Just found out Paul Muldoon will be trawling through the Louis MacNeice radio archives on Radio 4, 8.00 tonight – In the Dark Tower: Louis MacNeice at the BBC.
As well as being fabulous poets, both MacNeice and Muldoon have worked as BBC Radio producers, so it should make for an interesting pairing.
I assume the programme’s timing has something to do with the imminent publication of a new Collected MacNeice – due out on 18th January according to Amazon and eagerly awaited in this household.
EDIT: Thoroughly enjoyed the programme, I was particularly impressed by the way MacNeice managed to get through a huge amount of work while still retiring to the pub at 11 in the morning most weekdays.
Lots of good recordings of the great man reading his work. He spoke with an interesting kind of Anglo-Irish received pronunciation – like a cross between Yeats and Professor Yaffle of Bagpuss fame. (If you’re not convinced, have a listen to these clips: Yeats; MacNeice; Professor Yaffle. I rest my case.)
‘The New Irish Poets’ is a fabulous collection. I’ve had it for just over a year, and I’m always going back to dip into it again. Aside from the critically acclaimed Laird, Bryce, Morrissey and Flynn – I found Paula Cunningham and the late Dorothy Molloy to particularly stand out.
That bookshop, (if it’s the same one I’m thinking of – near Trinity on Dame Street?) is excellent. They are excellent in basically every section.