‘A gift, a love gift / Utterly unasked for / By a sky’

This week, Sally has been reading Sylvia Plath’s ‘Poppies in October’ (1963). Join her for this brief mediation on living generously and the restorative powers of reading poetry.

The text of the poem 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.

‘There’s always hope where there’s poetry…’

This week, Sally is preparing for her narrowboat, Cerian, to journey upriver for maintenance. Join her in her engine room for a discussion of Somerset Maugham’s novel The Painted Veil, meditations on kindness, and reflections on how poetry helps us to create our own rhythms in a noisy world. 

More information on The Painted Veil (1925) can be found here. 

The poems read from in this episode are ‘Auguries of Innocence’ by William Blake, ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’ by Emily Dickinson, and ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S. Eliot. 

The original piano music is ‘Doubt’ and ‘Sunday’ by Paul Sebastian. The original guitar music is by Dylan Gwalia. 

This episode was edited and produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. 

"What is it this material life we find ourselves captured by?" 

This week Sally is developing her character, Pond Man as she considers the opening line of James Joyce's experimental epic, Ulysses, and the tradition of ritual - secular and religious - in everyday life. In the tradition of Joyce, we observe Pond Man across the length and breadth of his day as he prepares to sleep. 

This episode was edited and produced by D. Gwalia.

The guitar music is by D. Gwalia. 

The opening and exiting voice is Emma Fielding. 

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, James Bowen, Lucie Richter-Mahr, Kris Dyer, Violet Henderson, and Maeve Magnus.

‘You see, I go and live with Pond Man when the pain becomes too much…’

This week, we join Sally at home, as she tries to live with a pain that has become familiar with the help of imagination, community and her young neighbour Maeve. Follow her as she escapes the everyday through the figure of Pond Man, an inhabitant of her latest work, seeking solace in the world of her forthcoming novel (2025), Pond Life.

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘We have forgotten what it is to look at one another and to notice.’

What does it mean to really see? This week, Sally is meditating on the power of images to connect us in a busy world. Join her as she reflects on José Saramago’s novel Blindness, on empathy and attention, and how literature offers us ways of tuning in to our surroundings. 

Guitar music by D. Gwalia, piano music by Paul Sebastian. 

This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Kris Dyer, Violet Henderson, and Maeve Magnus. 

A special episode this week, as we join Sally at Brasenose College in a conversation titled ‘A Reading Life, A Writing Life’, with fellow writers Aida Edemariam and Joanna Kavenna. Join them for a discussion on memory, storytelling, and the porous boundaries between reality and fiction.

Aida is a writer and journalist whose debut book The Wife’s Tale received the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Award. More information on her and her work can be found here: https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/edemariam-aida/

Joanna, whose 2016 novel A Field Guide to Reality has appeared in a previous episode, is a novelist, essayist and current Frankland Visitor at Brasenose College, Oxford. More information can be found on her website: http://www.joannakavenna.com/

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one…’

This week, Sally has been reading José Saramago’s Blindness, and thinking about the ways we see, or don’t see, the world around us. Drawing on J.M. Barrie, join her for a reflection on seeing and writing through the dark places of the world.

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian, and the guitar music was written and performed by D. Gwalia.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Kris Dyer, Violet Henderson, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Where do images come from?’

This week, Sally is thinking about the importance of sound and rhythm to writing. Join her for a discussion of George Orwell’s Coming Up for Air (1939) and a reflection on how to find your writing voice. 

Guitar music composed and performed by Dylan Gwalia.

This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Let words pass through you in a small contained space’

This week, we join Sally for a meditation on creating and inhabiting a space in which to write, and to be held, via the work of the novelist V.S. Pritchett. Follow her as she begins to lay out her meditative practice of reading and writing, drawing on the restorative power of words on the page.

An account of Pritchett and his work can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/feb/22/vspritchett

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.’

This week, Sally is reading Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Insomnia’, a poem full of shifting, uncertain geographies and marvellous depths. How do we navigate the strange land of sleeplessness? Join Sally as she meditates on the power of reading closely and the solace of poetry as a place of rest.  

