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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Poetry Extra

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

Poetry Extra: Adventures in Poetry - The Gate of the Year

Adventures in Poetry - The Gate of the Year

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Adventures in Poetry - The Gate of the Year

Peggy Reynolds on how a young woman from Bristol put words into the mouth of a King.

Made for 4 Extra. Daljit Nagra chooses 'Adventures in Poetry - The Gate of the Year' a programme about the poem King George VI quoted on Christmas Day 1939.

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with 'Adventures in Poetry - The Gate of the Year'.  

Peggy Reynolds hears the story behind the poem King George VI quoted in his first Christmas broadcast on 25th December 1939.

Written by the unknown Minnie Louise Haskins - it takes her from an unassuming suburb of Bristol to Sandringham, via the correspondence pages of The Times and the hand of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.  

The poem has also popped up at the opening of two world wars and on countless tea towels, internet sites and books of inspirational verse.

Producer: Christine Hall

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2010.

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