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John Cowper Powys

A Glastonbury Romance, a series of Wessex novels, poems and philosophical essays were published by John Cowper Powys born 150 years ago (8 October 1872 –17 June 1963).

With their casts of outsiders, deviants and miscreants, the novels of John Cowper Powys explore where meaning can be found in a world without God. Very often, the answer is in semi-mystical communion with nature and landscape. Heir of both Thomas Hardy and Friedrich Nietzsche, Powys was admired by contemporaries like Iris Murdoch, and anticipated lots of the concerns of ecocritical writers and thinkers of today. But few of his books are currently in print. To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, Matthew Sweet discusses his life and writing with Margaret Drabble, John Gray, Iain Sinclair and Kevan Manwaring.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

You can find a collection of programmes exploring prose, poetry and drama on the Free Thinking website including episodes about Iris Murdoch, ETA Hoffmann, Eco Criticism /programmes/p047v6vh

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Thu 29 Sep 2022 22:00

Broadcast

  • Thu 29 Sep 2022 22:00

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