Radar: What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening This Week - 24th June

Listening

Take Four Books (BBC Radio 4)

I've always found it such a treat to listen to authors talk about their work, and share insights about how they do it - I never tire of it. Some authors are better at it than others, though, and being able to communicate what is a long, messy, largely mysterious process as writing, is not easy. I’ve been enjoying listening to this series, Take Four Books, which invites novelists to discuss their most recent publications, with the addition of three books which have had formative influences on their writing. I’d recommend the Wendy Erskine episode in which she discusses her latest novel The Benefactors and discusses her transition from writing in the form of short stories to the novel, as well as her interest in polyphonic voices and playing with the form of the novel. The Séan Hewitt episode was also really interesting, particularly as I’m more familiar with his work as a poet. 

Coverage of The British and Irish Lions v Argentina (TalkSport), Friday 20th June

There is an art to live sports commentary and, like anything, I think it takes years of honing a craft. Due to the extortionate cost of paying to watch The Lions (and indeed any live sport that’s not on free-to-air TV) I’ve always found myself listening to rugby on the radio. And, you know what, I’ve come to love it. My caveat, though, is that the commentator has to be good and by good I mean paint the picture for the listener really clearly. For me, this is where the art of it comes in. I listened to Chris Jones, Matt Dawson and Paul Grayson on the BBC recently for a few Premiership games and regret to say I almost had to turn it off. Firstly, three commentators is too many. On TalkSport there was Ben Kay, providing the insight, and Andrew McKenna the professional, up to date story of what’s happening on the pitch. They worked perfectly together and allowed the action on the pitch to dominate the commentary, as opposed to their opinions and irrelevant chatter, which the BBC team led by Jones succumb to all too often. Ian Robertson used to bring a sense of order to the proceedings on BBC rugby commentary however it feels like Chris Jones is very much still cutting his teeth and far too often gets sidetracked with chatter as opposed to telling us what is going on in the game. What I enjoyed about the TalkSport coverage was the sense of professionalism and letting the game, not the commentators opinions, get in the way of the match. It must be difficult to keep up with relaying events when they happen as quickly as they do in a rugby match, however, that is the job, and it must be about knowing how and when to convey the images to the listener. Showing not telling, it appears, isn’t just the preserve of poetry.

Reading

I’ve been re-reading Swithering by Robin Robertson, which I’ve just written about on my blog - you can read that here. I’ve also been revisiting these three poetry anthologies, which I’ve found to be great sources of inspiration, or at least ways of encountering a range of voices in one sitting. 

William Trevor is a writer whose work I seem to return to, and I’ve just started re-reading The Old Boys, about a school reunion of retirees. Trevor is great for capturing the details of characters and presenting the reader with the image, and letting the image do all the work. This results in writing which is powerfully ambiguous and memorable. 

Watching

I haven’t been watching much this week, but my wife has introduced me to St Denis Medical which is an American comedy set in a hospital on BBC iPlayer. Think The Office meets Parks and Recreation meets Casualty. I was resistant at first, but the characters are well written, distinctive and, well, funny.