Lynette Roberts, war poet: BBC audio recording available online

June 5, 2006

An audio recording of 'Lynette Roberts - our greatest female war poet?', a feature originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour' programme on 30 Mar 2006, is now available on the BBC's website, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/ram/2006_13_thu_01.ram .

The recording lasts about 9 minutes and includes a discussion about women's war poetry and the legacy of Lynette Roberts, between Dr Patrick McGuinness, poet, critic, and editor of Lynette Roberts's newly-published Collected Poems and Angharad Rhys, daughter of Lynette Roberts.

As the BBC's guide to the item (at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2006_13_thu.shtml ) states, Lynette Roberts was one of Britain's great war poets, although she stayed in Britain - mostly Wales - and published just two volumes of poetry. 'Her work looked at life from the viewpoint of those who went to war and those who were left behind. She was critically acclaimed by T S Eliot and Robert Graves yet her work has been out of print for nearly half a century. Now all of it is being gathered together into one volume'.

It's a fascinating discussion of the place and significance of women's war poetry and a good example of the increasing amount of archived material in audio now available on the web.

Collected Poems by Lynette Roberts is edited by Patrick McGuiness and published by Carcanet, 2006. ISBN: 1857548426