The Words Aloud podcast is back. Hurrah!
As you may have noticed, we’ve had a few techno-troubles in recent weeks and the audio files have been thin on the ground. Well, not anymore.
Full podcasts are now available for both March and April - so you can finally get listening again!
We’ve also got the audio files right [...]

Just a note to say thanks to everyone who helped make last night such a roaring success. It was packed to the rafters with 30 people wanting to read and a fantastic crowd of over 100 - apologies to people who didn’t get chance to read - please come early!
The vision for the night was [...]

“F*ck off Chelsea FC
You ain’t got no history
18 leagues and 5 European Cups
that’s what we call history”
The Kop
History, eh? The last bastion of the embittered fan. It certainly is a great history, that is if year zero was when Bill Shankly strode across the Pennines in 1959. Back then, no-one thought [...]

I suspect you’ve just stopped playing “World of Warcraft” and started reading this page for a pleasant piece of poetry; maybe a pleasing selection of prose, or if you’re really lucky; a scintillating portion of songwriting. However, forget any that; because what you’re about to read here is far more important………
People are watching us [...]

Bad timing it was. When we first met, drunk and falling. That didn’t seem good. You looked at me glassy-eyed but I saw hope in that reflection and d’you know something? I needed it badly.
I wanted to be more to you that night you shook me.
“Shag me”, you said.
That wasn’t going to happen [...]

Listen again:
[audio= http://media.odeo.com/4/2/5/dean2.mp3]
And how do you feel
right now?
she says.
The lace
on my left shoe
has come undone
and it lies
across the crack
between the grey
fuzzy tiles
and the crack
zig zags
to the stainless
steel leg
of the stainless
steel bed
with the cold
blue linen
below the poster
of a doctor
with a black
bleeding eye
saying We
don’t have to take this

Listen again:
[audio= http://media.odeo.com/8/4/1/jill2.mp3]
George, of course, isn’t taking any of this shit.
He’s straight out there, arms folded, face-to-beergut
With the lard-faced builder, giving it loads.
“That’s my bloody shop-front, pal!
Y’can’t leave that there, they’ll not see me beds!”
Points at the cement mixer, blushing orange
And turning its open face away and away.
There’s no sleep now in the street of [...]

Listen again:
[audio= http://media.odeo.com/4/9/1/jill1.mp3]
As every week, he’s here at half-past ten,
Punctual as Hades; rings the bell
Once, then disappears
(He knows I’m looking for the keys, see).
Rematerialises as I draw the bolt.
Charles Manson, my window cleaner.
He sniffs, raises his heels slightly,
Lowers his eyes in deference to my dressing-gown,
Mumbles “Hiya darlin’” to his trainers
As I fish around for change
Not [...]

Listen again:
[audio= http://media.odeo.com/0/3/2/angelina1.mp3]
Up to my armpits in flour and sweat
I knead the bread, sinking my fist deeply
into the soft, changing shape of the dough,
pulling back before I hit the solid
mahogany work surface with its scratched
unsightly face. The oven burns amber
scorching my fingers with shards of sulphur
rained down from heaven to punish the town.
Lot wants [...]

Listen again:
[audio= http://media.odeo.com/5/8/8/chloe1.mp3]
I hoped that one day
I would grow out of
Getting into trouble
And being told off
But even at 33
You can feel misunderstood
And you can’t seem to articulate
You get angry
And the toys go flying out of the cot
And there’s a big mess
And everything is broken
And then everyone is angry
And then comes the lull
A pause for breath
Naively [...]

Listen again:
[audio= http://media.odeo.com/4/3/1/h_and_h1.mp3]
There’s no doubt that Gwen was influenced by several of the traditional methods and styles of the old masters. There is surely a bow to the luminous interiors of Vermeer and the carefully controlled, yet gestural marks of Rembrandt van Rijn. But Gwen was also influenced by more modern masters, such as Mr [...]