The Verb celebrates the centenary of the poet W.S. Graham - exploring his language and his relationship with Cornwall. Ian McMillan presents new poetry inspired by Graham from Rachael Boast and Penelope Shuttle, songs inspired by the Cornish landscape from Gwenno, specially commissioned work from Gerry Diver ('The Speech Project') and a collaboration between Bob Devereux and Adrian O'Reilly. Writer's block, the silence of the blank page, words for the Cornish landscape, the Welsh concept of 'ins...
Jan 18, 2019•44 min
Join Ian McMillan as he comperes a special evening of some of the very best poetry published over the last year - at the annual T.S.Eliot Prize readings, recorded in front of an audience at the Royal Festival Hall. All the short-listed poets will be featured, including the U.S. Laureate Tracy K Smith, Terrance Hayes, Nick Laird, Zaffar Kunial, Fiona Moore, Sean O'Brien, Ailbhe Darcy, Hannah Sullivan, Richard Scott and Phoebe Power.
Jan 14, 2019•59 min
We're crossing senses on The Verb this week, examining Synesthesia, with musician LJ Rich, linguist Rob Drummond, and poetry from Ruth Padel, Abi Palmer and Hannah Silva. For musician, broadcaster and synesthete LJ Rich, the world is drenched in music. With the help of a piano, she lets us inside her experience of the world, where tastes, colours and even the most boring train station make beautiful music. Verb regular, the linguist Rob Drummond has been researching the colour associations we al...
Jan 11, 2019•49 min
Merry Verb Christmas! We're at Vinyl Tap in Huddersfield for a festive evening of storytelling and song with brand new writing from poet, Simon Armitage, Joanne Harris and her Storytime Band and Owen Roberts. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
Dec 21, 2018•48 min
Ian McMillan and guests examine the language of sleeplessness. How does AL Kennedy's insomnia inform her prose? Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun presents excerpts from her diary of motherhoood, there's brand new poetry from Bridget Minnamore on her experience of disordered sleep, and Marina Benjamin on her new book 'Insomnia' Producer Cecile Wright
Dec 14, 2018•44 min
With Will Eaves, Ben Schott, Selina Nwulu and Jeremy Noel-Tod
Dec 07, 2018•49 min
with Iain Sinclair, Kate Fox, Sam Illingworth and Marilyn Hacker
Nov 30, 2018•47 min
To mark 100 years since the end of the First World War, The Verb presents ‘Unwritten’, a special edition of the programme telling the neglected stories of those who fought in the British West Indian Regiment, and the stories of those they left behind, through a series of new poems. The Verb recorded Unwritten in front of an audience at the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull earlier this year. We couldn't fit all the poems in the broadcast edition, so we've produced this extra podcast ...
Nov 09, 2018•46 min
To mark 100 years since the end of the First World War, The Verb presents ‘Unwritten’, a special edition of the programme telling the neglected stories of those who fought in the British West Indian Regiment, and the stories of those they left behind, through a series of new poems. 15,600 men from the Caribbean served everywhere from Messines to Egypt, Passchendaele to Palestine – and many received medals for their bravery. However, as the poet Karen McCarthy Woolf comments, ‘The wartime stories...
Nov 09, 2018•59 min
The Verb explores 'The Midlands' - with the novelist Jonathan Coe - on using the Midlands 'to think with' in his new book 'Middle England' , the poet Liz Berry on Black Country language, the writer and performer Steven Camden ( AKA Polar Bear) on the different influences on his 'voice' - and musician Ben Walker and researcher Bethany Whalley offer a sound art tribute to the cult 1974 film 'Penda's Fen'.
Nov 02, 2018•50 min
The Verb on Instagram Poetry, and the pleasures of writing on social media. Ian McMillan, and writer and cartoonist Moose Allain, explore the bittersweet language of the grapefruit, the 'oo' in festoon, and the 'bone' in trombone - for a brand new Twitter word game called 'The Word Service'. Poets Yrsa Daley-Ward, Mandy Kahn, and Johnathan Rice share poems of anxiety, joy in the everyday, and dark humour.
Oct 26, 2018•50 min
The Verb heads into the forest as part of Radio 3's season exploring the enchantment, escape and magical danger of forests. We explore the forest as metaphor with Terry Deary, Pascale Petit, with music and poetry from Claire Trévien and Kate Arnold, and Jack Bernhardt reminds us why teenagers should never go into the woods in horror films... Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
Oct 19, 2018•45 min
The Verb on 'failure' with Kate Fox, Mohammed Hanif, Scanner and Bryony Kimmings
Oct 12, 2018•52 min
Recorded at the Contains Strong Language Festival of poetry and performance in Hull, this week The Verb is examining young poets and young writing and celebrating 20 years of the Foyle Young Poet Award. Ian is joined by three previous winners of the the award. Phoebe Stuckes published her debut pamphlet Gin & Tonic in 2017, is a Barbican Young Poet, and has been a Foyle Young Poet four times. Jay Bernard won the 2017 Ted Hughes Award for their performance piece Surge: Side A, and was a Foyle...
Oct 05, 2018•49 min
The Verb at the 'Contains Strong Language' festival in Hull with Jackie Kay, Gruff Rhys, Louise Wallwein, Joe Hakim and work inspired by 'Palgrave's Golden Treasury'.
Sep 29, 2018•54 min
The Verb headed down to the Latitude Festival in Suffolk and popped up at their 'Speakeasy' spoken word stage. Joining Ian McMillan are: Luke Wright Latitude Festival veteran Luke Wright, who ran the Poetry Tent at the festival for eleven years. Luke performs from his new show 'Luke Wright@ Poet Laureate', and explains how he keeps his performances fresh night after night. Travis Alabanza Poet and performer Travis Alabanza reads from their debut chapbook 'Before I Step Outside You Love Me', and ...
