Tag Archives: BBC

BBC Radio 4: The Paris Bouquinistes

The BBC Radio 4 program about les bouquinistes aired this morning, and I am thrilled to be part of it! Many thanks to producer Geoff Bird for bringing me into the process, and for Phil who alerted me to the broadcast. Listen now. Or launch the audio player from the BBC Radio 4 web page. Continue reading






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The Sad, Brilliant, Haunted Voice of Virginia Woolf

This is the only surviving recording of Virginia Woolf’s voice. It is part of a BBC radio broadcast from April 29th, 1937. The talk was called “Craftsmanship” and was part of a series entitled “Words Fail Me”. Read a transcript.






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Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present

Marina Abramovic, the self-styled grandmother of performance art has become the first performance artist to be awarded a major retrospective at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Over the years the Serbian artist has starved herself, incised five point stars into her stomach, whipped herself and come very very close to dying in mid-performance. Today her work is increasingly meditative in style but continues to explore an equation of endurance, empathy and energy. The Strand’s Mark Coles talks to her biographer, James Westcott about an artist who lives her art more than most - right now she is in lock-down mode as she attempts her latest 600 hour marathon performance.






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Tracey Emin & the Bad News Raccoons

What I like most about the BBC is the surrealism that surrounds listening to it in the middle of the night. My local public radio station broadcasts the BBC World Service in the wee hours. If I wake up then … Continue reading






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Would Catherine Deneuve Read To My Tomatoes?

Faithful readers of this blog  know that I read by listening. The voice I hear most often, day in and day out, is a machine voice known as Puzzled Paul. My life’s ambition is having a voice on my speech … Continue reading






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