Ian McMillan hosts Radio 4's cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance.
Part of the BBC's year-long celebration of books, The Verb looks at the way the language of novels inspires writers. Joining Ian McMillan to champion the books that have inspired them are Tim Minchin, Kit De Waal, Elif Shafak and Geoff Dyer. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
This week The Verb examines the idea of 'Alone', whether it means revelling in solitude or drowning in loneliness. Joining Ian are debut novelist Okechukwu Nzelu, whose 'The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney' examines finding yourself and where you belong, and Will Taylor who will be presenting an excerpt of his audio drama 'Black Boys Cry', produced as part of the BBC's New Creatives scheme. DJ Taylor takes us on a tour of the loneliest characters, place and sentences in literature, as well as an ...
Ian McMillan with writing inspired by molluscs (snails, slugs, and cockles) - he's joined by the novelist Jill Dawson on Patricia Highsmith's pet snails, poets Isabel Galleymore and Kate Fox, and Richard Gameson on the mystery of snail battles in the margins of medieval manuscripts.
This week, Ian McMillan and the guests shoot for the moon. Ian is joined by Ocean Vuong, winner of the 2017 TS Eliot prize for 'Night Sky with Exit Wounds', who has just published his first novel 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' (Cape). Ocean celebrates his favourite recent moon writing by Mojave American poet Natalie Diaz. We also her from Mary Jean Chan, who has just published her debut collection 'Flèche'. As it's our last programme of The Verb season before we take our summer break, we've b...
The 'feel' of another language and the impact of its sound is hard to convey in translation. Are there ways to be more faithful to the visceral experience of a prose piece or a poem? Or should we be questioning the idea that a translator can or should be faithful? Rowan Williams discusses the 'verbal spring' of the iconic Welsh bard Taliesin and the work attributed to him, novelist Adam Thirlwell and Palestinian writer Adania Shibli explore the pleasures and possibilities of simultaneous transla...
What kind of writing and behaviour gets called 'vulgar' and how does 'vulgar' relate to the word 'common'? The Verb explores the power of both words: their power to hurt and shame, the way they help, hinder and enlighten us - and asks whether we can do without them. Poets Philip Gross, Jacqueline Saphra, Heather Phillipson (the next artist to be curating the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square) and writer Cathy Rentzenbrink join Ian McMillan. Producer: Faith Lawrence Presenter: Ian McMillan...
This week The Verb is live at The Aldeburgh Festival in Snape Maltings. Joining Ian and a studio audience are Lavinia Greenlaw, Fiona Sampson and Mark Padmore. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
This week The Verb comes from The Hay Festival, recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Tent. Ian's guests are the writer John Lanchester on his new dystopian novel 'The Wall' (Faber), poet Hannah Sullivan who recently won the TS Eliot Prize for her debut collection 'Three Poems' (Faber), comedian and 'Mash Report' star Rachel Parris on the art of the musical parody and Nina Stibbe whose novel 'Reasons to Be Cheerful was awarded The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. Prese...
The Verb does a deep dive into the word 'America' - why does it have such a hold on the imagination? Ian's guests are Tracy K Smith, the US Poet Laureate, nominated for the TS Eliot prize for her collection 'Wade in the Water', and Terrance Hayes, author of 'American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin', which was also shortlisted for the TS Eliot. Joining them is the critic Sarah Churchwell, author of Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream. Presenter: Ian McMilla...
This week The Verb is messing about on the river of language, part of BBC Radio 3's season of programmes on Rivers. Ian McMillan is joined by the Booker Prize-winning novelist Alan Hollinghurst, music journalist and broadcaster Jude Rogers and the poets Chris Wallace-Crabbe and MacGillivray. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
Ian's guests on the 'late-night language lock-in' are the novelist Mark Haddon on his new novel The Porpoise' and poet Rachael Allen, whose debut collection 'Kingdomland' has just been published by Faber. We're also joined by Verb Regular Kate Fox and Allison Davies, who has written the next in our series of Verb dramas. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
Ian McMillan and guests explore writing about insects and insect-language – including the way insect aliens are depicted in science fiction. Will Burns and Hannah Peel celebrate moths in a new sound commission, poet Elizabeth-Jane Burnett shares work-in-progress, linguist Rob Drummond explores Ursula Le Guin and Doctor Who, entomologist Richard Jones explains why he is happy to call himself 'Bugman', and editor Michael Schmidt celebrates the Australian poet Les Murray.
