A Reading Life, A Writing Life, with Sally Bayley

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 pilgrim cloud wept a few chill tears.’

This week, Sally is once again in the world of Alice Thomas Ellis. Listen for a close reading of the opening of Ellis’ fourth novel, The Other Side of the Fire (1983), focusing on the construction of space, character, and intimacy between writer, narrator, and reader.

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Thursday...

‘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 navigating the world of Alice Thomas Ellis’ absurdist novel, The 27th Kingdom (1982), exploring the parallel lives of its two central women. Listen for a meditation on building character, society, and our means of placing ourselves in the world around us.

More information on Ellis and her work can be found here. 

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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 Oxfordshire Mind’s evening of ‘Connections.’ Listen for an invocation of character, both in fiction and of those figures in our own lives that become part of our stories.

Both Gladys and J.M.W. Turner feature in Sally’s recent novel, The Green Lady (William Collins, 2023).

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen...

‘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 working with her hands, who will feature in Sally’s forthcoming imagined biography, provisionally titled Mrs Parnell. Listen for a reflection on the routines and rhythms of life and work, interspersed with the moments from Sally’s own life that provide her inspiration.

The image of the cat by Edward Lear that Sally refers to can be viewed here.

The wonderfu...

‘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 characters in her short fiction. Listen for a masterclass on openings, writing characters through objects, and making connections between and through them.

The full text of the stories Sally reads can be found here.

The passage read in the final section comes from Sally’s forthcoming fictional biography, provisionally titled Mrs Parnell.

This episode was edited and produced...

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 meaning in art.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘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 Peter…’

This week, we join Sally reflecting on the arrangement of character. Listen for a journey, via Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) through perspectives, cityscapes, and the means by which we navigate everyday life.

The music accompanying the initial discussion of Mrs Dalloway is ‘Friday’, by Paul Seba. More about Paul and his work can be found here.<...

‘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 on narrative, childhood, and a unique perspective of and from The Dreaming Spires…

The text of the Sylvia Plath poem Sally references can be found here. 

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘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. Join her for a series of vignettes on art, education, memory, and connection.

This text of this episode is based on an address Sally gave at Wadham College Chapel, part of an evening of ‘Taking Heart in Poetry & Song’ for St David's Day. More information can be found here. 

The full text of Dylan Thomas’ poem, ‘The force that th...

‘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, and the connections art offers us.

More information on Emma and her work can be found here. She can also be found on Instagram @emmaneuberg.

The beautiful piano music in the closing section is ‘Tuesday’, by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson...

‘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 relationship between words, language, and the memories they ignite.

The Muir poem Sally reads can be found here.

The music used in the opening and closing section is, respectively, ‘Sunday’ and ‘Thursday’, by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘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 meditation, via James Joyce, Jean Rhys’ Good Morning, Midnight (1939), and Sally’s work in progress, on the suturing of experience, and the spaces between moments of being.

Joyce’s reflection on rhythm, among others, can be found in full here. 

Sally is currently in the early stages of writing out the rhythms and images of her next book – a pass...

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 meditation on isolation, belonging, and the communities that art can provide.

The extracts performed here involving Jane Eyre and Miss Marple are from Sally’s first coming of age novel, Girl with Dove (William Collins, 2018).

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is 'Rain', by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was partially inspired by Sally being asked to speak at a symp...

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.

More from Sally on the kaleidoscope mentioned early in the episode can be found here.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘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 and waking, dreams and reality, and confidence and hubris.

Calpurnia’s full speech can be found here.

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Tuesday’, by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘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 meditation on the importance of transport, both physical and imaginative, via Thomas Bernhard, Agatha Christie, and Elizabeth Bishop.

Miss Marple of Bourne End has previously appeared in Sally’s first novel, Girl with Dove (2018). Available from all good booksellers.

The guitar music in the opening section is by Dylan Gwalia, and the piano music in the closing section is ‘Doub...

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 music in the opening section is ‘Sunday’, by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

A note on the sound: This was recorded on location, while Sally taught at the Rosemary’s House writing retreat in Greece, without Sally’s usual reco...

