, And poured on others rhetoric's copious flood... " From the show: Just William by Richmal Crompton Remembering Alcuin of York , who died May 19th, in the year 804. Listen to the BBC's In Our Time episode on Alcuin . On this day: 20 May, 1772 – William Congreve, second Baronet, was born,...
May 20, 2020•6 min•Ep. 44
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With an extract from Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. " I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs... " From the show: Dunstan by Conn Iggulden On this day: 19th May, 988 – The death of Dunstan, politician, priest, silversmith and scholar, who pulled the devil by the nose with red-hot tongs On this day: 19th May, 1649 – Engla...
May 19, 2020•6 min•Ep. 43
Five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. Sign up at https://marcsalmanac.substack.com With a sonnet by William Shakespeare. " When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state... " From the show: Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm by Isabella Tree On this day: 18 May 1742, Lionel Lukin, inventor of the "unsinkable" lifeboat born in Great Dunmow, Essex On this day: 18 May 1830, Edwin Beard Budding, inventor of ...
May 18, 2020•5 min•Ep. 42
Hello from Suffolk, England. Sit back and enjoy five minutes of civilised calm, recorded in the peace of the English countryside. With a poem by Edgar Guest, The Things That Haven't Been Done Before . "The things that haven’t been done before, Those are the things to try ... " From the show: Weekend Wodehouse: a visit to Blandings castle with Summer Lightning On this day: May 15, 1718, James Puckle registers the first patent for a machine gun On this weekend: May 16-17, 1943, Operation Chastise,...
May 15, 2020•6 min•Ep. 41
