Audio / Audiovisual

John Cowper Powys on Film: 1929

This is the only currently extant film footage of John Cowper Powys. It was taken in New York, 1929 as a technical rehearsal for a public debate with Bertrand Russell.

The topic: Is Modern Marriage a failure?

Link to film clip and further information

On Thursday 29 September 2022 at 22.00 BBC Radio Three broadcast an episode of Free Thinking devoted to John Cowper Powys to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Matthew Sweet discusses the life and writing of JCP with Margaret Drabble, John Gray, Iain Sinclair and Kevan Manwaring.

• BBC Arts & Ideas extended version (54 mins) available on BBC Website

BBC R4 Open Book: A.N. Wilson and Mariella Frostrup

A.N. Wilson talks with Mariella Frostrup on Open Book on 14 October 2007 about JCP and Wolf Solent

Available online at BBC Sounds

The Powys Brothers: a selection from the writings of John Cowper Powys, T.F.Powys and Llewelyn Powys

Read by Freddie Jones, Christopher Kent, and Oliver Marlow Wilkinson

Disc 1

1. The Soliloquy of a Hermit (1) (TFP), Freddie Jones
2. The Soliloquy of a Hermit (2) (TFP), Freddie Jones
3. Lucifer (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
4. Under the Stars (LP), Christopher Kent
5. A Glastonbury Romance (1) (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
6. An Owl and a Swallow (LP), Christopher Kent
7. Weymouth Sands (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson

Disc 2

1. A Churchyard Cough (LP), Christopher Kent
2. Now Where the Seaweed Drifts (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
3. The Candle and the Slow-Worm (TFP), Freddie Jones
4. A Glastonbury Romance (2) (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
5. Glory of Life (1) (LP), Christopher Kent

Disc 3

1. Autobiography (1) (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
2. Black Laughter (LP), Christopher Kent
3. Letter to Frances Gregg (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
4. Glory of Life (2) (LP), Christopher Kent
5. Autobiography (2) (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
6. Morality (LP), Christopher Kent
7. When Thou Wast Naked (TFP), Freddie Jones

Disc 4

1. The Village Shop (LP), Christopher Kent
2. A Glastonbury Romance (3) (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson
3. Merton Wood’s Luncheon (LP), Christopher Kent
4. Mr Weston’s Good Wine (1) (TFP), Freddie Jones
5. Mr Weston’s Good Wine (2) (TFP), Freddie Jones
6. God (LP), Christopher Kent
7. The Death of the Old (JCP), Oliver Marlow Wilkinson

Acknowledgements:

Digital recordings made available online (August 2022):

The Powys Society is grateful to Christopher Kent and the representatives of Freddie Jones and Oliver Marlow Wilkinson who have given permission to allow this 1999 audio-cassette release to be made available online.

• Christopher Kent shares his memories of the making of this recording

Other credits:

Music composed by William Powys; Produced by Christopher U. Wilkinson; Selection by Oliver M. & Christopher U. Wilkinson.

David Jones’s Memories of the Powyses

David came to the 2017 Conference at Llangollen and shared his childhood memories of living next door to John Cowper Powys and Phyllis Playter, at Cae Coed near Corwen. This recording is courtesy of Marcella Henderson-Peal who realised a few minutes after the talk started how valuable David's memories would be.

James Purdy

James Purdy, who died on 13 March 2009 was a friend of JCP. Charles Lock, editor of The Powys Journal, keeper of Purdy's ashes, (and champion of his literary reputation), took Purdy's ashes to a tenth anniversary commemorative event, at which they were interred beside the grave of Edith Sitwell.

• View a short film of the interment ceremony
• Interview with Purdy on Dutch radio c.1989: in which Purdy says that JCP was the first writer to call him a genius.

Video of Chaldon Herring (East Chaldon)

Featuring Beth Car, ‘The House in the Pasture’, home of Theodore Powys, the Old School (now the village hall),
The Church of St. Nicholas: Graves of Philippa (Katie) Powys, Sylvia Townsend Warner & Valentine Ackland and Janet Pollock, nee Machen. [Video filmed on a pocket camcorder by Frank Kibblewhite]