‘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 restorative powers of reading poetry.

The text of the poem can be found here.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘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 Maugham’s novel The Painted Veil, meditations on kindness, and reflections on how poetry helps us to create our own rhythms in a noisy world. 

More information on The Painted Veil (1925) can be found here. 

The poems read from in this episode are ‘Auguries of Innocence’ by William Blake, ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’ by Emily Dickinso...

‘Silence, quietness, that’s a way of living…’

This week, we join Sally in the attic room of her family home, where she has been reading Rose Tremain's first novel Sadler’s Birthday (1976). Follow her on a journey through the spaces in life where we find quietness, and the ways we make ourselves fit into them, in writing or otherwise.

The piano music in the closing section is ‘Tuesday’, by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘But the darkness is a kind of blanket, and she comforts me…’
This week, we join Sally on a sleepless night, on a journey through Millet’s The Gleaners (1857), via her character Pond Man. Follow her through this meditation on voice, place, and the spaces in between events.
More information on the painting can be found here.
The wonderful piano music in the opening section is ‘Doubt’, by Paul Sebastian. The guitar piece is by Dylan Gwalia.
This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.
Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Ma...

‘London. Michaelmas Term lately over and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall…’

This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Charles Dickens’ Bleak House (1852). Follow her on a journey through his London, in the company of its climate, characters, and the bewildering legal bureaucracy not very far from our own….

Music used throughout includes ‘Tuesday’ and ‘Thursday’ by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

‘I’m wondering what happiness sounds like, these days…’

This week, Sally has been reading Nan Shepherd’s The Weatherhouse, and reflecting on her relationship with happiness and contentment. Join her for a meditation on acceptance, simplicity, and our connections to life’s natural rhythms.

The guitar music throughout is by D. Gwalia.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

This week Sally is experimenting with location and atmosphere for her character Pond Man. She asks her friend Dylan, to come and join her, as they improvise their way into Pond Man's world. This episode celebrates the value of creative collaboration and experiment.  

Music by D. Gwalia.

Produced by D. Gwalia.

“She glanced up at the great broken tower-columns of the vanished nave of the Abbey Church….” 

This week, Sally continues to read John Cowper Powys’ 1932 novel A Glastonbury Romance, dwelling on the character of Mary Crow, whose form gives shape to the flat Glastonbury plain. Join her for reflections on visual art, our search for meaning through symbolic structure, and our deeply human need for form and rhythm. 

More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html

The guitar piece (05:28) is by D. Gwalia. 

This episode was produce...

“On this particular day the weather conditions had assumed a cloud-pattern…”

This week, Sally continues to read John Cowper Powys’ 1932 novel, A Glastonbury Romance, asking: how does writing produce depth and dimension? And what role do images play in our creative and emotional lives? Join her on a spring morning by the river for reflections on craft, inspiration, and literature as a visual language. 

Note: in Greek mythology, Clytemnestra traps and murders her husband, king Agamemnon, by tangling him in a net. More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html

‘There’s no life that frees anyone so completely from unhappiness as does the mystic life…’

This week, Sally has been reading John Cowper Powys’ 1932 novel, A Glastonbury Romance. Join her for a meditation on attachment, possession, desire, and being with others.

More information on Powys can be found here: https://www.powys-society.org/JCPowys.html

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Paul Clarke, and Maeve Magnus.

"What is it this material life we find ourselves captured by?" 

This week Sally is developing her character, Pond Man as she considers the opening line of James Joyce's experimental epic, Ulysses, and the tradition of ritual - secular and religious - in everyday life. In the tradition of Joyce, we observe Pond Man across the length and breadth of his day as he prepares to sleep. 

This episode was edited and produced by D. Gwalia.

The guitar music is by D. Gwalia. 

The opening and exiting voice is Emma Fielding. 

‘You see, I go and live with Pond Man when the pain becomes too much…’

This week, we join Sally at home, as she tries to live with a pain that has become familiar with the help of imagination, community and her young neighbour Maeve. Follow her as she escapes the everyday through the figure of Pond Man, an inhabitant of her latest work, seeking solace in the world of her forthcoming novel (2025), Pond Life.