‘Insomnia’ is available to read here: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493531-Insomnia-by-Elizabeth-Bishop

This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

For Summer and Dylan, both students. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I shall be late!’

Sally has been following the White Rabbit this week, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and reflecting on the ever-increasing demands on the writer’s time. Follow her down the rabbit hole on a journey through time, lateness, and rest…

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

The wonderful piano music in the closing section was composed by Paul Clarke.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘How do you remember people first?’

We join Sally on New Year’s Night, staying with a relative in Chichester, a familiar city from her childhood. Join her for a meditation on embodiment, memory, and authority, via a vision of John Milton’s hell from the epic Paradise Lost.

Satan’s speech, read partway through the episode, can be found here: https://poets.org/poem/paradise-lost-book-i-lines-221-270

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Silence, quietness, that’s a way of living…’

This week, we join Sally in the attic room of her family home, where she has been reading Rose Tremain's first novel Sadler’s Birthday (1976). Follow her on a journey through the spaces in life where we find quietness, and the ways we make ourselves fit into them, in writing or otherwise.

The piano music in the closing section is ‘Tuesday’, by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This week, we join Sally in the middle of a winter night. Follow her reflections on festive traditions, via Christina Rossetti, and on seeing the world through illness, with Emily Brontë, and John Milton.

Rossetti’s poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53216/in-the-bleak-midwinter

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Demi.

‘And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating / Of dark habits, / keeping their difficult balance.’

This week, Sally has been living with Richard Wilbur’s ‘Love Calls Us to the Things of the World’, and reflecting on living with pain. Balance with her on the precipices we all exist on…

The poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43048/love-calls-us-to-the-things-of-this-world

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Keyang.

‘Where can we live but days?’

This week, Sally has been reading and living with Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Days’, from The Whitsun Weddings. Join her for a meditation on how we spend our days, drawing on prayer, hope, hymns, and reading.

The poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48410/days-56d229a0c0c33

Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally’s latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘This is how I prefer to live…inside a narrow passage…’

Sally is still living with Wuthering Heights this week, as she meditates on the nature of life in confined spaces, both in fiction and on her narrowboat. Join her as she muses on the narrow passages that we live in and move through, reflecting on the nature of freedom, grief, and love.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I can’t live without story now…it feels like breathing.’

This week, Sally is travelling to Sicily, for a conversation with Marina Warner on ‘Life Writing, Memory and Fiction.’ Before leaving, she offers a brief meditation on the local artist Gabriella Bailey, telling us a story of two figures outside a city, and the spaces outside of life.

The painting described can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKavmGtbl-/?igshid=MWFzaTYzano3eTN5cg%3D%3D

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

The podcast will return, as normal, next week…

‘Are you brave enough to follow me there?’

This week, Sally has been reading Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. Fixated on the dreams of its narrator, join her for her reflections on rage, the histories of homes and places, and the distracting intrusions of life into writing.

The beautiful piano music in the middle and closing sections is by Paul Clarke.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Alice Colquhoun.

In this episode, Sally muses on J.M.W. Turner’s famous 1830 painting, Shoreham. Join her for reflections on art, life, and on writing from the faint lines of existence.

Turner’s work makes frequent appearances in Sally’s latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘A writer’s notebook is full of the sound of atmosphere…’

This week, Sally is teaching a course on detective fiction. Emerging from her meditations on Wilkie Collins’ novel The Moonstone, follow her on a journey through the light and the dark places of the world, and the variegated truths of writing and life.

Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally’s latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Continuing this week’s Shakespearean theme, Sally describes a recent trip to a screening of a new cinematic adaptation of Kenneth Macmillan’s 1988 balletic interpretation of Hamlet, Sea of Troubles. Join her for a meditation on choreography, interpretation, and prayer.

Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX), who made the screening possible, run a wide variety of events relating to dance at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. More information is available here: https://dansox3.wordpress.com/about/

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘All the world’s a stage…’

Sally is thinking this week about a photograph of her foster grandmother in Shakespearean costume. Who is she? How did she find her part? Did she have her experience, like Jacques, the man of the world? Listen to her meditations, extemporised and recorded in a single take, to find out.

