麻豆社

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the 麻豆社's radio poetry archive with 'In Praise of Limestone' featuring WH Auden's famous poem about the remote Pennine Dales.

After reading it at school, poet Ian McMillan fulfils his ambition to explore the limestone scenery that inspired the poem. Ian walks in Auden's footsteps, revisiting the places that so moved Auden when he was a boy and young man.

Ian meets Tony Sharpe from Lancaster University, who has looked at how the area impacted on Auden's development as a poet. He also meets local writer and Auden enthusiast Robert Forsythe peering down the deep shaft at Haggs Mine, then venturing on in search of the places described in Auden's wartime New Year Letter from America.

Ian meets mining historian Ian Tyler and local poet Josephine Dickinson, whose own work is rooted in the countryside.

Producer: Andrew Carter
First broadcast on 麻豆社 Radio 4 in 2014.