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This podcast was recorded in November 2016 to Mark John Berger's 90th birthday. It was a collaboration between the London Review Bookshop and Verso Books.

Hello, and welcome to the Verso Books podcast in association with the London Review Bookshop.

We're particularly delighted for this edition also to thank Zed Books for their involvement.

My name is Gareth Evans and I'm very pleased to be hosting a podcast special on the life

and work of John Berger, who will be 90 on the 5th of November this year, 2016.

We have three very special guests who will explore the full range and influence of this extraordinary writer, artist, filmmaker, dramatist, poet, but most importantly, storyteller on our life and times.

And it's, I think, an indication of the importance of

John Berger to our culture and his wide and varied internationalism that I have in front of me

five books, and there are two more still to be published this November, that explore his own

writing, celebrate his influence and range.

And of course, are publications marking his own recent collections.

I'm looking at confabulations published by Penguin, his new collection of drawings and writings.

I'm also examining Lapwing and Fox, a series of drawings,

texts and correspondence between himself and the artist John Christie. We have the long white

thread of words, an edited collection with nearly 100 poets exploring and marking their tribute to his

life and work, published by Smokestack books.

But we're here today to talk about two books in particular. Landscapes, John Berger on Art,

edited by Tom Overton, and this is the second, in a diptic, if you like, of inquiries into

the writing on art that John has explored and engaged with over nearly seven decades.

Published by Verso Books and the sequel, or the companion rather, to the volume that Tom put out last year called Portraits.

And next to that is the wonderful book, a wonderful title as well, A Jar of Wildflowers, Essays in Celebration of John Berger,

...