The novel by Christopher Sykes
Adapted for radio by Dorothy Baker
Characters in order of speaking:
Production by Christopher Sykes
I believe that the ability to do again what he has done once is essentially alien to the writer's craft. What had spontaneity becomes hackwork when it ia remade in another form. So when I was asked for a radio version of my little novel A Song of A Shirt I put it into the able hands of Dorothy Baker. Let me take this occasion to mention some things that my novel has been thought to be and is not. It is not supposed to be an attack on the army. I try to show that regard for convention. envy, vanity, profeasdonal and snobbish ambition continue unmitigated in an armed camp, even in the midst of a devastating war. This is not peculiar to armies: the same tihing happens in all Sta'te employments and aH large organisations. I find rhis interesting and surprising but it does not shock me much. My novel is not supposed to be what ia called social criticism. Lastly let me try to soothe ruffled highbrows who accuse me of irreverence. It has been deplored that I make fun of Kafka. This I could not do even if I wanted to, aa I have been unable to read any of that master's books in entirety. What I can and do do is to make fun of the incredible nonsense talked by his extremist admirers, torrents of which bosh have often been directed at me, and some of which I have carefuHy reproduced. It has often been talked before in the history of art and is a highly suitable subject for ridicule.
Christopher Sykes

played by Robert Casadesua (piano)

Tibor Varga (violin)
The Goldsbrough Orchestra
(Leader, Emanuel Hurwitz )
Conducted by Hermann Scherchen

by Eric Simms
A talk about the largest falcon breeding in Britain, illustrated by recordings made last year in a remote Inverness-shire glen

sung by Gerard Souzay (baritone) with Jacqueline Bonneau (piano)
(on gramophone records)
Der Herr 1st mein getreuer Hirt
(Helder)
Ein neues andachtiges Kindelwiegen
(Corner)
Bringet meinen Herrn zur Ruh'
(Bohm)
Liebster Gott , wann werd' ich sterben
(Vetter)
Jesu in Gethsemane; Weihnachtslied;
Über die Finsternis kurz vor dem Tode Jesu (C. P. E. Bach)