A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

‘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.

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.

Miss Cull, a frequent guest, joins Sally to meditate on how we spend our days, drawing on prayer, hope, hymns, and reading. They reflect on encounters in the library and the repetitive nature of days. They discuss Miss Cole's character as a music teacher, her ability to banish demons, and her morning walks in the forest.

‘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.

Reflecting on J.M.W. Turner's painting Shoreham, Sally muses on the connection between art and life. She describes her sensory experience arriving in Shoreham, contemplates the tranquility depicted in the painting, and reflects on the lives of fishermen portrayed in the artwork.