麻豆社

Writer Eoin Colfer joins Richard and Sian to talk about teaching, storytelling and little brothers.

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to Eoin talking about his most famous character, Artemis Fowl

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Eoin鈥檚 sequel to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series on Radio 4 Extra

Young butcher Charlotte Harbottle describes the sound of sharpening her boning knife.

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takes the noble art of poetry by the scruff of the neck.

17 year old Lucas Hayward was born with frontal-nasal craniofacial dysplasia, a facial disfigurement. Lucas and his dad Leighton join Saturday Live to talk about how Lucas overcame severe bullying to become a campaigner for the charity .

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TV presenter and traveller Ben Fogle continues his conversation with one of his heroes, Col John Blashford-Snell. Ben asks about his life as expedition leader and discovers a number of close encounters of a nature.

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Retired business man Nevile Gwynne teaches Latin and grammar to pupils across the globe via the internet.听 He employs rote learning and strict obedience to get the best out of his pupils and he joins Richard and Sian to discuss the importance of writing well.听

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Singer Petula Clarke chooses Only Forever by Bing Crosby and Hotel California by the Eagles.

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This Sunday marks the centenary of the birth of Norman Parkinson, one of the twentieth century鈥檚 most innovative and influential fashion photographers. To celebrate we hear from Pippa Diggle, a young English girl听living in Manhattan in 1959, who became the unlikely star of one of Parkinson鈥檚 most famous shots:听 New York New York.

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Photograph courtesy of Norman Parkinson Archive.

I'm on a train, in lashing rain, with a cough and a dodgy calf (a muscle, not a small cow), having picked up my race number for this Sunday's London marathon, from the vast exhibition centre where everyone goes to sign in. As I limped my way around, feeling nervous and queasy, I bumped into someone I hadn't seen for some time, Mike Tomlinson. You may remember his wife, Jayne. She had cancer and ran marathons while she was very sick, her last London one, as he reminded me, on chemotherapy. Kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it? Everyone on Sunday is running for a reason, or a cause or in memory of someone. While we were there today, we picked up our black ribbons, worn to support those killed or injured in Boston last weekend. The mood was positive, upbeat and everyone said, enjoy it, the crowd will carry you round. I bet they will. Even after last weekend. In fact, especially after last weekend.

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Triumph over adversity on Saturday Live this week, when we meet a father and son dealing with facial disfigurement. There's travel with Ben Fogle, young butcher Charlotte Harbottle describes her favourite sound and Pippa Diggle explains how she came to be the subject of an iconic Norman Parkinson photograph.

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Also on the programme, something that'll appeal to the retired primary school teacher who writes to me after every TV One o'clock news bulletin, to correct inaccuracies. Lover of grammar and educator of many, Neville Gwynne is joining us, we hear the Inheritance tracks of Petula Clark, and (is that an Oxford comma, Mr Gwynne?) our studio guest this week is a children's author who has helped many reluctant readers to embrace words, Eoin Colfer. Do try to (not "try and", Mr Gwynne, I know that) join us.

Go! Support your local record store,

resist the easy click of MP3s

and Michael Buble winking at the till

say no to Macca's freebie in the Mail.

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Go to where the hi-fi's loud and bolshy

to where they stack 'em low and sell 'em honest.

Go to dog-earned forty-fives and bootlegs

to Goths with bass guitars slung over shoulders.

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Put the quiet ritual back in commerce

put art and heart in counting out your coins;

like brewing tea or rolling cigarettes,

the slow and languid cook, the long way home.

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漏 Luke Wright

To who, or whom, it may concern

verbose, composed or taciturn

a verse from which we all can learn

a verse concerning GRAMMAR!

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Grammar? Huh? Yeah, don't be dense

that thing what makes all things make sense

where us dyslexics come a cropper

Grammar I don't do it proper!

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But grammar's not all heirs and graces

for whilst it has a Latin basis

we learn our tongue instinctively

from mum or dad or bad TV.

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And some, of course, say "them", not "those"

or dress their words in faddish clothes,

who swear blind that they "didn't do nothing"

and other crude linguistic roughing

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say "is it" not "are they" or worse

can only speak in rhyming verse,

drop commas like they're Essex aitches -

they're still communicative creatures.

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Who banter, quip and joke with friends

their grammar perfect for their ends.

Pitched just right for their survival

Language, after all, is tribal.

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Look, I'm in awe of Carver's pauses

and Bertie Wooster's complex clauses

but sometimes I prefer the bark

of LKJ or Johnny Clarke.

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Yes, this is what I'm trying to say:

you don't need all the rules to play.

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漏 Luke Wright