I wanted to paint more complex portrait of the countryside ith my book that would be possible, says Marri. And i was inspired by a bellarusian writers, vetlana alexeyevitch, and she interviews people in ballarus and russia. She has interviewed them about the great catastrophes in the history of the soviet union. But then i presented it differently, because i i found so much poetry thatad had to show somehow.
Is it possible to ‘level up’ the economy and help struggling places halt decline and become more prosperous? Paul Swinney is Director of Policy and Research at the think tank Centre for Cities and his research focuses on city economies and their development over time. He considers what strategies might be implemented to support declining town and city centres and if the government’s Levelling Up agenda is likely to deliver concrete results.
The prize-winning poet Paul Batchelor was born in Northumberland and often explores the lost worlds of Britain’s mining communities, and the memories that have survived. The title of his new collection, The Acts of Oblivion, refers to seventeenth-century laws that required not only the pardon of revolutionary deeds, but also made discussing them illegal. His poems rebel against such restrictions, and against forgetting.
In the forest landscape of northern Varmland in Sweden lies the village of Osebol. In just five decades, the automation of the lumber industry and the draw of city-living, has seen the adult population dwindling to a mere 40 residents. Marit Kapla grew up there, and in Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village she has returned and gathered the stories of all the inhabitants – from those whose families have lived there for generations, to the more recent arrivals. They tell of their griefs and joys, resentments and pleasures, and despite the village’s decline, life goes on.
Producer: Katy Hickman