More Poetry is Needed: Summertime in England

Four weeks ago I found myself eating a tomato and cheddar cheese dusted bap made by Loraine in a car travelling from Telford to Inverness. The engine purred as we passed through the Yorkshire Dales, the hills folding onto one another towards the peaks of the Lake District and the town of Kendal, I swear I saw the shimmering ghosts of Wordsworth and Coleridge climbing slowly to the top of a distant hill.

There was only one song that could be played on the car stereo, the only song that made sense in that moment, ‘Summertime in England’ by Van Morrison.

And it was then I hatched an idea for this episode of More Poetry is Needed: An examination of the poets, the literary and musical greats mentioned in Van Morrison’s ‘Summertime in England’, one of my all-time favourite songs.

Recorded 24th June 2023 at Stranded FM, Utrecht.