Where would our language be without the sea? Aground, adrift, the wind taken from our sails.

In today’s episode, Lemn is diving beneath the surface into the British Library Sound Archive (see full credits below) to hear how language, on this island nation, has been shaped by the sea.

To help on his quest, he’s joined by Scottish writer Amy Liptrot, whose 2018 memoir The Outrun won the PEN Ackerley Prize and the Wainwright Prize. In the book, Amy returns to the wildness of Orkney, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland where she grew up. There, she immerses herself in the sea and the island that she once left, and journeys towards recovery from addiction.

Together, they listen to sea shanties sung in Cornwall; coastguards responding to the aftermath of shipwrecks; tourists enamoured with Orkney’s inebriating charms and more...

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance: 

An interview with Violet Bonham Carter recorded by the BBC. The original recording was part of the Aberdeenshire Museums Service John Junner Collection and it was digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project. 

British Library shelfmark: UNLS028/254 S2 C3 

Coastguards David Jackson and Graham Hale recall responding to the aftermath of a shipwreck. The interview was conducted in St Levan in 2001 and the original recording is held at the Telegraph Museum in Porthcurno and it was digitised as part of the Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project. 

British Library shelfmark: UBC035/7 

Farmer Wilfred Keys and fish salesman Thomas Kyle speak in Belfast in 2013 about the superstitions of fishermen. Their conversation was part of the Listening Project recorded for the BBC © BBC.  

British Library shelfmark: C1500/0416 

Kei Miller reading his poem ‘The Law Concerning Mermaids’ in 2012. The recording was made by the British Library at The Power of Caribbean Poetry – Word and Sound conference in Homerton College, Cambridge. 

British Library shelfmark: C1532/12 

Sea shanty group The Oggymen performing their version of ‘The Mingulay Boat Song’ at the The Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival in 2017

British Library shelfmark: DD00010583  

‘Scapa Flow’ on melodeon performed by Jimmy Leslie. This recording was made in 1955 in St Ola, Orkney and is part of the Peter Kennedy Collection. 

British Library shelfmark: C604/1128 

A song about Brighton nudist beach performed by folk singer Miles Wootton in 1981 at BBC Radio Brighton. The recording was digitised by the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UTK006/1043