In this episode of The Writing Life, NCW Chief Executive Chris Gribble speaks with writer Patrick Barkham about the process of writing his new book The Swimmer, and how he found ways to ‘hear’ the voice of an author whose work he knew well, but who he never met.
Patrick Barkham is an award-winning author and natural history writer for the Guardian. His books include The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, Islander and Wild Child. He is President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and lives in Norfolk with his family.
His new book The Swimmer is a creative biography of the late writer, filmmaker and environmentalist Roger Deakin. The book is told primarily in the words of the subject himself, with support from a chorus of friends, family, colleagues, lovers and neighbours.
Together, they touch on the impact and legacy of Roger, as one of the forerunners of the new nature writing movement, the ethics of biography, and the hard graft of reconstructing a life from the myriad of physical and emotional traces a writer has left behind.
Reintroducing Harriet Martineau with Stuart Hobday & Gaby Weiner
Crafting identity in fiction with Michael Donkor
Writing subversive women with Naomi Wood
Virtual residencies with Nur-El-Hudaa Jaffar, Sim Wai-chew and Tse Hao Guang
Writing the grotesque body with Heather Parry
Writing and chronic illness with Polly Atkin
Writing for younger audiences with Chip Colquhoun
Writing modern noir with Margot Douaihy
Writing unreliable narrators with Hannah Vincent
Into the contemporary poetry archive
How to Write a Script with Molly Naylor
In conversation with bestselling crime writer Ian Rankin
The craft of life writing with Fiona Mason
Writing Short Stories with Yan Ge
Music and translation with Kalaf Epalanga & Daniel Hahn
Priscilla Morris on writing resistance and community in Black Butterflies
Working Class Noir with Tom Benn
Writing Real People in Memoir with Katy Massey
How to Write Suspense Fiction with Claire McGowan
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Black Beauty
Gulliver’s Travels
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends