RADIO CHOICE

‘THERE’s a great excitement about being allowed to talk to dead people.’ In this afternoon’s BOOKCLUB (RADIO 4, 3.30PM), the poet Alice Oswald tells James Naughtie and a studio audience about the way she feels dead poets make their presence felt in her work. In the course of this talk about poetry writing, Alice also reads from her mysterious yet entirely comprehensible poem of a swan flying upwards and looking down at its dead self.

THE FULL WORKS CONCERT (CLASSIC FM, 8PM) has been devoted each night this week to the work of one composer. Now, it’s the turn of Robert Schumann. Catherine Bott opens her selection with Schumann’s Piano Concerto, played by Maria-Joao Pires and the London Symphony Orchestra. The programme

closes with Jacqueline du Pre and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, under Daniel Barenboim, playing the composer’s Cello Concerto.

MANY country stars like to glam themselves up, but Ashley McBryde (pictured) is not that kind of gal. She has risen swiftly through the Nashville ranks and will be part of the C2C: Country To Country festival. A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Arkansas native Ashley will perform a studio session from Nashville for this week’s

BOB HARRIS COUNTRY (RADIO 2, 9PM).