The Verb explores the pleasure and possibility of 'the gap', including line-breaks, spaces between words, and gaps in our understanding - with Linda Grant, Ira Lightman, Fiona Moore and Emma Smith. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
In an extended interview, the Booker Prize winning poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje sits down with Ian McMillan to discuss the pleasure of naming characters, dark houses as settings, listeners in his fiction, his re-shaping of forms, and the enduring inspiration of music, along with other aspects of his writing process. Michael is best known for his critically acclaimed novel, 'The English Patient', turned into an Oscar winning film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and now on the s...
This week The Verb is looking at modern retelling and remixing of ancient stories. Jenny Lewis discusses her book 'Gilgamesh Retold' (Carcanet), Fiona Benson explains why Zeus is at the heart of her new collection 'Vertigo & Ghost' (Cape), there's new poetry from Richard Scott and Jack Bernhardt is off to Sherwood Forest, Hollywood style. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Faith Lawrence
The Verb explores footnotes, ironic detective fiction, poem-spells, satire, sound loops and neologisms - and the way they can all be used to fight sexist language - in honour of International Women's Day. Ian's guests are the writer and sociologist Professor Ann Oakley, who popularised the word 'gender' in the 1970s, and founded the Social Science Research Unit at the UCL Institute of Education, the novelist and critic Dr Siri Hustvedt on her new novel 'Memories of the Future', the poet Salena G...
Ian McMillan explores what happens when writers have to shift their thoughts and feelings into a second language. Novelist Patrick McGuinness argues that he can 'feel more than he can say in French, and say more than he can feel in English', Nick Makoha brings us a new poetry commission inspired by leaving Uganda (and three languages behind) when he was only four. We also hear about the 'Polish Sappho' - the groundbreaking poet Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska who moved to Blackpool during the Sec...
Ian McMillan looks at language after dark and writing about nightlife with guests Dave Haslam, Geraldine Quigley, Rachael Young and Chris Green. Dave Haslam is a writer, broadcaster and Dj and the author of 'Life After Dark', a comprehensive history of nightlife in Britain. Geraldine Quigley's debut novel 'Music Love Drugs War' follows a group of young friends trying to have a good time against the background of the troubles in Derry, Theater Maker Rachael Young examines both the good and the ba...
Ian McMillan celebrates the bicentenary of writer, artist and critic John Ruskin, alongside US fiction writer Kristen Roupenian (author of 'Cat Person' - a story which went viral after being published in The New Yorker), Professor Dinah Birch, and Sarala Estruch. He also introduces a new commission inspired by Ruskin's fascination with geology (a collaboration between the musician Sonic Pleasure and Verb regular, the poet Ira Lightman).
Ian McMillan gets into the subjunctive mood with brand new writing from Toby Litt, a new poetry commission from Holly Pester, on the subjunctive in welsh with Menna Elfyn and Rob Drummond explains why the subjunctive is dying out amongst the young... Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Cecile Wright
The Verb this week is an extended conversation with the poet, editor, mentor, teacher and aphorist Don Paterson. Don Paterson first came to prominence in the early 90s, winning the Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection for ‘Nil Nil’ in 1993. The following year he was selected as one of the Poetry Society’s ‘New Generation Poets’ alongside contemporaries such as Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Kathleen Jamie and his friend and mentor Michael Donaghy. He has published nine collections of...
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...
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.
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...
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
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
With Will Eaves, Ben Schott, Selina Nwulu and Jeremy Noel-Tod
with Iain Sinclair, Kate Fox, Sam Illingworth and Marilyn Hacker
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 ...
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...
