Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Women Writing War

Lara Rossi and Carolyn Pickles with poetry and prose by the mothers of WWI soldiers and of young men serving in Afghanistan with music by PJ Harvey, Samuel Barber and June Tabor.

From WWI to Afghanistan, testimony from wives, mothers and women journalists read by Carolyn Pickles and Lara Rossi is set alongside music by Martinů, Messiaen, Max Richter, Clare Connors and Miles Davis.

We begin with Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman before our collaboration with the Big Ideas Project, Motherhood Loss and the First World War, brings letters from the mothers of soldiers in the First World War. Their words are heard with commissioned music by Clare Connors. Helen Thomas, the young wife of the poet Edward Thomas remembers their last night together before he returned to the Front, heard with George Butterworth’s The Bank of Green Willow: both Thomas and Butterworth did not return from the war. The great American journalist Martha Gellhorn’s report on the devastation in Madrid is set alongside Samuel Barber’s A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map, inspired by the death of a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Much closer in time is the war in Afghanistan. The music of Miles Davis is heard as the American Iraq veteran and poet Chantelle Bateman remembers her post-traumatic stress on returning from the conflict. And the poets Bryony Doran and Isabel Palmer tell of their experiences of being the mothers of young soldiers in Afghanistan. Women Writing War ends with May Wedderburn Cannan’s July 1919 and her final lines, ‘Never for us is folded War away, Dawn or sun setting, Now in our hearts abides always our war’ are heard with Elgar’s Carissima.

Producer: Fiona McLean

The annual episode made in partnership with the Imperial War Museum of Radio 3's Arts & Ideas programme Free Thinking is available now on Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Sounds. It looks at the gallery's art collection. And on the Free Thinking programme website you can find a series of episodes exploring different aspects of war.

READINGS
Phoebe Smith: Letter to Rabindranath Tagore
SA Walker: Letter to her Son
Moniza Alvi: How the Stone Found its Voice
Mary Borden: The Forbidden Zone
Helen Thomas: World Without End
Audrey Withers: Vogue's Victory Edition
Jane Duran: Spanish Civil War
Martha Gelhorn: Spanish Civil War
Cecily Mackworth: En Route
Isabel Palmer: Worse Case Scenario
Ruth Fainlight: Handbag
Chantelle Bateman: PTSD
Bryony Doran: Snow on the Line
Margaret Postgate Cole: The Falling Leaves
May Wedderburn Cannan: Woman Demobilised

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 12 Nov 2023 17:30
Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Windrush: Some Kind of Homecoming

Next

Beginnings and Endings

See all episodes from Words and Music

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    Joan Tower

    Fanfare No. 2 for the Uncommon Woman

    Performer: Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop (Conductor).
    • KOCH 374692.
    • Tr4.

  • Phoebe Smith

    Sacrifice, read by Lara Rossi

  • Susan Owen

    Letter to Rabindranath Tagore read by Carolyn Pickles

  • 00:04

    Clare Connors

    Dear Oswald (from the 'Motherhood, Loss and the First World War' project commissioned by Big Ideas)

    Performer: Clare Connors.

  • S. A. Walker

    Letter to her son, read by Lara Rossi (from the 'Motherhood, Loss and the First World War' project run by Big Ideas)

  • 00:09

    Samuel Barber

    With Rue My Heart Is Laden

    Performer: Cheryl Studer (Soprano) and John Browning (piano).
    • DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4358672.
    • CD1 Tr12.

  • Moniza Alvi

    How the Stone Found its Voice, read by Lara Rossi

  • 00:10

    Bohuslav Martinů

    Cello Sonata no. 1 - III. Allegro con brio

    Performer: Josef Chuchro (cello), Josef Hala (piano).
    • Supraphon 11 0992-2.
    • Tr3.

  • Mary Borden

    The Forbidden Zone, read by Carolyn Pickles

  • 00:17

    Olivier Messiaen

    Quatuor pour la fin du Temps – VII. Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps

    Performer: Yvonne Loriod (piano), Christoph Poppen (violin), Manuel Fischer-Dieskau (cello), Wolfgang Meyer (clarinet).
    • EMI CDC7543952.
    • Tr7.

  • Helen Thomas

    from World without End, read by Lara Rossi

  • 00:24

    George Butterworth

    The Banks of Green Willow

    Performer: Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Norman del Mar (Conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN 6566.
    • Tr3.

  • Audrey Withers

    from VogueÂ’s Victory Edition, read by Carolyn Pickles

  • 00:30

    Eric Bogle

    No ManÂ’s Land

    Performer: June Tabor.
    • MUSIC CLUB MCCD126.
    • Tr16.

  • Jane Duran

    Spanish Civil War, read by Lara Rossi

  • 00:37

    Samuel Barber

    A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map

    Performer: Cambridge University Chamber Choir, Timothy Brown (Director).
    • GAMUT CLASSICS GAMCD535.
    • Tr6.

  • Martha Gellhorn

    from Spanish Civil War, read by Carolyn Pickles

  • Cecily Mackworth

    En Route, read by Lara Rossi

  • 00:44

    Clare Connors

    Love Loss Resilience (from the 'Motherhood, Loss and the First World War' project commissioned by Big Ideas)

    Performer: Clare Connors.

  • Isabel Palmer

    Worse Case Scenario, read by Carolyn Pickles

  • 00:46

    Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

    Symphony no 3 – Lento – cantabile semplice

    Performer: Dawn Upshaw (Soprano), London Sinfonietta, David Zinman (Conductor).
    • ELEKTRA NONESUCH 7559792822.
    • Tr3.

  • Ruth Fainlight

    Handbag, read by Lara Rossi

  • 00:54

    Miles Davis

    Blue In Green

    • Big3 BT3046.
    • CD3 Tr1.

  • Chantelle Bateman

    PTSD, read by Lara Rossi

  • 00:55

    PJ Harvey

    Hanging in the Wire

    Performer: P. J. Harvey, Jean-Marc Butty (Drums), John Parish (Guitar), Mick Harvey (Piano/Vocals).
    • Island Records 2763025.
    • Tr10.

  • Bryony Doran

    Snow on the Line, read by Carolyn Pickles

  • 00:58

    Frederick Delius

    North Country Sketches – Winter Landscape

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox (Conductor).
    • CHANDOS CHAN 9355.
    • Tr6.

  • Margaret Postgate Cole

    The Falling Leaves, read by Lara Rossi

  • 01:03

    Max Richter

    Embers

    Performer: Max Richter.
    • Late Junction Â鶹ÊÓƵAVLJ30022.
    • Tr16.

  • May Wedderburn Cannan

    Women Demobilised, read by Carolyn Pickles

  • 00:00

    Edward Elgar

    Carissima

    Performer: Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Concert Orchestra, John Wilson (Conductor).
    • SOMM SOMMCD 247.
    • Tr5.
  • 01:11

    Lucy O'Byrne

    Siuil A Run

    Lucy O'Byrne

    • Island Records.
    • 0060254777625.
    • 4.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 11 Nov 2018 17:30
    Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 3
  • Sun 12 Nov 2023 17:30
    Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 3

Featured in...

  • Remembrance

    Reflections at the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.

The hidden history of plant-based diets

The hidden history of plant-based diets

Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.

Books website

Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.