Ruth Padel presents a landmark series exploring the pleasures of writing and reading poems.

Poetry is everywhere, and all over the country workshops of aspiring poets meet to work together on their craft. The Edinburgh School of Poets is one such group, and Ruth joins them to work on three of their poems on the theme of 'Family Ties'. The text of all the poems featured will be available on the Radio 4 website a few days before the broadcast.

Ruth and the group listen to the poems and offer practical and inspirational pointers to each other. As they go behind the scenes of the poems, testing and pruning, exploring technical things like structure, rhyme and line endings, they reveal the imagination and the skill that makes poetry so rewarding for both writers and readers of poetry.

The poems from the group include about a tender one about the never ending anxieties of motherhood, which includes some interesting Scottish words like 'stravaiging'. There's also a funny piece about the pre-occupation with genealogy, and a moving poem about an attempt to piece together a picture of a lost family member from their remaining personal effects.

The group also share and appreciate a poem by the award winning poet Don Paterson, called The Thread.

Producers: Sarah Langan and Sara Davies. Show less