This podcast slithers, oozes, writhes and flickers with all things dark, forbidden, strange and tabooed. It also tries to offer something very new. For over 15 years I lectured at the universities of Cardiff and Durham. It was a great great life. I got paid to write and to think. I got paid to share these passions with some brilliant and unforgettable students. Unfortunately, students now have to pay staggering amounts of money for that privilege. Welcome, then, to the Secret University. Its ideas, its magic, its joys are endless. And it is free.
Richard Sugg. @DrSugg
As you may know, these four great poems of the twentieth century are in part meditations on time. This second of the set is introduced with stories of World War Two, from my family and that of my remarkable old friend, Elisabeth Hudson. These touch on the story of the extraordinary spy, Christine Granville, showcased recently on Twitter. Holding Elisabeth's original copy of East Coker set me thinking of her holding it in 1940, when it was new, and when her brother was due to become a great wartime spy himself. In 1944, Christine saved his life.
19 Mar 2023
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. One: Burnt Norton.
One of the great poems of the twentieth century, and one which we might call a kind of Anglo-American epic. Starting with Burnt Norton here, from the copy given to me by my great old friend Elisabeth, bought in 1941, and with her til her death in 2008. The great novelist John Fowles offers a nice way into this poem: 'The word is the most imprecise of signs. Only a science-obsessed age could fail to comprehend that this is its great virtue, not its defect.'
16 Mar 2023
Introducing The Real Vampires: Live Burial and Vampire Terror in Greece and Bulgaria.
Join me for extremes of terror, wonder and hope. This is a colourful glimpse into the world of The Real Vampires, and my personal journeys: through Europe to Greece in 1988; and on into the world of vampires and poltergeists since 2013. I'll be covering these extensively in a new book, We Need to Talk About Ghosts. The photo shows the author in 1988 in Venice, not long returned from Athens and nearby Greek islands. Little did I know at this time that I had been just 50 miles from Vampire Country.
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