The reader is a newcomer, to each book. We enter every novel on its first page to find, within it, a world that already exists; a world that has, seemingly, been going on without us — and so we, too, feel to be outsiders, momentarily.
21-03-2024
RLF Fellows Sarah Hilary, Peter Fiennes and Claire Williamson explore the influence of past experiences on their work, taking in everything from valuable advice to troubling family history.
22-02-2024
RLF writers explore the link between creativity and the world beyond the desk, touching on the role of exercise, the plight of the environment and the challenges of family life.
21-12-2023
Karin Altenberg and our host Julia Copus discuss ‘Face to Face’ and ‘Solitude (I)’ by the late Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, both translated by Robin Robertson.
'I note that the café has an atmosphere of carefully crafted urban decay, mostly accidental. Nature is everywhere. It’s ugly and visceral and full of decay. It's in the rust on the bicycle and the weeds appearing uninvited between the cracks. '
'One part of me is sinking deeper into my roots, and the other is struggling to get away, to evoke a freer world in my writing. Writing about the Troubles and the landscape of home feels fraught with danger, but it is also a way of exerting myself.'
'It was impossible for me to go into a stately home (a treat for a seven year old) and not enquire whether there had been any blood shed, or bones found in the priest hole. Becoming a crime journalist and then a crime novelist was always on the cards. '
'As pilgrims we were captivated by the landscape as it changed around us, concerned with basic facts of where we would eat and sleep, and charged with the encounters and conversations that shaped each day. I had no desire for a fictional world.'
'How will nature writing change now, along with our lives? I've been thinking about the Romantic concept of the sublime and how it connotes terror as well as beauty. I didn't understand how this combination could exist until I saw footage of a tsunami.'
'More and more studies are being undertaken on how being by water, and nature in general, help thinking and mental health. It even has a name — ‘blue mind’, a state of feeling calm, unified and satisfied with life in that moment, and around water. '
14-09-2023
Brian Clegg speaks with Caroline Sanderson about how he brought together his parallel passions for writing and for science; explains why we can all claim to be descended from royalty; and describes the sense of wonder that he believes is integral to science writing.
'January was a hard, unforgiving month. But if you stopped, if you looked, if you listened, there was so much to get excited about. There were plants to spot, animals and birds. There was fun to be had, running and playing along rivers and canals.'