The speech from As You Like It, read at the end, is available here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56966/speech-all-the-worlds-a-stage

For those in and around Oxford, Sally will be speaking about her latest book, The Green Lady, at 3pm this Saturday, the 28th of October, at Blackwell's Bookshop. Tickets for this free event can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sally-bayley-the-green-lady-with-triona-adams-tickets-681607986837

The wonderful piano music in the closing section is by Paul Clarke.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘But the darkness is a kind of blanket, and she comforts me…’ This week, we join Sally on a sleepless night, on a journey through Millet’s The Gleaners (1857), via her character Pond Man. Follow her through this meditation on voice, place, and the spaces in between events. More information on the painting can be found here. The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Doubt’, by Paul Sebastian. The guitar piece is by Dylan Gwalia. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Feelings: oh, I have those; they govern me.’

In this special episode, Sally reflects on the work of the late poet Louise Glück as she travels around Oxford. Join her as she muses on feeling, poetry, family, and names.

The poem, ‘The Red Poppy’, featured in this episode, can be read here: https://poets.org/poem/red-poppy-0

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Clarke.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

"In the end she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than other girls."

Sally and her neighbour discuss tree spirits and magical bracelets on her narrowboat. As the rains draw in, Sally settles down to read J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. She thinks about clouds and feelings, listens to chamber music, and follows the story of Peter Pan from Kensington Gardens to Rustington-on-Sea. Our feelings have always been with us, like the weather. And on rainy days, it’s good to dance more. 

Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally’s latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers. 

Original music, ‘Wednesday’, by Paul Clarke. 

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

For Laetitia. 

In this special bonus episode, follow Sally on an adventure of mistaken identity, Marmite ice cream, and Miss Cull.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Is there a plot to life?’

This week, Sally has been reading Daniel Martin, by John Fowles. Follow her musings as she considers the relationship between the writer’s public and private selves, anonymity, and the nature of plot.

Daniel Martin, now published by Vintage Classics, is available from all good booksellers. All quoted materials are the property of the Estate of John Fowles.

The poem, ‘Burnt Norton’ from the Four Quartets, parts of which Sally performed last week at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, is available to read here: http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Tune in tomorrow for a bonus episode…

‘How do you face the void?’

This week, Sally presents a series of linked meditations around the character of Miss Cull, illustrating how characters can be made by, with, and through everyday objects, and how her biography, like anyone’s, is still being written. For writers struggling to face the blank page, follow Miss Cull as she emerges from Sally’s observations of life, its rhythms, and the animate world of the writer’s imagination.

Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally’s latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Other echoes inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?’

This week, Sally is reading T. S. Eliot in preparation for her performance at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival on the 6th of October. She explores the landscape of ‘Burnt Norton’ (1936), improvising scenes on the theme of memory via rose leaves, purses, lightbulbs, and dry crackling lawns. The Oxford Chamber Music Festival, run by Priya Mitchell, takes place from the 4th to the 7th of October. All are welcome, please come along!

The Festival website is here: https://www.ocmf.net/2023-festival/

The poem, ‘Burnt Norton’ from the Four Quartets, is available to read here: http://www.davidgorman.com/4quartets/1-norton.htm

The wonderful music is by Paul Clarke. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen

Special thanks to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘For all the Froggies of the World...'

Inspired by her amphibian lifestyle, Sally offers an everyday fable of the writer. Froggie and the Golden Ball is a cautionary tale of the writerly career and the lure of acclaim, interspersed with reflections on nature, Emily Dickinson, and hairdressing.

Dickinson’s poem about the frog is available here: https://poets.org/poem/im-nobody-who-are-you-260

The producer of this episode is James Bowen.

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

The beautiful piano music heard in the opening section is written and performed by Paul Clarke.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally has just finished a lesson with a student who is writing a story in the vein of Thomas Hardy about a young man on a farm. Searching for visual references, they latch on to a painting of a farrier, shoeing a horse. Now the image, haunted by  a spectral figure, has lingered in Sally's mind and she reflects on how visual and physical memory can inspire writing; and how writers are like ghosts, absent-present in the scene.

