I'm Philip Holden and this is Ideas in Writing - the podcast where we talk to people who use words - written, spoken, performed and even (once again) sung. The guest brings along a word and so do I...it's all downhill from there on...

In this episode I talk to the brilliant Arthur Smith who has been at the top of the tree of comedy for many many years and is often cited by other comedians as a hero. Arthur is one of the few performers who can genuinely claim to be a national treasure having become a fixture on Radio 4 on shows like Loose Ends and the One Show for BBC TV. He is also practically the headline act of every Edinburgh Fringe and frequently persuades visitors in summer that Arthur's Seat is named after him.

Above all Arthur is a wordsmith (dammit, why didn't I say THAT during the podcast?) and apart from obviously writing his own material (and giving comedy masterclasses) he writes movingly about his upbringing, his parents, his love of walking, friendship and just getting on with life. Many of his pieces are collected in his new book 100 Things I Meant to Tell You.

Arthur and I talked about his love of walking which started as a boy hiking around the Lakes and along the Pennine Way. We talk about nearly killing his audience, his worst gig and how he's managing to get through lock down without performing and without his beloved Edinburgh Festival.

Arthur's word for this episode should have been Pagoda whilst mine was Play but for reasons I explain...kind of...we didn't even mention them. Nevertheless, it was a lovely chat with a lovely bloke.

You can order Arthur's books from Mr Books Bookshop here and you can find out about Arthur's gigs (when they do eventually happen) and his Patreon page at his website, here.

Ideas in Writing is produced with the support of Mr Books Bookshop in Tonbridge - the home of inspiring, imaginative and intelligent books, gifts and conversation. They're on Twitter too @mrbooks_ton. But most importantly of all, you can visit them (in the lovely market town of Tonbridge in Kent) for a browse any Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm.

Don't forget to subscribe for new episodes coming up.

CREDITS & links

You can order the books mentioned via Mr Books and get 20% off for August and September 2020, if you mention 'Ideas in Writing'

Arthur’s 100 Things I Meant to Tell You. (AA) is £14.39.(RRP £17.99).

Arthur also mentioned a couple of other books -

The Lives And Extraordinary Adventures Of Fifteen Tramp Writers From The Golden Age Of Vagabondage by Ian Cutler (Feral House) is £10.39 (RRP £12.99) and The Complete Short Stories by Saki (Penguin) is £8.79 (RRP £10.99)

Alfred Wainwright’s A Pennine Journey: The Story of a Long Walk in 1938 (1986) is not currently available unfortunately.

Ideas in Writing is recorded and produced by Philip Holden using Zencastr and Acast.com

The Ideas in Writing theme "Farting Around" is by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The "Light Easy March" sting is by ...dog http://www.besonic.com/dog

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