Jennifer Lucy Allan and CLAY: A HUMAN HISTORY

"I'd done a lot of clay-making...you can spend a lifetime and only get good at one technique!"

Jennifer Lucy Allan joins me to talk about her second book, CLAY: A HUMAN HISTORY (White Rabbit Books). After Jennifer's exploration and writing about sound in The Foghorn's Lament (White Rabbit Books), Jennifer has, quite literally, turned her hand to a more physical and enduring substance in clay. From Japanese Tea Ceremonies, to humans making their own image, to life on Mars, clay is seemingly everywhere. Jennifer is also a presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction. 


Rippling Points

1.20 - How Jennifer’s early experience with clay led to her enchantment of it and then writing this boundless history

6.04 - How the book on clay differs to Jennifer’s previous book on foghorns

10.30 - Ephemerality of sound and permanence of clay - the writing challenges.


13.40 - Clay: its history compared with human history

15:15 - Who is Marija Gimbutas, and why is she important

21:15 - Language and touch

24.40 - Climate change and how it's revealing more about clay

28.00 - How clay becomes an object


Reference Points

Marija Gimbutas.
Ladi Kwali
Maria Martinez