In a heat haze, the sound of a dog barking prompts her to think about the importance of creating barriers against the noise of the world.

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally is reading A Field Guide to Reality, the debut novel by the Granta Best of Young British author Joanna Kavenna, originally published in 2016 and set in a surreal, quantum alternative Oxford University. 

Sally will be in conversation with Joanna Kavenna and fellow writer Elizabeth Lowry at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, from 6pm on September 5th. They will discuss many of the themes of the podcast; reading, writing and the intersection with life and living - and it's free to attend! More details here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/s-bayley-e-lowry-and-j-kavenna-a-reading-life-a-writing-life-tickets-688044298017

You can find out more about Joanna's writings here:

http://www.joannakavenna.com/

And Elizabeth Lowry here:

https://elizabethlowry.co.uk/

Starting a new book is like starting a new relationship, and Sally is reading Elizabeth Lowry's The Chosen, a ghost story and a love story about Thomas Hardy and his estranged wife. 

Sally will be in conversation with Elizabeth Lowry and fellow writer Joanna Kavenna at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, from 6pm on September 5th. They will discuss many of the themes of the podcast; reading, writing and the intersection with life and living - and it's free to attend! More details here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/s-bayley-e-lowry-and-j-kavenna-a-reading-life-a-writing-life-tickets-688044298017

Elizabeth Lowry's The Chosen has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. You can find out more here:

https://elizabethlowry.co.uk/

You can find out about Joanna Kavenna, who is also appearing in the event, here:

http://www.joannakavenna.com/

‘London. Michaelmas Term lately over and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall…’

This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (1852). Follow her on a journey through his London, in the company of its climate, characters, and the bewildering legal bureaucracy not very far from our own….

Music used throughout includes ‘Tuesday’ and ‘Thursday’ by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This is the second half of the chat between Sally and Will Self, held at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, in which they discuss the German emigré writer WG Sebald, their reading and writing habits, parenthood, children and eccentric families.

Sally is hosting another evening of literary chat with friends and fellow writers Joanna Kavenna and Elizabeth Lowry, also at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, from 6pm on September 5th. They will discuss many of the themes of the podcast; reading, writing and the intersection with life and living - and it's free to attend! More details here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/s-bayley-e-lowry-and-j-kavenna-a-reading-life-a-writing-life-tickets-688044298017

Our thanks to Will Self and to Blackwell's Bookshop. You can find out more about Will Self's book here: https://will-self.com/why-read/

Just a short announcement by Sally about an exciting event coming up - recorded with the help of Magnificent Maeve Magnus.

This episode is a meditation, inspired by the themes and characters of Sally's latest book, The Green Lady; it's Sally's elegy for Mrs Robinson, a woman who was shut out of life, not seen or heard;  but Sally knew her, and remembers her.

You can find out more about The Green Lady here: https://sallybayley.com/

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

It's the launch day for Sally's new book, The Green Lady, and Sally is feeling the pressure, especially as her neighbours have left her alone on the boat. In the middle of the night, she reads an 18th century classic, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, finding commonality in its psychological upswings and downswings, the melodrama, the despair and the comforts, of its narrator, who has turned to writing in his journal to cope with his lonely castaway life. Brought back to the world by the sound of children playing outside, Sally has to rely on the kindness of a Girl Friday neighbour to refill her water tank. She reflects on the importance of willpower, determination, and the practice of paying attention.

Robinson Crusoe, published by Daniel Defoe in 1719, is often said to be the first English novel; a form of spiritual autobiography and the beginnings of realistic fiction in English. 

I Am is a poem written by John Clare in 1844 or 1845, while the author was a patient in the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum. Clare (1793 to 1864) was the son of a farm labourer and struggled for most of his life to earn money for his family while pursuing his literary ambitions, living for some time as a vagrant. I Am is his most famous poem, expressing his deep sense of isolation from society and his family as he struggled with his mental health.

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Something different for this episode - Sally interviews writer Will Self about his latest book of essays, Why Read. They discuss not just why we read, but how we read; digital reading versus physical books; and Will discusses the writers who had a formative effect on him, including Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka and W.G. Sebald.

