Lydia Harris (Part 1)

The Poetry Bath

Orkney-based poet Lydia Harris joins Siân to read from her new collection Henrietta's Library of the Whole Wide World, which was published this year by Blue Diode Press. Lydia tells Siân how the collection came about when, knowing that Orkney was home to the oldest public library in Scotland, she mistakenly came to believe that her own island of Westray hosted a 17th century library.
Lydia is the author of four pamphlets and two full collections. She held a Scottish Book Trust New Writers' Award for Poetry in 2017 and her first collection Objects for Private Devotion was long listed for the Highland Book Award 2022. From her study window Lydia sees the Atlantic and North Sea and her house sits between a standing stone and a broch.