RAR #279: Baptizing the Imagination with Malcolm Guite
Read-Aloud Revival ®
Sarah Mackenzie
4.9 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join us for RAR's Summer Adventure.
What is your calling in life?
For poet, songwriter, and academic, Malcolm Guite, it’s unequivocally clear–to be a storyteller.
Today on the podcast Audrey and I chat with Malcolm about the first volume in his new retelling of the classic King Arthur stories, Galahad and the Grail, illustrated by the incredible Stephen Crotts and published by our friends over at Rabbit Room Press.
Not only is Malcolm adapting the legends of King Arthur, he’s doing it in poetic ballad form, which means they are basically designed to be read aloud.
In our conversation, he tells us about the epic journey he and his publisher and illustrator undertook to visit sites connected to the Arthurian legends, how a childhood surrounded by books and stories led him to his lifelong love and study of literature and poetry, and the impact his own mother had on his journey to becoming a poet and storyteller.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- Why Malcolm chose to write this story in ballad form
- How woodland walks inspire Malcolm’s writing and why he knew it was time to “take up the tale”
- What elements and parallels of Biblical stories Malcolm wanted to restore that have often been left out of modern Arthurian retellings
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Find the rest of the show notes at: readaloudrevival.com/malcolm-guite
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the wonderful things in C.S. Lewis is surprised by Joy is about how when he was thought he was a really fierce atheist, he randomly picks up a wonderful story book on the railway station, which turns out to be George McDonald's book, Fantastic. |
| 0:12.3 | And it didn't make Lewis Christian immediate at all, but Lewis says it baptized his imagination. |
| 0:18.0 | It's got working away so that when the time came right, all those |
| 0:22.0 | stories were part of a kind of big homecoming to God. And I hope this will sort of not only be a |
| 0:28.2 | pleasure, but also be a kind of baptism of the imagination. |
| 0:51.9 | Thank you. Welcome to the Read Aloud Revival podcast. I'm your host, Sarah McKenzie. This is the show that helps you make meaningful and lasting connections with your |
| 0:55.3 | kids through books. And today I have a treat for you. Our guest is Malcolm Gite. He is a poet, |
| 1:02.6 | a songwriter, an academic, and he's got a brand new book coming out from our friends at the |
| 1:07.5 | Rabbit Room Press called Galahad and The Grail. I cannot wait for you all to hear him talk about this book, and I can't wait to chat with him myself about it. |
| 1:16.2 | He holds degrees from both the University of Cambridge and Durham University, and he is just an absolute delight. |
| 1:22.9 | I love listening to him read aloud on his YouTube channel. |
| 1:26.8 | Malcolm, welcome to the Read Aloud Revival. |
| 1:28.8 | We're so happy you're here. Hello, it's lovely to be here. The words, the two words, read aloud, |
| 1:35.1 | immediately draw me in because as you will know from my YouTube things. I think reading |
| 1:39.9 | aloud is a great thing to do. It's almost a lost art. And I have been formed by, you know, my parents reading aloud or telling stories to me and that's become part of who I am. So when I wrote this poetic ballad form retelling of the stories of King Arthur and the Holy Grail and so on. I very much aimed at. I thought it might be |
| 2:02.0 | read aloud, you know. So that's as attractive to be asked to be on a podcast cast which started |
| 2:08.4 | with the words read aloud. We are big fans around here and of reading aloud. And then Audrey, |
| 2:15.0 | who's also here, Audrey, welcome back to the show. |
| 2:17.8 | Yes, thanks for having me. Yes, yes. She could not jump fast enough when she saw this book was coming out to be like, we've gotta talk about this on the podcast. Okay, so Gala Head and the Grail is the first of four, I think, right? Yeah, that's right. Okay, and these are retellings of the Arthurian legends in ballad form. |
| 2:35.3 | Yeah. |
| 2:35.7 | I'm wondering if you can explain to our audience Okay, and these are retellings of the Arthurian legends in ballad form. |
| 2:35.4 | Yeah. |
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