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The writer and musician Willy Vlautin has just published a new novel, ‘Don’t Skip Out On Me’ (Faber). The Richmond Fontaine frontman tells Ian how the novel (which is also accompanied by a soundtrack album) began as a song that just wouldn’t leave him. Vlautin discusses his love for John Steinbeck and his attraction to restless ‘drifter’ characters. 

Hollie Introduces us to the poet Theresa Lola, who reads her poem ‘When The Solider Returns From The War’. We hear about the genesis of the poem, which began when Theresa stopped to listen to a homeless man, and realised he has been a solider and was suffering from PTSD. The poem is her attempt to humanise him and give him a voice. She also reads a poem inspired by her childhood in Nigeria ‘Observations or Home in Order of Nostalgia’,a  poem shot through with gentle humour. 

We asked the poet and performer Ross Sutherland to write us a new poem for our Fighting Talk theme. Ross presents his poem/writing experiment in which he attempts an audio description of a particularly frenetic fight scene in the Jackie Chan film ‘A Rumble in the Bronx’. Ross explains some of the inventive descriptive language he had to use as the action sped up and also some of the communication tricks used by professional wrestlers.

Brian Williamson is a comic book artist and he lets Ian in on the tricks of the trade, explaining the visual grammar of a fight scene, the importance of the panel in controlling the speed of the narrative and the relationship between the artist and the writer who will often produce a script for the illustrator to work from that lies behind the finished product. 

The actor and producer Ben Crystal explains how fight scenes in film and theatre are brought to life. He explains how the directions are often sparse – such as in the case of the memorable, balletic fight scene in the film ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. He also examines how Shakespeare uses fight scenes, often coming at the end of a play in a cathartic moment, the seeds of the conflict are sown throughout the text.