TODAY’S RADIO

Living World

6.35AM, RADIO 4 This archive programme, recorded in Somerset in 1997, gives us a chance to hear the thrilling and all too rare sound of an owl on the prowl.

New Grub Street

3PM, RADIO 4 George Gissing was a Victorian novelist whose work, full of contemporary observations, gives us a sharp insight into the bleak realities of life at the end of the 19th century. In this first of a twopart dramatisation about London literati, a serious novelist struggles to make a living while the hack Jasper Milvain makes a fortune. Ed Reardon fans will notice many striking parallels between this work and the comedy series about the cynical, 21st-century hack.

Island Sounds

4PM, BBC 6 MUSIC There’ll be Puerto Rican rumba,

Dolly Parton (7pm, Radio 2)

Creole melodies, Barbadian soca and other music from the Caribbean in this show presented by Gemma Cairney. Gemma also hears from Caribbean musicians about the music that’s often overlooked in favour of reggae and Rihanna.

Poetry Please

4.30PM, RADIO 4 The Cornish poet Jack Clemo went to the local village school, but his education ended when he was 13, and he started to lose his sight. Despite his affliction, Jack’s poetry is full of physical images, drawn from the Cornish landscape. In today’s poetry selection, Roger McGough includes some powerful work by this unjustly neglected writer.

Words And Music

6.15PM, RADIO 3 Thousands of people visit holy sites each year, following in the footsteps of centuries of pilgrims – and thousands visit Graceland to see Elvis’s old home. Robert Powell and Josette Simon read poetry and prose, and introduce music, on the theme of pilgrimage.

Baylen And Dolly

7PM, RADIO 2 Dolly Parton joins the country music specialist Baylen Leonard to talk about her new album, Pure & Simple; she also looks back at her povertystricken childhood, and reveals her love of eating squirrel and gravy.