The event took place at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford. Our thanks to Will and to Blackwell's.

You can find out more about Will Self's book here: https://will-self.com/why-read/

In this episode, Sally reads extracts from her forthcoming book, the Green Lady, released next week. The Green Lady is the third part of a literary coming of age story that began with Girl with Dove, a combination of memoir and storytelling from the perspective of a child in search of a way of expressing herself. The book is a tribute to the women who raised Sally, and the often unappreciated and unnoticed teachers, nurturers and maternal spirits of history and the present day. 

The Green Lady is published on July 20th, 2023, and you can find out more about it here: https://sallybayley.com

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally treads old familiar pathways through fields of corn and wheat in Sussex, very close to the place she grew up. Her thoughts are with Charlotte Brontë, who wrote haunting poems about her own complex, equivocal feelings towards her childhood and the place she grew up. Sally reads the famous opening passage from Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. Jane, an unwanted orphan who retreats into the world of books was a pivotal figure in Sally's psychological development as a young teenager.

Charlotte Brontë (1816 to 1855) was the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who lived to adulthood. She lived a life marked by personal struggle, frustrations, loss and grief. Jane Eyre was published in 1847 under a male pseudonym. It was a highly original book, with strong autobiographical elements, initiating a genre of its own, the "governess novel". 

The three sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Ann - had published their poems in 1846, the year before Jane Eyre, also pseudonymously. The poems which Sally reads in this episode are Regret, Winter Store, and Evening Solace. After the success of Jane Eyre, Charlotte stopped writing poems. You can find out more about her poetry here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charlotte-bronte

In the first of her anti-memoir series, Girl With Dove, Sally writes in detail about her relationship with the character of Jane Eyre as she was growing up in very difficult circumstances:

https://sallybayley.com/girl-with-dove

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

"Why do we write?" Sally asks herself this week, as she reads a novella by the 20th century writer DH Lawrence, a story of longing, dreams, desire and self-liberation. Sally is interrupted by the arrival of a gang of noisy pheasants, who annoy the local cat, the aloof and enigmatic Plucky. Sally reflects on the unknowable interiority of everyone - not just cats; and while spring cleaning, she finds a talismanic object - a faded cover of a much-loved, much-read book. Returning to Lawrence, she discusses how the bright shining physically grounded objects of the story generate a fairytale world, a place of enchantment and spells.

DH  Lawrence was born in 1885; the initials stand for David Herbert. He achieved as much infamy as fame in his lifetime for writings which promoted sexuality, vitality and the power of instinct; they were seen as scandalous and shocking to the sensibilities of the time. It wasn't until after his death in 1930 that Lawrence gained a favourable critical reputation; Philip Larkin said Lawrence “had more genius .. than any man could be expected to handle", while EM Forster called him "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation".

Lawrence's critical reputation dipped again in the 1970s and he remains controversial today; in this episode, Sally highlights his desire to restore to literature an apprehension of the intimacy of the body and the physical presence of things.

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

This week, Sally is entertaining a visitor to the narrowboat - her eight-year-old neighbour Maeve Magnus - for their regular evening ritual of watching Poirot and honing their impressions of the TV show’s characters. Sally harkens back to her eight-year-old self, reading her way through Agatha Christie’s stories, each tale representing a world of fresh possibilities and alternative ways of living. 

She savours one of her favourite passages, the opening of The Body in the Library, with its skilful prose, its evocation of place, time and architecture, its sharp observations of class and money, and its vivid characterisations. This is a novel which influenced Sally in writing her first autobiographical book, Girl With Dove.

Sally reflects on why she wanted to be Miss Marple at the age of eight – and why she still does. She ponders the similarities between the fictional detective and the writer, observing quietly, searching for clues and insights, assessing character and building a narrative.

Agatha Christie (1890 to 1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time. She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections; she created Miss Marple in 1927 and featured her in 12 novels and 20 stories.

