A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

‘Conduct had kept chaos at bay.’

This week, we join Sally once again at work on her next novel, Mrs Parnell, making use of Shirley Hazzard’s The Great Fire (2003) and trying to ignore a mounting number of distractions. Listen for reflections on the embodied nature of the writing ritual, and the process of developing intimacy with character.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Keep your threads firmly tied together…’

This week, we conclude our episode on paragraphs and the writing process. Listen for an insight into Sally’s process of expanding her narratives from the visual towards the historical and biographical, continuing to consider Transit in Venus.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Most of writing is…trying to organise the paragraph into a unit of thought.’

This week, in the first of a two part episode on the writing process, we join Sally in the midst of editing her next novel, Mrs Parnell, considering the organisation of her paragraphs with the help of Shirley Hazzard’s Transit in Venus (1980). Listen for a reflection on visual language, and the choreography of ideas which shape narrative.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘I am trying to draw succour and strength from their song, because I need to sing too…’

This week, we join Sally, amidst distractions both natural and otherwise, reflecting on her latest work, Worm in the Bud. Listen for a meditation on the need for solace, character, and the narrative significance of suspense.

Worm in the Bud is published by The New Menard Press, and is available from all good booksellers. It can be ordered here.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

‘Hölderlin’s lovely blueness

you hold to you,

it is tensile

 

through the smeared glass’

 

This week, we join Sally in conversation with poet, critic, and translator Stephen Romer, following the recent publication of his latest poetry pamphlet, Night Contradicts the Day. Listen for reflections on the intimacies - or otherwise - of care, empathy and its absence, and the challenge laid down by the neurodivergent mind. The poems in this pamphlet also stress the redemptive power of the aesthetic.

Stephen’s pamphlet is published by Dare-Gale Press, and can be purchased here.

The Lizst piece mentioned is the famous B-Minor Sonata, and can be listened to here.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.