A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

Latest Episodes:

Pond Man Beneath the Date Palm Tree May 27, 2024

Show notes

This week Sally is experimenting with location and atmosphere for her character Pond Man. She asks her friend Dylan, to come and join her, as they improvise their way into Pond Man's world. This episode celebrates the value of creative collaboration and experiment.

Music by D. Gwalia.

Produced by D. Gwalia.

Mary Crow May 11, 2024

Show notes

“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.

Cloud Patterns May 02, 2024

Show notes

“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.

A Glastonbury Romance Apr 22, 2024

Show notes

‘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.

Pond Man's Day, Pond Man's Night Apr 04, 2024

Show notes

"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.

Pond Man Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

‘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.

The Dog of Tears Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

‘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 Reading Life, A Writing Life in Conversation Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

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.

Blindness Feb 24, 2024

Show notes

‘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.

The Face in the Mirror Feb 16, 2024

Show notes

‘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.

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