Explore every episode of the podcast This Place Podcast

This is an episode with a view: sitting at the top of a breath-taking valley, tucked into the Powys hills, I talk to Julia Forster - the person who fell in love with this place and wanted to share it with others. More specifically, with other creatives. Today we’re talking about the power of the writer’s retreat, as I come to the end of my own week staying - and writing - in this remarkable place.

Julia Forster is an author coach, book publicist and author who runs the Writers’ Cabin, a self-led writer's retreat just outside Machynlleth, mid-Wales. Her specialism and lifelong interest is the field of writer development.

This podcast was produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.

We're in another public park - this time in the heart of the city: Bermondsey, in London. I’m joined by a good friend of mine, Melissa Tutesigensi-Charles, a multi-media journalist and broadcast producer. It’s another sunny Saturday morning, and we’re sat on a bench in what feels like a best kept secret: a rose garden, frothing with scented blooms, amid a sea of central development...

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.

Fuelled by our morning coffees, Adam Farrer and I head down into a park I never knew was here: Peel Park. This place, lining a small section of the river that splits Manchester from its neighbouring city of Salford, is a Victorian-built oasis, hidden in plain sight. And it’s played an integral role in Adam’s journey as a place writer and essayist.

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.

With novelist Karen Powell.

It’s the kind of summer morning when even the breeze is warm on your skin. The slow traffic of the city centre feels further away than it is – replaced by the hum of bees and chirrup of busy birds.

Karen Powell is a novelist living in the historic city of York, and in this episode, we’ve been invited into her garden. Our conversation meanders around the space, exploring different plants, memories, and what a garden can be. A repository of the past, an ode to someone loved, and a place to cultivate the future.

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.

With Hebden Bridge-based writer Rozie Kelly.

What do you associate your favourite places with? Friends, family, happy memories? Or perhaps it’s just a feeling, physical and unexplained, which draws you back. Today, we’re in the Calderdale, West Yorkshire, and we’re off for a walk with the novelist Rozie Kelly, and her little dog, Otto. We’re heading up into the woods, green and steaming from the morning’s rain, to talk about those important places — and the people that make them so.

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.

It’s a bright, sunny morning in North Gower, and we’ve been invited down to a pulsing, tidal place: the daily walking route of poet Natalie Ann Holborow. On the salt marshes flanking the Loughor Estuary, while cockle-pickers clatter out on quad bikes, we discuss the importance of creative exploration: of getting out in nature, and out of comfort zones. We also talk about the safe places we come back to, full of familiar rhythms and memories, where we can breathe - and return to ourselves.

Natalie is an award-winning poet from Swansea, Wales. She has performed her poetry all over the world, and is the author of the collections And Suddenly You Find Yourself, Small and Little Universe, as well as co-author of The Wrong Side of the Looking Glass.

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth. 

This morning, we’re invited into the beloved backyard orchard of writer and broadcaster Jon Gower. Tea in hand, we make our way down to the bottom of his garden in Cardiff, unfold some chairs, and get straight to talking about why certain places are so special to us - and how landscapes can become as essential as the air we breathe. From Ynys Enlli to the Lougher Estuary, we're transported all over Wales in this conversation; with the help of Jon’s wonderful storytelling, and a few dear fruit trees.

A former BBC Wales Arts and Media correspondent, Jon Gower has been making documentary programmes for television and radio for several decades. He has over thirty books to his name, in both Welsh and English. His latest, The Turning Tide, is out now with Harper North.

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.

It’s been a busy summer, venturing out-and-about to talk to brilliant people in their special places.

But let’s rewind the clock a little: to a chilly Sunday morning in late spring. The daffodils are giving way to bluebells, and we’re heading down to the river - to walk along the banks of the Ouse, and hear about how this podcast came about.

Produced with the support of Arts Council England. With music by Rob T and Danny Booth.