When the Body in Library was published in 1942, Christie wrote in a foreword that she had decided to write a crime novel which would take head-on one of the biggest cliches in all of fiction; a body is found in the library. The novel is acclaimed for its original plotting and its gentle subversion of traditional detective tropes.

Sally also mentions a short story by Virginia Woolf, The Death of a Moth, with its close attention to insect life all around us. The story was published posthumously, in 1942, the year after Woolf’s death:

https://www.sanjuan.edu/cms/lib8/CA01902727/Centricity/Domain/3981/Death%20of%20A%20Moth-Virginia%20Woolf%20copy.pdf

You can find out more about Girl With Dove, along with her other books, on Sally's website: https://sallybayley.com/books

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

We have been able to launch and continue to run this podcast thanks to the kind help of donors, to whom we are profoundly grateful; any new listeners who might be willing to support us, please do have a look at the crowd-funding site we have set up - https://gofund.me/d5bef397

This week, Sally is reading The Girls of Slender Means, a novella by one of her favourite writers, Scottish novelist, poet and essayist Muriel Spark (1918 to 2006).

During the Second World War, Spark came to London to work in British intelligence. She took up residence at the Helena Club in London, a hostel in Lancaster Gate, described as “a strict club for young ladies”.  In 1963, she published A Girl of Slender Means, based on her experiences at the Helena Club.

Spark was also editor of the Poetry Review from 1947 to 1948; one of the few female editors of the time. She wrote other acclaimed novels such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961). 

Sally also reads a passage from Twelfth Night, a speech by Viola. Shipwrecked, posing as a servant, uncertain of her position and future, and in love, Viola is some ways a girl of slender means.

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I’m wondering what happiness sounds like, these days…’

This week, Sally has been reading Nan Shepherd’s The Weatherhouse, and reflecting on her relationship with happiness and contentment. Join her for a meditation on acceptance, simplicity, and our connections to life’s natural rhythms.

The guitar music throughout is by D. Gwalia.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally starts the podcast with a brief poem by Philip Larkin, a complex poem of springtime, grief, and renewal. The trees all around the boat take Sally’s mind back to the horse chestnut tree of her youth, where she and her brother used to play, and which became a companion to her as she started to read books. A hunt for a pack of pesky wasp invaders, headed by an indignant Queen, ends up with Sally pruning the nearby hawthorn and willow trees, in whose branches the neighbourhood water vole has been spotted, and listening to the chirruping of the birds.

She turns to a work by novelist John Fowles – who, just like Sally, grew up feeling deeply connected to trees, drawing on them for creative inspiration. Arguing passionately for the importance of preserving nature in its wild state, Fowles felt connected to trees all his life, from the orchards of his childhood to the woodlands of Devon and Dorset.

Fowles published his autobiographical book The Tree in 1979, describing nature and writing as interconnected,  “siblings, branches of one tree”.   The book is considered to have created a new genre, “nature-as-memoir”, taken up later by authors including Richard Mabey, who Sally mentions towards the end of the episode.

Mabey, born in 1941, is a pioneering nature-and-culture writer, someone who did a huge amount to bring to public attention the networked, social nature of trees, writing books such as Nature Cure and The Ash and The Beech. The interconnected roots of trees, the way they can communicate with and support each other, has also been explored in books such as The Hidden Life of Trees (by Peter Wohlleben).

The Trees one of the best known poems by the leading 20th century poet Philip Larkin (1922 to 1985), can be found here:

https://poetryarchive.org/poem/trees/

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally reads Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Frost at Midnight, and reflects on the importance of finding ways to escape, now and again, from a stressful world - to find a place of tranquillity, where we can think and create, connect with ourselves and with the natural world. It's a fundamental need, but very hard to achieve.

So Sally outlines a plan - to create a "retreat", a way to provide our listeners with a temporary but meaningful respite from the world.

As Sally explains, we are thinking of creating a longer form of A Reading Life, A Writing Life.  It will be recorded, edited and produced in exactly the same style as the podcast, but it will be made over an extended period of time, and it will be much longer - perhaps about six or seven hours - instead of the usual 20 or so minutes.

We are thinking of it as the audio equivalent of a writer’s retreat - a journey we can take together, created by words, sounds and music, a journey to a place of calm, quietude and deep reflection.

