Anticipation
The season of Advent begins, a time of preparation and watchfulness in the liturgical calendar, and a time of year when we might look inward with a sense of possibility ahead.
This edition of Words and Music looks at anticipation in all its forms – sometimes joyful, sometimes anxious, sometimes bittersweet but always a gentle leaning toward some future possibility. We will hear from Christina Rossetti’s watchful Advent vigil, from Samuel Beckett’s long-awaited but never arriving Godot, from Rumi’s reed flute yearning for home, from the impatient Penelope in Margaret Atwood’s retelling of the Odyssey and Jackie Kay’s poem about the phone call that never comes.
And what should you do while you wait? There are tongue-in-cheek suggestions from PG Wodehouse, consolations from Derek Walcott and assurances from Rowan Williams. The music too reflects on longing, wonder and hope from Max Richter, Florence Price, Dvorak, Rossini and more. The readers are Danny Sapani and Rachael Stirling.
Readings:
Christina Rossetti: Advent
John Clare: The Shepherd's Calendar, November
Elaine Feeney: How to Build a Boat
Naguib Mahfouz: Midaq Alley
Jackie Kay: Dusting the Phone
Alexander McCall Smith: No 1 Ladies Detective Club
Lewis Carroll: The Lobster Quadrille
PG Wodehouse: Three Men and a Maid
Brian Bilston: Lines Written While Waiting for a Train at a Provincial Railway Station
Rumi: The Reed Flute's Song
Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
Grace Nichols: Island Man
Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad
Fydor Dostoevksy: White Nights
Jane Austen: Persuasion
Rabindarath Tagore: Waiting
Bi Feiyu: Three Sisters
Derek Walcott: Love After Love
Frances Hodgeson Burnett: The Secret Garden
Rowan Williams: Advent Calendar
Produced in Salford by Olive Clancy
On radio
Broadcast
- Sun 22 Nov 202619:45BBC Radio 3
The hidden history of plant-based diets
Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.
Books website
Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.
