THE DRIFTED STREAM

I am proud to announce the release of ‘The Drifted Stream’, Audible’s new collection of British and Irish verse, selected and introduced by Andrew Motion. Read by: Matt Addis, Nicholas Boulton, Imogen Church, Simon Dormandy, Stephen Hogan, Joe Jameson, Jonathan Keeble, Shaheen Khan, Abraham Popoola, David Rintoul, Natalie Simpson, Siân Thomas, Homer Todiwala, Gabby Wong, Leo Wringer.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege for me to direct 15 fine actors reading over 450 poems spanning 800 years. The project began just before Lockdown back in 2020, but was then suspended for a couple of years. It was revived in the autumn of 2022, and I worked with a top team of actors, engineers and editors to complete the recordings by Christmas. Some people recorded in studio, some people worked remotely, and it was a big technical challenge to match all the different mics and acoustics, but the audio wizards at 2020 Recordings managed to do it.

The collection features many old favourites, but Andrew Motion has included plenty of less well known material, too. I was particularly pleased to encounter a strong contingent of 17th and 18th century female poets who were new to me.

‘The Drifted Stream‘ contains poems to suit any mood or occasion and I hope listeners will have as much fun and pleasure exploring the collection as I had in directing it.