Wherever this podcast finds you in the world, Merry Christmas from us all. In this episode, John also talks about a beautiful ice-and-snow bound story from the Chuckchi people of the Bering Sea, When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu, and Andy reads ‘The Tree Room’, a poem from Caroline Bird's new collection The Air Year that seems to sum up the spirit of Christmas 2020. The Dark is Rising was first published in the UK by Chatto & Windus in 1973, and as a Puffin in 1976 and is the second book in the sequence, also called ‘The Dark is Rising’ which began with Over Sea, Under Stonein 1965 and then continued on with Greenwitch, The Grey King and finally in 1977, Silver on the Tree. She lives and works in a small cottage in Pembrokeshire. She is currently working on The Book of Birds, written by Robert, The Space Between, a curious creature, part book, part leaf (funding via Unbound) and Mrs Noah’s Song, to be illustrated by James Mayhew. Her work with Robert Macfarlane has been described as a ‘cultural phenomenon’. She has illustrated more books than she can be bothered to count and written many too, including most recently, The Unwinding, published by Unbound. She began her career in publishing illustrating for magazines and newspapers before moving into book illustration and then writing. Jackie is a multi-award-winning author and illustrator. He loves collaborating with musicians including Johnny Flynn, Cosmo Sheldrake, Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, and the band Underworld. He's a Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he's lucky enough to spend his days talking about ideas with brilliant young people. His books and writing have been widely adapted for film, theatre, radio, tv.

Robert is the author of books about landscape, people and nature including Underland, The Old Ways, The Wild Places. Joining John and Andy to discuss this classic winter solstice read, and the four other books that make up the Dark Is Rising sequence, are writer Robert Macfarlane and writer and illustrator Jackie Morris, co-authors of The Lost Words and The Lost Spells and fellow Susan Cooper devotees. Susan Cooper's magical novel The Dark Is Rising is the subject of a bumper Christmas special episode of Backlisted.

The dark is rising