Sep 21, 2018•54 min
Ian McMillan is joined by Michael Palin on the language of 19th century Naval officers (drunk and sober), ‘Rule Britannia’, and a remarkable ship called ‘Erebus’, He's also joined by beatboxer Jason Singh who uses his voice to create an astonishing maritime soundscape, by Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley who celebrates the yearning of First World War songs, and Mojdeh Stoakley who beachcombs the language of this 'Proms Verb' to create an instant poem. The Verb audience at Imperial College Unio...
Sep 14, 2018•44 min
The Verb celebrates the NHS at 70, exploring the language of the body, and the way bodies communicate when words fall short. So much care given in hospitals and GPs' surgeries is non-verbal, but how do we talk about and pass on expertise that lacks a lexicon? Ian introduces an NHS tribute poem, a brand new commission for The Verb from nurse Molly Case, and contributions from surgeon Professor Roger Kneebone (who collaborates with experts outside medicine e.g. chefs, magicians, musicians), puppet...
Jul 06, 2018•54 min
The Verb explores the language and literature inspired by northern rocks - with Benjamin Myers, Bella Hardy, M. John Harrison, Kate Davis and Simon Bainbridge.
Jun 29, 2018•49 min
Ian McMillan talks resilience in the BBC Tent with The Last Poets, Michael Morpurgo, Daniel Morden and Helen Mort Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen.
Jun 01, 2018•47 min
Ian McMillan peers into the pop-up tent that is 'festival' writing with Murray Lachlan Young - he introduces new fiction from Louise Welsh, new poetry from William Letford and Hollie McNish joins the programme to explore, in conversation with Dr Peter Mackay, the kind of festive language and rituals associated with Scots Gaelic literature. Ian is also joined by Professor Sarah Churchwell to unpick the language of the great American novelist Philip Roth - who died this week - and to celebrate not...
May 25, 2018•54 min
Examining autism, and the experience of being autistic through comedy, poetry, fiction and footnotes with guests Henry Normal, James McGrath, Kate Fox, and Alicia Kopf. Producer: Faith Lawrence Presenter: Ian McMillan.
May 04, 2018•50 min
Ian McMillan and guests explore Japanese night-time language, poetic encounters and musical collisions - and uncanny meetings that happen in the dark. The programme is part of Radio 3's 'Night Blossoms' - a week exploring the unexpected, the shadows and the counter-cultural in Japanese music and arts. Producer: Faith Lawrence Presenter: Ian McMillan.
Apr 27, 2018•55 min
Can algorithms help writers think more clearly and create innovative work ? On this week's 'Algorithm Verb' Ian McMillan is joined by Helen Arney, who performs a brand new love-song (written for the programme) using search engine algorithms, by Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician and pianist who is passionate about ridding the world of 'math-phobia', by the computer scientist Ursula Martin (who writes on Ada Lovelace, often credited with the first computer 'algorithm'), and by writer Kate Pullinger w...
Apr 20, 2018•43 min
The writer and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips is the author of 'On Kindness', and 'On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored' amongst other works of non-fiction. He is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. Adam invited The Verb into his west-London consulting room to discuss the rules and significance of Freud's concept of 'free association', the importance of inconclusive conclusions and what he sees as the lopsided relationship between poetry and psychoanalysis - something he explo...
Mar 30, 2018•44 min
This week on the verb we are turning our attention to Local language. Joining Ian McMillan are the linguist Rob Drummond who has been studying Manchester Voices and identifying new youth dialects, the Icelandic stand up comedian Ari Eldjárn on performing comedy in a city where everyone really does know everyone else and the novelist Sarah Hall discusses how she crafts specificity of place in her writing. Also joining Ian is Verb regular Hollie McNish who will be introducing us to Vanessa Kisuule...
Mar 02, 2018•48 min
Taking notes with Ian are Toby Litt and Jude Rogers. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright.
Feb 23, 2018•48 min
This week we're looking the possibilities of looking back. Joining Ian McMillan are... Novelist and essayist Tim Winton has been twice shortlisted for the Booker prize for his novels 'The Riders' and 'Dirt Music'. In his most recent book, 'The Boy Behind the Curtain', he returns to his childhood. The comedian Stewart Lee has honed the art of the callback over a long career writing for television and radio alongside his stand-up touring schedule. Angie Hobbs is the Professor of the Public Underst...
Feb 16, 2018•45 min
How do you write a fight? Ian McMillan and Hollie McNish are joined by Ross Sutherland, Ben Crystal, Willy Vlautin and Theresa Lola to talk about punching with a pen. Willy Vlautin is an American novelist and musician. He is the lead singer for Richmond Fontaine, and his latest novel 'Don't Skip out on Me' (Faber), follows a young man who dreams of being a championship boxer. The poet Ross Sutherland has written a brand new commission for The Verb inspired by the Jackie Chan film 'Rumble in the ...
Feb 02, 2018•45 min
January is a month of resolutions and fresh starts, of gyms and diets. This week Ian McMillan and guests tackle the language of Wellbeing and Self-Care. Poets are not generally known for their physical prowess, but in George Szirtes new collection 'Thirty Poets Go To The Gym' (Candlestick). What happens when famous poets from Lord Byron to John Berryman and from Emily Dickinson to Elizabeth Bishop try to get into shape? What are the strongest influences on the ways we chose to live our lives? Do...
Jan 26, 2018•48 min
