Poet Laureate Simon Armitage's The Shed podcast returns

 

 

Excellent news, arguably the world's best shed-based podcast is back in business. After the BBC mystifyingly decided not to renew Simon Armitage's series, he has quite rightly decided to simply carry on regardless, with Yorkshire Tea as his podcast partner. Here's what he says:

"I’m delighted to announce that I’m opening up the doors of my garden shed to welcome in half a dozen guests for a chinwag. One at a time, mind - there isn’t much room in there, even when I’ve moved the lawnmower. Feel free to put your ear to one of the many holes in the wall and eavesdrop my natterings with Self Esteem, Susie Dent, Richard Hawley and others who’ve ventured into the Pennine uplands."

It's available in the usual places such as Apple and Spotify, with Frank Skinner - himself a poetry podcaster now - the first interviewee of the new series.

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The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed: Series 3

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage's excellent BBC Radio 4 series The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed returns this week. The first invitee, on Sunday, is actor Sir Ian McKellen and later episodes feature comedian Lucy Beaumont and poet Pam Ayres. You can hear a preview of the series here.

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A tour of Simon Armitage's writing shed

We mentioned earlier in the month that the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has launched a new BBC podcast The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed in which he invites people from various creative walks of life into his shed for a chat. He has also done a little tour of his pretty windswept garden office (see below) in which he shows us around. Everybody has some unusual things in their sheds, but I wonder how many have a harmonium, a pizza oven, a daybed, books on birdspotting, a decent spread of music cassettes, and an impressive collection of sherry.

The first episode is out now with singer Guy Garvey from Elbow and you can listen to it here (warning, contains very strong language) who talks about his own shed history (spoiler: it's a greenhouse really).

Poet Laureate & former probation officer Simon Armitage took guests in his garden shed to talk about life, language and the human voice.

Hear those fascinating conversations on @BBCsounds

Subscribe 👉 https://t.co/9lasEHSWHr pic.twitter.com/o2n5pKbDwZ

— BBC Radio 4 (@BBCRadio4) March 4, 2020

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Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to present new arts podcast from his garden office

The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is launching a 12-episode series of podcasts for Radio 4, all recorded in his garden office shed. Called 'The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed', guests will include Kate Tempest, Jackie Kay, Antony Gormley, Lily Cole, Sam Lee, Maxine Peake, Guy Garvey, all talking about their writing and creative lives.

"It's been a great pleasure and great fun to throw open the doors (ok, door) of the shed to so many creative and inspiring visitors," says Armitage. "I think most of them thought the shed was just a metaphor for something more comfortable or literary. But it's an actual shed, with spiders and a lawnmower."

Rhian Roberts, Radio 4 Commissioning Editor for Digital and Podcasts, said: "Great minds meet in the shed in this new Radio 4 podcast and we get to understand a little bit more about how those creative minds really work. It’s a lovely setting. The shed brings out something different, it’s a disarming and comforting space with a welcoming vibe all of its own."

The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed will be available on BBC Sounds from 11 March. There's a short taster already up on the site here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Enterprise Nation - brochure website for shedworkers

This week's column from Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation looks at the pros and cons of brochure website packages on offer.

This was the question on the Enteprise Nation forum that started a chain of responses:

“We are currently setting up our home business and sourcing products to sell via a website. We will be selling home accessories, gifts and seasonal products. We have had some quotes for websites of which are out of our price range, we want the website to act as a brochure for our products then to sell using Paypal or something similar. Does anybody know of or has used a product we can buy to create our own website to get a professional finish?"

The responses started well. Mike from Mike’s Computers was the first on hand to help and did so by suggesting that Steven and Zoe check out www.oscommerce.com. So far, so good. Friend of the forum, Emily Coltman was next to step in but with a warning. ‘Beware of template websites’ she wrote ‘they have a nasty habit of looking like they came out of a box and can spoil the individuality of your business.’ Point well made. At this point, Steven and Zoe may have started to wonder which way to turn. So let’s try to offer some clarity.

Box-set versus Pro-designer
In the 20 odd responses to Steven and Zoe’s original question, it was about 50/50 in terms of who suggested a package versus professional designer. The main points were:
* Buying a website package means having to build the site yourself. This can take technical know-how and pressure to keep up to date with changing technologies so your site stays up to date
* Turning to a professional designer will cost you more but think about the time saved and the fact you’re outsourcing what could be a key element of your business to an expert.

Package options
What also became clear is there are a number of packages on the market. If you do decide on the DIY route, here are the ones mentioned:

Oscommerce - an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort and no costs or fees. Recommended by Mike Sheppard

Wordpress - Wordpress with an ecommerce plugin. Comes complete with a tutorial on Youtube on how to set up your store in less than 5 minutes. Recommended by Edward Robson

Cube cart – e-commerce shopping cart used by >1 million store owners. Recommended by Sarah Barnard

UK2.net - uses wizards to set up your site and ‘for a starter website, it's been pretty good’. Recommended by Lol Lowe

Shopify.com - a hosted system (you don't need your own hosting for the website although you will for email) that can link in a number of payment options (PayPal etc.) and the admin section of the site allows you to easily manage all your orders.

Trading Eye – a highly featured ecommerce package which costs in the region of £350 + VAT (a one off cost) which comes with a simple template design. Both recommended by Andrew Armitage

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation, the home business website, and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’

Writers' rooms: Simon Gray

We've mentioned The Guardian's excellent Writers' Rooms series several times before but I see no reason why we shouldn't do so again as it's the most human of all looks at home offices on the internet. Here is Simon Gray's. I particularly like the conclusion to his description of it.

"I suppose I should attempt to explain the scattered garments and shoes - the reason that they're there is that I tend to use my study as my dressing-room, and the reason that they're scattered about is that this is my room and I can do what I bloody like in it."

I don't believe that there are any more shedworking spaces since Martin Amis' entry although Simon Armitage says his is above a garage so that sounds promising. What is interesting is how many writers work in an attic or in the highest room in the house.

Music while you work – Arthurian Christmas

A slight change of tack as we approach Christmas. I rarely listen to spoken word radio while I work in my garden office/shed (except for cricket – aaarggghhhh - and Radio Exterior de España) but if you have time on Thursday at 2.15pm, I’d recommend tuning in to BBC Radio 4 to listen to Sir Gawain And The Green Knight in a new translation by poet Simon Armitage, narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, original music by Gary Yershon. The play starts at Christmas which makes it a particularly festive listen. It should also be available via the BBC’s Listen Again service for seven days after broadcast.