Last Lines - a podcast by BBC Radio 3

Ian McMillan enjoys last lines in poetry, song, memoir, and novels - and his guests introduce him to different varieties of endings: the trap door, the rug-pull, the fade and many more. Stuart Maconie, writer and broadcaster, is Ian's guide to the bathetic and sometimes dramatic ends to be found in popular song - and explores an ending created by the Cornish poet Charles Causley. Caroline Bird reads a sonnet from her poetry collection 'The Air Year' and reveals the draft that helped her reach the poem and its ending, and fellow poet Sinéad Morrissey shares a work-in-progress inspired by endings: 'Seeing Red', her memoir of growing up in a Communist family in Northern Ireland.

Our 'Something' New poem (marking 100 years of the BBC) is by Menna Elfyn.

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Further episodes of The Verb

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 3

Website of BBC Radio 3