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20/05/2013

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

Book of the Week

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Episode 1

Book of the Week, Strands Episode 1 of 5

Duration:
15 minutes
First broadcast:
Monday 04 June 2012

A year of discoveries on the beach. Jean Sprackland meditates on objects revealed by the shape-shifting sands, or washed up on the wild beaches between Blackpool and Liverpool.

Recorded on location on Ainsdale Sands, 'Strands' is a book about what is lost and buried, then re-discovered; about all the things you find on a beach, dead or alive, natural or man-made; about mutability and transformation - about sea-change.

In today's episode, Jean contemplates the miraculous re-appearance of the Star of Hope, wrecked on Mad Wharf in 1883, but suddenly raised up from the depths one day - an entire wreck, black and barnacled, taking the air for a while before sinking back under the sand.

Read by Jean Sprackland

Abridged by Miranda Davies

Produced by Emma Harding

About the author: Jean Sprackland is the author of three books of poetry and a collection of short stories. Her most recent poetry collection, Tilt (Cape, 2007), won the Costa Poetry Award. Hard Water (Cape, 2003) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and was shortlisted for both the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award for Poetry. She was chosen as one of the Next Generation Poets in 2004.

  • Jean and the tips of the masts of the Star of Hope

    Jean and the tips of the masts of the Star of Hope

  • Music Details

    Britten: Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a (from Peter Grimes)
    from the album, Britten: Spring Symphony; Four Sea Interludes
    London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
    Label: EMI Classics

    Debussy: La Mer
    from the album Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
    Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Daniel Barenboim
    Label: Decca

    Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs: Full Fathom Five
    from the album, Ralph Vaughan Williams: a cappella choral works
    Performed by Laudibus, Mike Brewer
    Label: Delphian Records

    Shostakovich: Jazz Suite No 2, Waltz II
    from the album, Shostakovich: The Jazz Album
    Performed by Riccardo Chailly, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ronald Brautigam and Peter Masseurs
    Label: Decca

    Howard Goodall: The Seasons
    Performed by Howard Goodall/Bozidar Vukotic/The Tippett Quartet/Marianna Szymanowska
    Label: EMI Classics

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