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Last broadcast on Sat, 16 Oct 2010, 09:00 on BBC Radio 4.
Synopsis
Fi Glover is joined by singer songwriter Edwyn Collins and his wife Grace Maxwell, poet Susan Richardson, Florence Terry who used to beat her husband and now runs anger management courses, and Welshman Clive Nicol who's a household name in Japan and has been named 'sexiest foreigner in jeans'. There's a Sound Sculpture about a coffee grinder and Inheritance Tracks from writer Colm Toibin.
The producer is Debbie Kilbride.
STUDIO GUEST :: EDWYN COLLINS
Singer songwriter Edwyn Collins and his wife Grace Maxwell.
Edwyn Collins' new album Losing Sleep is out now as is Grace Maxwell's book, Falling & Laughing - The Restoration of Edwyn Collins, published by Ebury.
HUSBAND BEATER :: FLORENCE TERRY
BIG IN JAPAN :: CLIVE NICOL
Welshman Clive Nicol is a household name in Japan and has been named "sexiest foreigner in jeans".
SOUND SCULPTURE :: COFFEE GRINDER
Jane Mason nominates her coffee grinder.
INHERITANCE TRACKS :: COLM TOIBIN
Colm Toibin inherits "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marbled Halls" sung by Joan Sutherland and passes on "I Threw It All Away" by Bob Dylan.
Colm's new collection of stories, The Empty Family is published by Penguin.
Image by Larry D. Moore, used under a Creative Commons ShareAlike Licence.
POET :: SUSAN RICHARDSON
Susan Richardson is a poet, performer and educator based in Cardiff. She regularly performs at literary festivals and environmental events across the country.
Advice on anger management from the NHS
Chilean Miners
Worse than losing half a million
when the credit crunch struck.
Worse than returning to the pavilion
when you’ve scored a golden duck.
Worse, in my opinion,
to the power of a billion,
is to be a Chilean,
underground, quite stuck.
Better than cruising
on a luxury liner.
Better than the gold of Usain Bolt
in Beijing, China.
Better than using
a perfect rhyme, a
feeling most fine
is to be a rescued miner
after day sixty nine.
Overcoming Adversity
For years, you’ve had the attitude
that a keep-your-chin-up platitude
is not what you need to hear.
You’ve tried to steer clear
of trite phrases and too bright faces
prescribing positive vibes,
and Hallmark card rhymes
that harp on about ‘taking one day at a time.’
You’ve never wanted to make a note
of the latest motivational quote.
You’ve had enough of ‘when the going gets tough’
and all that ‘dig deep’ stuff’s just a gimmick.
You never intended to become such a cynic –
it’s not some deliberate perversity.
Yes, you respect those who’ve overcome adversity
but you’ve never felt wholly uplifted somehow.
Until now,
when you turned the radio on and heard
that electric-guitar-playing-pop-star from Orange Juice, a
singer-songwriter-record-producer;
plus a man in Japan
who became a major nature fan,
deforesting fully
the threats he’d met
from every childhood bully;
plus a woman, having openly spoken of her rage,
gently coaxing a new stage
from her relationship.
Each conversation’ll
be hailed as plainly inspirational –
for this was the Saturday when
you committed to part from your cynical heart,
to rip it up and start again.
Broadcast
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Sat 16 Oct 201009:00
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