This episode will be released on 13th December, which is celebrated by some as St Lucy’s Day, a festival of light. On our ‘Light and Darkness’-themed Reader bookshelf this year is Katherine May’s Wintering, a compassionate, curious, wide-ranging book which describes a phase of life that comes to us all at some point, and shows what respite and renewal can be found even through the darkest times. Katherine May was our guest at Gravity festival in October, speaking to Melissa Chapple and Philip Davis about Wintering, and also about her first book, The Electricity of Every Living Thing. We also hear how Wintering resonated with audience members at Gravity, and listen to the John Donne poem ‘A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s Day’.  

The Reader Bookshelf 

The Reader ‘Bookshelf in a Box’ - Wintering edition 

More about Katherine May and her books 

Melissa Chapple on Twitter 

Melissa’s research paper on reading and autism 

Philip Davis’s book Reading for Life on Bookshop.org. 

‘A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s Day’ by John Donne