The Physical Verb

The Verb

This edition of the verb is a celebration of the physical - everything from mountain climbing, human desire, a mother's touch or the act of writing. The poet Helen Mort writes in her head, while running, climbing and she even wrote one whilst in labour. She tells Ian about her new collection The Illustrated Woman - inspired by what she calls a "pain epiphany" while being tattooed - and how her poems "spookily" prefigure her life.

The Norfolk born writer Jon Ransom wrote The Whale Tattoo, which won the Polari first book award, on his phone on the bus. His new novel The Gallopers opens in the aftermath of the 1953 North Sea flood where 19-year-old Eli yearns for Jimmy Smart, the handsome older fairground worker his aunt has taken in.

And award-winning poet Victoria Kennefick has written on the back of her child's drawings and on shop receipts when an idea urgently strikes. She tells Ian McMillan about her collection Egg/Shell, inspired by a lockdown encounter with a swan whose eggs wouldn't hatch.

Produced in Salford by Olive Clancy.