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The writer and sound artist Timothy X Atack has created a sound piece especially for The Backwards Verb. Tim has always thought of the act of recording as a way of working out the world and revisiting the past. In Tim’s piece, ‘Bit of a Stretch’ he asks how much difference there would be in a life lived backwards. Timothy runs ‘Sleepdogs’, a company working in theatre, film and audio.

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The journalist Jude Rodgers lets us into the world of ‘Backmasking’, the secret, backwards messages hidden in rock music. The Beatles were early adopters of the practice as they experimented with sounds; using their playful approach as a starting point, Jude traces the history and meaning of backmasking from hidden snipes at enemies to Ìýdarker, occult possibilities.

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Helen Zaltzman is the host of the language podcast ‘The Allusionist’. For The Verb she turns her attention to ‘backwards’ etymologies, the misconceptions and mishearings which surround the origins of certain words. Helen thinks that our dislike of obscure etymologies leads us to create ‘backronyms’ such as Posh (Port Over Starboard Home).

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At just 15 years old Magnus Dixon has been a Foyles Young Poet for the past three years. Magnus shares with us his winning poem for 2015 ‘Compass-point Lullabies for Emily’, as well as advice for other young poets.

Magnus is this week's 'Podcast Poet'. Download our podcast to hear his interview.

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