We are calling the concept an “audio retreat”. The aim is to produce a mental space which you are invited into. It will be a place to hear Sally's thoughts on her reading, and how it relates to her life, how she is inspired to create, and how she writes, in extended, close-up, multi-layered detail.

Our audio retreat will be a meditative experience, a way of disconnecting from the distractions, the clutter and mess of daily life. We hope it will help you unlock your own creativity and explore the corners of your own mind. And of course, as is usual in the podcast, Sally will continue to recount the joys and difficulties of living on a narrowboat as the seasons pass, while providing an eclectic, idiosyncratic and joyful guide to some of her favourite books and authors. 

The audio retreat will take many hours of production, so it's something we can only make if at least some of our listeners are interested in supporting it. 

So we want to ask you, the listeners, what do you think about the idea of "A Reading Life, A Writing Life  - An Audio Retreat"?

Please do let us know! You can message us through Twitter  - @SallyBayley1

Or email us at sally.bayley@ell.ox.ac.uk

or

readinglifewritinglife@gmail.com

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally starts by telling us the tale of the Boiler That Went Bang in the Night, and the Bird That Never Was. She’s preparing a zoom class for some schoolchildren which draws on her first book of memoirs – or anti-memoirs, as she prefers to call them – called Girl With Dove. Sally pulls out the book's manuscript and we hear about her upbringing in a slum area on the south coast, and her earliest memories of her granny and Mum, growing roses on a scrubby patch of land. She tells us about her baby brother David, and what happened to him; an event which changed all their lives.

Further Reading

There’s only one book referred to in this week’s episode – Sally’s own book, Girl With Dove. You can find out more about it here:

https://sallybayley.com/girl-with-dove

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding. A number of the music tracks were composed and performed by Simon Turner.

We have been able to launch and continue to run this podcast thanks to the kind help of donors, to whom we are profoundly grateful. Any new listeners who might be willing to support us, please do visit our crowd-funding site - https://gofund.me/d5bef397

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

Sally does her washing on the narrowboat, and with spring in the air, her thoughts turn to the past. She reads from an old favourite, the children’s classic novel, The Wind in the Willows, and discusses its characters and themes with her friend from next door, Maeve Magnus, who is reading it for the first time and sees close parallels between the book and their own lives on the river. Sally recalls her fierce search for meaning and direction of her university days, and how she plunged into the writings of the American scholar Camille Paglia; then she reads an illuminating passage written by a former student, the writer, art critic and academic, Rebecca Birrell. Sally ends by reflecting on her desire for privacy and space, and the adoption of literary and artistic personae, reaching back to the masks worn by actors in ancient Greece.

The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by the Scottish novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help the excitable, impetuous, swaggering, but hapless Mr Toad. The novel was based on bedtime stories which Grahame, a successful banker and financier, told his seven-year-old son. The book's impressionistic descriptions of the English countryside and its mythic search for moments of grace have made it an enduring read for adults as well as children; while the setting of the book partly drew on the author's experiences of living beside the River Thames, south of Oxford - not too far from where Sally and Maeve now live.

Grahame died in 1932 and lies buried in Oxford’s Holywell Cemetery.

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, which Sally read avidly at university, is a 1990 book about sexual decadence in Western literature and the visual arts by scholar Camille Paglia. The novel draws on the conflicts of Greek drama and demonstrates their continued relevance in its comprehensive study of Western art and literature, from Botticelli and Leonardo daVinci to Shakespeare, Goethe, Coleridge, Emily Brontë and Oscar Wilde.

This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early Twentieth Century by Dr Rebecca Birrell is published by Bloomsbury Circus. It is both biography and art critcism of 10 female artists, including Dora Carrington, Vanessa Bell and Gwen John. It was the Guardian Art Book of the Year and shortlisted for a number of other prestigious awards.

The producer of the podcast is Andrew Smith: https://www.fleetingyearfilms.com

The extra voice in this episode is Emma Fielding.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. Special thanks go to Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus. If you would like to support us, please visit - https://gofund.me/d5bef397