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian.

This episode was edited and produced by Jam...

‘We have forgotten what it is to look at one another and to notice.’

What does it mean to really see? This week, Sally is meditating on the power of images to connect us in a busy world. Join her as she reflects on José Saramago’s novel Blindness, on empathy and attention, and how literature offers us ways of tuning in to our surroundings. 

Guitar music by D. Gwalia, piano music by Paul Sebastian. 

This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

Special thanks to Andr...

A special episode this week, as we join Sally at Brasenose College in a conversation titled ‘A Reading Life, A Writing Life’, with fellow writers Aida Edemariam and Joanna Kavenna. Join them for a discussion on memory, storytelling, and the porous boundaries between reality and fiction.

Aida is a writer and journalist whose debut book The Wife’s Tale received the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Award. More information on her and her work can be found here: https://www.rcwlitagency.com/authors/edemariam-aida/

Joanna, whose 2016 novel A Field Guide to Reality has appeared in a pre...

‘If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one…’

This week, Sally has been reading José Saramago’s Blindness, and thinking about the ways we see, or don’t see, the world around us. Drawing on J.M. Barrie, join her for a reflection on seeing and writing through the dark places of the world.

The wonderful piano music in the opening section is by Paul Sebastian, and the guitar music was written and performed by D. Gwalia.

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

Special thanks to Andrew Smit...

‘Where do images come from?’

This week, Sally is thinking about the importance of sound and rhythm to writing. Join her for a discussion of George Orwell’s Coming Up for Air (1939) and a reflection on how to find your writing voice. 

Guitar music composed and performed by Dylan Gwalia.

This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

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

‘Let words pass through you in a small contained space’

This week, we join Sally for a meditation on creating and inhabiting a space in which to write, and to be held, via the work of the novelist V.S. Pritchett. Follow her as she begins to lay out her meditative practice of reading and writing, drawing on the restorative power of words on the page.

An account of Pritchett and his work can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/feb/22/vspritchett

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowe...

‘Perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.’

This week, Sally is reading Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Insomnia’, a poem full of shifting, uncertain geographies and marvellous depths. How do we navigate the strange land of sleeplessness? Join Sally as she meditates on the power of reading closely and the solace of poetry as a place of rest.  

‘Insomnia’ is available to read here: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493531-Insomnia-by-Elizabeth-Bishop

This episode was produced by Lucie Richter-Mahr. 

For Summer and Dylan, both students. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kr...

‘I shall be late!’

Sally has been following the White Rabbit this week, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and reflecting on the ever-increasing demands on the writer’s time. Follow her down the rabbit hole on a journey through time, lateness, and rest…

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

The wonderful piano music in the closing section was composed by Paul Clarke.

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

‘How do you remember people first?’

We join Sally on New Year’s Night, staying with a relative in Chichester, a familiar city from her childhood. Join her for a meditation on embodiment, memory, and authority, via a vision of John Milton’s hell from the epic Paradise Lost.

Satan’s speech, read partway through the episode, can be found here: https://poets.org/poem/paradise-lost-book-i-lines-221-270

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

This week, we join Sally in the middle of a winter night. Follow her reflections on festive traditions, via Christina Rossetti, and on seeing the world through illness, with Emily Brontë, and John Milton.

Rossetti’s poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53216/in-the-bleak-midwinter

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen

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

For Demi.

‘And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating / Of dark habits, / keeping their difficult balance.’

This week, Sally has been living with Richard Wilbur’s ‘Love Calls Us to the Things of the World’, and reflecting on living with pain. Balance with her on the precipices we all exist on…

The poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43048/love-calls-us-to-the-things-of-this-world

This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen.

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

For Keyang.

‘Where can we live but days?’

This week, Sally has been reading and living with Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Days’, from The Whitsun Weddings. Join her for a meditation on how we spend our days, drawing on prayer, hope, hymns, and reading.

The poem can be read here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48410/days-56d229a0c0c33

Miss Cull, a frequent guest on the podcast, can also be found in Sally’s latest book, The Green Lady, available from all good booksellers.

This episode was edited and produced...