Books and Pens

Ian McMillan's guests Emma Smith, Naush Sabah and Gerry Cambridge celebrate books and pens - and we hear a new BBC centenary commission from Imtiaz Dharker.Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, and her new book is called 'Portable Magic - A History of Books and their Readers'. Emma explains why books are like bodies, and explores the power of the inscription.Gerry Cambridge is a poet and essayist, editor of The Dark Horse transatlantic journal - and a lover of fountain pens. Naush Sabah is a poet, with a collection called 'Litanies' now out with Guillemot Press, and runs Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal; Naush also loves fountain pens. For The Verb they agreed to create a poem together - exploring the particular resonance, and experience of writing in ink.At the end of the programme you can hear a brand new poetry commission from Imtiaz Dharker, one of our most celebrated poets, and an acclaimed artist and film-maker; part of our series marking the BBC's hundred year relationship with poets and poetry.