Wayne Holloway-Smith: RABBITBOX
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the London Review Bookshop podcast. To find out about our upcoming events, visit londonreviewbookshop.co.uk forward slash events
It's a pleasure to welcome Wayne Holloway-Smith and Adil Akhtar. Adil's an actor, on stage, TV and film, most recently in the Mick Herron adaptation Down Cemetery Road, and on stage playing in the Cherry Orchard in New York. Wayne's previous poetry collections are Alarum and Love Minus Love, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. And now the book we're here to celebrate this evening, Rabbit Box, published today by Scribner. They'll be in conversation and reading for about 45 minutes, following which there'll be time for questions from the floor with the roving mic. Wayne O'Deal, welcome. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, joining us today, it was hot, it's a little bit cold now, but thank you for all coming.
What is Rabbitbox and why is Wayne Holloway‑Smith here to discuss it?
We're here today to discuss Rabbit Box, Wayne Holloway-Smith's latest book. I think I'll start a little bit about talking about our friendship, which is a little, I don't know, it feels a bit poetic in the sense that we sort of float in and out of each other's lives, find each other in parks and street corners.
So not in a, that's not in a weird way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, not in a weird way. But whenever we sort of... Yeah, what's weird about that? Whenever we do meet up, we sort of, like, end up chatting for hours and hours. I've been known to be late picking up my kids because of that. But by the end of the conversation, we sorted a lot of stuff out, I feel.
I mean... Adeel is, do you remember how we met? We met at like a music and sort of spoken word night. And then we were sort of asked to join in kind of co-editing its magazine. And Adeel, like most of you probably have seen him on TV, but what you don't know maybe is he's like this super generous guy. And when we were editing the thing, like Adeel loved everything. Like he was like everything is like brilliant and I hated everything and I don't know if that sort of like maybe found its way into my current position as the editor of the Poetry Review, I hope not. But like yeah we kind of had some disagreements because of it really because you were just like why can't we include people?
Yeah yeah I wanted to include everything and everyone but you know you had to be selective.
Can I just say a bit about you though? people recognize the deal right and it's quite funny because when we met you were a glass collector at Brixton Academy and so we edited this magazine and Adil was always like I'm going to be an actor right and I sort of like all right well yeah I mean I really hope that's true and then And then nothing really happened for a bit. And then we met again after that night had sort of finished. And I met you on a street corner. I said, how's it going? And you were like, oh, it's going really well. And I'm in a play off, like sort of, not really in the West End, but like a little bit away from the West End with Martin Fowler from EastEnders. And I was like, oh, that's nice.
I'm planning on something. And then the next time we met, you just won a BAFTA. But yeah, back at you as well.
Okay, thank you. That's really kind. But also, every time I'm with Wayne, I always find that I'm asking really sort of, basic and simplistic questions and he was always that you're always there to sort of like take the time i just imagine you're the best teacher you know teacher poetry and everything because he takes the time and really and really delves into the details of like his answers and there's something about that and his quality as a person and this book when i read it I found it super moving for that reason. Because when you're in a conversation with Wayne, it has a sort of feeling of how I read this book. You feel sort of held by him. But he doesn't shy away from complicated questions.
And he holds it all very lightly. And it's very much the experience of reading this book. Um, and, uh, there was an early review, which describes it very well by Sandy Palmer. It says it's devastating, sharp, skillfully wrought language, an ambitious leap into lyricism that disassembles.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:58
2
What is Rabbitbox and why is Wayne Holloway‑Smith here to discuss it?
0:58–6:17
3
How did Wayne and Adeel Akhtar first meet and influence each other's creative paths?
6:17–33:09
4
How does Wayne describe Rabbitbox’s structure and the narrator’s shifting lens?
33:09–53:27