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Ian McMillan presents Radio 3's cabaret of the word, featuring the best writing of all kinds. In this edition, the novelist Leila Aboulela reads a brand new commission for The Verb. And, she tells the story of her Uncle Hassan Awad Abouleleh a popular lyrical poet in his day who inspired her new novel Lyrics Alley. Ian McMillan asks the American writer Padgett Powell to explain why he decided to write 'The Interrogative Mood' a book made up entirely of questions. Verb regulars Peter Blegvad and Kevin Jackson are are having a dinner party inspired by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the C18th gastronome whose book 'The Physiology of Taste' is a classic compendium on the pleasures of the table And, the first anthology of rap lyrics is reviewed by former rapper Doc Brown and the editor of Poetry Review, Fiona Sampson. Do the beats and rhymes of one of the most influential cultural forces of the last thirty years actually work on the page?

Producer: Erin Riley and Dymphna Flynn.