A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

‘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. 

‘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.

‘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.

‘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.

‘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 and her friend Dylan improvise in Pond Man's world under a date palm tree, focusing on ambiance, music, rhythm, and sound sketches. The episode celebrates creative collaboration and experimentation.

“She glanced up at the great broken tower-columns of the vanished nave of the Abbey Church….”  This week, Sally continues to read John Cowper Powys’ 1932 novel A Glastonbury Romance, dwelling on the character of Mary Crow, whose form gives shape to the flat Glastonbury plain. Join her for reflections on visual art, our search for meaning through symbolic structure, and our deeply human need for form and rhythm.  More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html The guitar piece (05:28) is by D. Gwalia.  This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

“On this particular day the weather conditions had assumed a cloud-pattern…” This week, Sally continues to read John Cowper Powys’ 1932 novel, A Glastonbury Romance, asking: how does writing produce depth and dimension? And what role do images play in our creative and emotional lives? Join her on a spring morning by the river for reflections on craft, inspiration, and literature as a visual language.  Note: in Greek mythology, Clytemnestra traps and murders her husband, king Agamemnon, by tangling him in a net. More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html The original piano piece (08:47) is ‘Monday’ by Paul Sebastian. The original guitar piece (14:53) is by D. Gwalia.  This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr.  Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘There’s no life that frees anyone so completely from unhappiness as does the mystic life…’ This week, Sally has been reading John Cowper Powys’ 1932 novel, A Glastonbury Romance. Join her for a meditation on attachment, possession, desire, and being with others. More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html 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, Paul Clarke, and Maeve Magnus.