FOOD ACTION MUSIC BOOKS
A very good morning to you, and thanks for calling in.
High time, I think, for a new update. So here we are: February 18th, 2025, with the morning sun coming into view as I write.
I’ve missed you, warm sun. I’ll be glad when you’re back in earnest. I keep thinking of the biblical “it’s darkest before the dawn.” I wonder what it’s like in Svalbard at this time of year. Still, I know it’s a matter of time. We’ll lurch suddenly into spring, and festival season will be upon us before we know it.
First up will be the 6 Music Festival in Manchester. I’ll be covering a New Manchester kind of theme—finding natural wines, boisterous young restaurants blooming in the bosom of an ancient landscape is what I’ve decided to touch on in my show. So, we’ll go from ancient caves and mountain rescues, to live music bars like Flawed and field-to-fork urban eatery, Higher Ground.
You’re welcome to come with me – it’s happening from March 27th: If you download the BBC Sounds app, you can listen to any BBC show at any time you like.
As for my shows, live, I’m on every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on BBC 6 Music, and every Monday on BBC Radio 2 at 9 p.m. Last night (it’s Tuesday as I write), I interviewed Preston Lauterbach about his book ‘Before Elvis’. We covered Arthur Crudup, Big Mama, Rev. W. Herbert Brewster, Little Junior Parker, 1940s Tennessee, Memphis radio, Crump, Binford, Charlie Chaplin, Ingrid Bergman, and more. Here’s a link:
Sunday’s show on 6 was a catch-up with publisher Kristin Jensen, a U.S. immigrant to Ireland who, inspired by the burgeoning food scene there, has unleashed the most effervescent collection of cookbooks ever.
Check out Blasta Books (PS: On this note, blasta means “tasty” in Irish, and in Welsh, it’s blasus). There, lesson over.
For my Sunday show on 6, click here
Cheltenham Jazz Festival follows, in the first week of May. I’ll be interviewing Roger Daltrey and Lulu this year.
Then the big one—Glastonbury at the end of June. I usually broadcast live on Saturday and Sunday from there.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. More immediate news includes a visit to Paris to mark St. David’s Day at the UK Embassy there with the mighty Dame Menna Rawlings and her team.
I’m cooking up a Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood Welsh folk tune micro-musical with Syrian musician and composer Maya Youssef, who’ll be bringing the magic of her Qanun harp.
Before then, a little action: I’m off to bite off some of the Pennine Way with the living legend Phoebe Smith. Some end-of-winter hiking is exactly what’s needed to warm the marrow. I think. (I’ll report back on this, I’m sure. Watch this space!)
Okay, so the sun is on the horizon and a third cup of coffee is beckoning. So, I’ll bid thee au revoir, mes amis.
On that note, I’ve been reviving my French and recommend this podcast: ‘Little Talk in Slow French’ with Nagisa Morimoto, whose voice is splendid company as you drive… even as you drift away…
I’m loving how you can get all these podcasts and audiobooks on Spotify. I’ve been down a Krakauer hole for a while.
Post-Ulysses (I enjoyed this on Audible, here with the standout narrating work of Patrick Gibson): Ulysses on Audible:
And Moby Dick narrated by Frank Muller—it’s on Spotify. (My micro-reviews: Ulysses—an orgy in every dimension, Moby Dick—gruesome.) Book recommendations (especially nonfiction, mountaineering/adventure/navigation tomes) are always welcome, by the way.
Lastly, a book recommendation from me to you: ‘This Thing of Darkness’ by Harry Thompson (about Captain FitzRoy and a very young, seasick Charles Darwin and their exploits on the Beagle, deepest South).
A bientôt.
Cerys x