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May 13, 2022 47 min

Books and Pens

from The Verb Hosted by BBC Radio 4

Ian McMillan's guests Emma Smith, Naush Sabah and Gerry Cambridge celebrate books and pens - and we hear a new BBC centenary commission from Imtiaz Dharker. Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, and her new book is called 'Portable Magic - A History of Books and their Readers'. Emma explains why books are like bodies, and explores the power of the inscription. Gerry Cambridge is a poet and essayist, editor of The Dark Horse transatlantic journal - and a lover of fountain pens. Naush Sabah is a poet, with a collection called 'Litanies' now out with Guillemot Press, and runs Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal; Naush also loves fountain pens. For The Verb they agreed to create a poem together - exploring the particular resonance, and experience of writing in ink. At the end of the programme you can hear a brand new poetry commission from Imtiaz Dharker, one of our most celebrated poets, and an acclaimed artist and film-maker; part of our series marking the BBC's hundred year relationship with poets and poetry.

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Books and Pens

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This episode is 47 minutes long.

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This episode was published on May 13, 2022.

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