New Writing Takes the Air

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 719, 24 April 1953, Page 7

New Writing Takes the Air

of three months a programme called New Soundingsa miscellany of verse and prose which was to take the place of the now almost extinct English literary magazines. Edited by John Lehmann-best known fer his founding of New Writing-the new programme was well received. When the broadcast of the fourth edition indicated that New Soundings was to continue, Giles Romilly, radio* critic of The Observer, said that it had become "the: most interesting programme in English radio." How interesting it was New Zealand listeners may now decide for themselves. A transcription of one of the programmes is to be heard during the next few months from National stations, starting from 4YC at 8.1 p.m. on Saturday, May 2. In this edition William Plomer, the novelist and critic, discusses trends in contemporary fiction from his point of view as adviser to a firm of publishers, Laurie Lee speaks of his travels in Spain, there is a ‘short stofy by William Sansom, and there are a number of poems. Mr. Lehmann thinks that New Soundings is the first attempt that has been made to offer a substitute or parallel on the air for a serious literary ‘magazine, and he admits that when the BBC invited him to edit and compére the programme he foresaw that there would be many tricky problems to -be solved. Some of these difficulties he has discussed in the Radio Times and the BBC Quarterly. One of the ‘most obvious is that a radio programme cannot be picked up and dropped again--the listener cannot "go back and chew the cud of a difficult poem or a teasing critical study." Though New Soundings was repeated once in the Third Programme and some parts were printed in the BBC Listener, Mr. Lehmann thinks that ultimately, th last year the BBC introduced for a trial period

in some form or other, a good radio magazine should be available in print as a whole. With that limitation in mind, he says the radio editor-compére should aim to prepare listeners’ minds for each contribution by judicious introduction and comment. Though New Soundings runs for an hour, "a long stretch of time on the air," its editor considers restriction of time the most intractable of all the problems involved in a radio magazine. Compared with 20,000 to 25,000 words in a printed literary magazine, it runs to between 6000 and 7000 words: 10 minutes for editor and announcer, 20 minutes for seven or eight poems, and seven or eight minutes for another critical piece-leaving enough room for only 3000 words of imaginative prose, compared with 3500 to 6000 words, or even more, for the most memorable contributions to New Writing. But far from thinking that only a _ very rare short story can be found for the programme. Mr. Lehmann is inclined to believe that the opportunity it gives, the excitement of the medium, may lead authors to make discoveries in what they are capable of doing. The encouragement of new authors has always been an important concern of Mr. Lehmann. He thinks New Soundings will not necessarily attract new authors, but that it will at least give "that powerful incentive that would-be authors need to step forward and pursue their experiments to some conclusion"-~ and "the stir and stimulus are what is vital." Writing in the Radio Times a few months afters the new programme began, Mr. Lehmann stated his belief that the discipline it imposed on the author was good. Hundreds of manuscripts had come in, but to the many good young writers still too daunted by the technical demands he said: "If you stay on the brink you will never learn how simple swimming really may be."