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In ‘pompous commentator mode’, Kevin Jackson has written a dialogue especially for The Verb inspired by Edith Sitwell’s ‘English Eccentrics’, staring our very own Ian McMillan as an ‘eccentric’. Kevin has been researching eccentricity for us and has discovered that eccentrics are happy, almost never bored, and crucially, never think they are eccentric.

The artist and poet Heather Phillipson finds the word ‘eccentric’ problematic; she notes that it has often been used to label women and can diminish their achievements. Heather has written the last of our ‘Three Score and Ten’ poems celebrating Radio 3’s 70th anniversary. Her new commission ‘Junk Log’ combines recordings and live performance and asks questions about the boundaries between humans and animals. Heather recently won the Jarman award for emerging artist filmmakers and her poetry is published by Bloodaxe.

Joining us down the line from New York, the award-winning U.S. poet Sharon Olds thinks we are all eccentrics to one extent or another, but some people have the desire to express the unusual aspects of themselves. Sharon reads from her new collection ‘Odes’ (Cape) and is joined by a mysterious friend, Norma…

David Bramwell spends much of his time seeking out eccentrics for his Odditorum series of events and podcasts. Now he has co-authored a book, ‘The Odditorum’  (Brewer’s) - a compendium of remarkable lives of people who were often ‘ahead of their time’, such as friend of ‘The Verb’ Ken Campbell, and lesser known figures like Flora Tristan, who hit upon ideas which later became central to The Communist Manifesto (years before Marx and Engels).

Although an unexpected transatlantic love appeared to blossom between Ian McMillan’s imaginary Lobster Norman and fellow crustacean Norma, who was keeping Sharon Olds company in the studio in New York, I think it’s safe to say that neither Lobster pulled their conversational weight in this highbrow examination of the language of eccentricity. Should have invited a prawn really.