Between the Ears - Capturing Light

Marking the new year, poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Between the Ears - Capturing Light with Britain’s most celebrated printmaker Norman Ackroyd and the award-winning poet Nancy Campbell. They come together to explore what it takes to capture light on the page in poetry or in print. And Daljit reads from his Poetry Extra Book of the Month: Woman: Plant: Language by Agata Maslowska.

Norman Ackroyd has spent his life travelling to some of the most remote places in the British Isles and his etchings rely on the interplay between light and dark, but there is a mysterious alchemy to his process. This is a rare opportunity to be privy to this and accompany Norman, now in his 83rd year, as he takes a boat from Southwold harbour at dawn, to paint the Suffolk coast from the North Sea for the first time, hoping to watch the sun rise on its crumbling cliffs.

A new commission by Nancy Campbell responds to Norman’s journey, forming a counterpoint to his practical concerns as he sketches and balances precariously at the stern of the boat. Nancy embodies different forms of light, describing how it travels through space, and outlines the visible world, making Norman’s creation of a likeness possible.

Rich in immersive binaural recordings, Norman's lyrical observations and Nancy’s poem are woven with the wild soundscape of the Suffolk coast; the sea, the birds, the insights of the accompanying fishermen and music specially composed by Jane Watkins.

Produced by Sue Fleming

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2021.