The Verb

Novels by Irish writers make up a third of this year's Booker longlist for the first time in the prize's history. Ian McMillan explores the boom in Irish writing and the wave of new and experimental voices melding poetry and prose emerging from both the North and South of Ireland. With Elaine Feeney, Martina Evans, James Conor Patterson and Liam Harte, professor of Irish Literature at the University of Manchester.

Ian McMillan presents Radio 3's The Verb from the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. He's joined by poet Clare Shaw whose poetry extols the poetic possibilities of peat bogs and moss; Ben and David Crystal whose new book Everyday Shakespeare offers us a quotation from the bard for every day of the year; Jimmy Andrex offers a meeting place between music and poetry and singer Emily Portman and musician Rob Harbron sing the words of Irish poet Louis MacNeice

A writing and confidence masterclass - Ian McMillan's guests Denise Mina, Kathryn Williams, Ian Humphreys and Len Pennie share their tips and experiences.

How much confidence do you need to write or create out of your comfort zone? What does it take to embark on unfamiliar genres - the historical novel perhaps, starting a podcast or vlog, or writing a lyric poem? And how can the great poet, performer and humorist Ivor Cutler inspire us to write our most authentic material? Is confidence a helpful word for writers?

Ian is joined by one of our most versatile novelists, Denise Mina - who explores the role of certainty in her new novel 'Three Fires', by singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams (who has pubished a novel 'The Ormering Tide' and also presents her own podcast ('Before the Light Goes Out'), by the poet and editor of 'Why I Write Poetry' Ian Humphreys, and by celebrator of Len Pennie, known as Miss Punnypennie - who invites her followers on social media to enjoy 'Scots and sarcasm' and has a poetry book in the pipeline.

Ian McMillan explores different ways into and out of and through the things we write, and discovers new ways of thinking about language and meaning; with poet Nick Thurston who has co curated The Weight of Words, an exhibition on the poetry of sculpture and the sculpture of poetry, fiction writer Alice Jolly whose new collection of stories ‘From Far Around They Saw Us Burn’ examines how everyday interactions can change our lives in new and unpredictable ways, playwright and theatre maker Megan Barker whose novel ‘Kit’ is a long running prose poem, and poet and performer Rommi Smith reads from her new choral work Forever?, a collaborative commission with composer, Roderick Williams. Forever? is a 21st century response to the iconic hymn Amazing Grace and which seeks to redefine its power and status as a song of resilience and resistance.

Forever? With text by Rommi Smith and music by composer Roderick Williams will premiere on July 22 at the IF MIlton Keynes International Festival.

The Weight of Words runs at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds from 7 July – 26 November. You can find out more about the exhibition via this link:

Presenter: Ian McMillan

Ian McMillan explores fathers, fathering and time with Nick Laird, Katherine Rundell and Jude Rogers.

Nick Laird's new poetry collection 'Up Late' (Faber) is a powerful account of what it means to think around and through grief, time and fathering, Katherine Rundell's incisive and moving account of the life of the mortality-obsessed poet John Donne (which also takes in his fathering of twelve children) is 'Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne', and Jude Rogers's story of her love of popular music and the role her father played in igniting it is 'The Sound of Being Human' - they join Ian for this Verb on family influence and family influencers.

From blank page to bestseller, how do you write a successful novel? The Verb offers you another chance to join a masterclass in storytelling recorded earlier this year at Hay Festival, with renowned authors Kate Mosse and Philippa Gregory, best known for The Other Boleyn Girl; and Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart.

How do you begin, how do you redraft and decide what to take out and what to leave in, what happens when you experiment and play with language to shape-shift and distort the form, how do you decide who is your narrator and uncover your own literary voice, and how do you know when the novel is finished?

Ian McMillan takes us on a deep dive into the craft of writing a novel, from the first marks you make on the paper, to the final draft that ends up on the bookshop shelf.

Presenter: Ian McMillan

First broadcast in June 2023.

Ian McMillan discusses the enduring appeal of the novel and explores how poetry and prose can collide to create a new kind of language; with Jacqueline Crooks, whose debut novel 'Fire Rush' is a tale of music and parties and love and life in late 1970s and 80s London; Liv Little, founder and former CEO of Gal-dem, a sadly now defunct online and print magazine run by women of colour, whose first book 'Rosewater' is an exploration of how it is to live a creative life in London when time and money and history all seem to conspire against you; Lemara Lindsay-Prince, the senior commissioning editor of Merky Books, the publishing house set up by rapper and grime artist Stormzy to nurture under-represented and marginalised writers; and poet, film-maker and dramatist Owen Sheers.

Ian McMillan presents the first in a series of Verb visits to the future, asking whether we need new words, new plots and new genres to help us think about it creatively.

The BBC has signed up to a climate pledge which presents an exciting opportunity for new writing (it is pledging to make sure its visions of the future aren’t simply dystopian ones, to recognise other visions, fair and balanced ones, sustainable and informed by the science ). To explore this opportunity we are first joined by the ecological philosopher and green activist Rupert Read to discuss 'thrutopianism', and by the writer and artist Alistair Gentry who has brought his flying saucer along to the studio.

In the second half of this show we do a deep time dive into the work of one of America’s greatest visionary poets – Jorie Graham - and hear new poetry from her collection 'To 2040' (Carcanet)

BBC Climate Change Pledge

Rupert Read

Alistair Gentry

Ritual, seduction, silliness and sacrifice - all this and more in 'The Wicker Man Verb' - marking 50 years of the iconic horror film.

Ian McMillan is joined by one of our best fiction writers -Sarah Hall. Sarah shares a new commission for The Verb imagining Summerisle in 2023.

David Bramwell and Eliza Skelton have been influenced by the film as writers and performers - they give The Verb an insight into how their Sing-A-Long-A-Wickerman events work. David has just published 'The Singalong-A-Wicker-Man Scrapbook' https://www.drbramwell.com/

Folk musician Brian Peters explores the old songs that sit behind the soundtrack, and Verb regular - the poet and performer Kate Fox, goes on a emotional journey with Lord Summerisle, imagining how he might operate in the world of social media influencers, and endless 'wellness' marketing.

Producer: Faith Lawrence

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in May 2023.

Ian McMillan explores the monsters that haunt our imagination, the monstrous labels that have historically been imposed upon 'the Other', and the modern day monstrosities that provoke our fears and threaten to make monsters of us all.

With Prof Roger Luckhurst who specialises in classic 19th-century Gothic, literature, film, and cultural history; his new book 'Gothic' traces our fascination and representations of the Gothic through history to its place at the very heart of popular culture today, Poet Tom Juniper whose Monstrous poems are a collection from the point of view of sundry folkloric creatures, conceptual poet and artist Ira Lightman who has written a specially commissioned poem on the theme of the Monstrous, and composer Sarah Angliss whose new opera 'Giant' tells the story of the 18th century “Irish giant” Charles Byrne, a man whose corpse was stolen to order and put on public display.

Presenter: Ian McMillan