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Five writers and artists not normally associated with classical music, discuss a specific example of Vaughan Williams鈥檚 work to which they have a personal connection, and why it speaks to them.

Following on from the successful Five Kinds of Beethoven Radio 3 essay series in 2020, where a wide range of Beethoven fans shared their personal relationship to the composer and his work, this new series gives similar treatment to Vaughan Williams.

Our essayists share their unexpected perspective on Vaughan Williams鈥檚 work, taking it outside the standard 鈥楨nglish pastoral鈥� box, in a series of accessible essays, part of the Vaughan Williams season on Radio 3.

Essay 5: Amanda Dalton 鈥� poet/dramatist

As a teenager in a 1970s working-class Coventry family, Amanda Dalton had a flamboyant favourite Uncle Gordon. He introduced Amanda to Vaughan Williams through embarrassing trips to the record shop after school. Amanda remembers the utter mortification of walking through Coventry city centre in her school uniform, Uncle Gordon sweeping along in a dramatically, her schoolmates giggling behind them. Once at the shop, Uncle Gordon waxed lyrical about his favourite composers. He bought Amanda a record of the Sea Symphony. She took it home, played it and was transported. It has remained significant to her ever since, summoning up her childhood, culture and class and what it is to be an outsider.

Amanda Dalton is a poet and playwright, tutor, theatre artist and consultant.
She is currently a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, Associate Artist at Manchester鈥檚 Royal Exchange Theatre and a Visiting Teaching Fellow (Script and Poetry) at MMU鈥檚 Writing School. Amanda has two poetry collections with Bloodaxe, How To Disappear and Stray, and Notes on Water came out in 2022. Her poetry has won awards and prizes in major competitions including the National Poetry Competition and she has been selected as one of the UK鈥檚 top 20 鈥淣ext Generation Poets鈥�.
Amanda writes regularly for 鲍鱼tv Radio 3 and 4 鈥� original writing includes a number of original dramas and adaptations.
For most of her career, she also worked in the worlds of Education and Creative Engagement. After 13 years as an English and Drama teacher and Deputy Head in comprehensive schools in Leicestershire, she left the formal education sector to be a Centre Director for the Arvon Foundation before becoming a senior leader at Manchester鈥檚 Royal Exchange Theatre, working for 18 years in the field of creative learning.

Writer and reader Amanda Dalton
Sound designer Paul Cargill
Producers Polly Thomas and Yusra Warsama
Exec producer Eloise Whitmore

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