A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

‘He stood still in the gloom of the hall, trying to catch the air that the voice was singing and gazing up at his wife. There was grace and mystery in her attitude as if she were a symbol of somethin…

For Gabriella Kelly Davies.

‘On the last day of summer Mrs Bohannon fell in love. The poplars, fallaciously pathetic, looked horrified, their branches rising on the wind like startled hair, and a pil…

‘Mrs Mason looked now through Aunt Irene’s rich windows, sparking like spring water and framing fat pink shrubs that grew with child-like health in the tiny London garden.’

This week, we join Sally n…

For Miss Braithwaite, who gave me eloquence.

‘I need to summon the spirits of place…’

This week, we join Sally in rehearsal for a performance, given last week at Somerville College as part of Oxfor…

‘Enid’s hands are always kept busy caring for other people…’

This week, Sally continues her theme of developing characters from objects by presenting a portrait of Enid Bagot, a young woman used to w…

‘His straw hat hurt him, it pinched his forehead and started a dull ache in the two bones just over the temples…’

This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Katherine Mansfield, focusing on chara…

For Emilie: may you always sing.

We return this week, for a special micro-episode, to Mrs Dalloway’s London. Listen for a brief meditation on the fragmentation of life, interruption, and finding mean…

‘Now it was time to move, and, as a woman gathers her things together, her cloak, her gloves, her opera-glasses, and gets up to out of the theatre into the street, she rose from the sofa and went to …

‘Sightlines produce a story, an avenue, a walkway, a space to move through…’

This week, we join Sally reflecting on the idea of the sightline, and the stories they structure. Listen for a meditation …

‘I try to live my life as though I were stitching together a book of songs.’

This week, Sally offers us a tour through the stitched-together songs of her life, reflecting on the form of rhapsody. Joi…

‘I see that she is thinking most of her canvas, and how she will get there…’

This week, we join Sally after visiting her friend, the artist Emma Neuberg. Listen for a reflection of friendship, travel…

‘Blithe came to me, not in flashing red or pink neon, but in pastels… in soft, painterly tones…’

This week, Sally has been inspired by a dream of the word ‘blithe.’ Listen for a meditation on the rel…

‘Rhythm seems to be the first or formal relation of part to part in any whole…’

This week, Sally has been thinking about rhythms, in her life, writing, and the works of others. Listen for a meditatio…

This week, Sally has been reflecting on her ‘orphan power’, a phrase once applied to her by Will Self, and her relationship with orphaned literary characters such as Jane Eyre. Listen for a meditatio…

This week, we join Sally at home, on a sunny autumn day. Listen for a meditation on play, weather, and our relationships with everyday objects.

The passage from David Copperfield can be found here.

M…

‘Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies, / Yet now they fright me.’

This week, we join Sally in the early morning, after a Shakespearean dream. Listen for a meditation on the boundaries between sleeping…

‘I hate walking, it seems so pointless to me…’

This week, Sally has been musing on the importance of mobility, reflecting on the increasing role of her blue scooter in her life. Listen for a meditati…

This week, Sally offers us a series of vignettes from her travels, both past and present. Follow her on a journey around Europe, through the eyes of the child, adult, and writer.

The wonderful piano …

‘A gift, a love gift / Utterly unasked for / By a sky’

This week, Sally has been reading Sylvia Plath’s ‘Poppies in October’ (1963). Join her for this brief mediation on living generously and the res…

‘There’s always hope where there’s poetry…’

This week, Sally is preparing for her narrowboat, Cerian, to journey upriver for maintenance. Join her in her engine room for a discussion of Somerset Ma…