‘But the darkness is a kind of blanket, and she comforts me…’

‘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.

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.

“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.

"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.

‘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.

‘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.