Today we’re delighted to welcome singer, songwriter, theatre-writer and genuine living legend Barb Jungr to the newsletter. Barb, take it away!
Barb Jungr has won multiple awards for her unique vocal style, interpretation of song and radical approach to arrangement. As a writer and lyricist, Barb’s credits include The Jungle Book (the Birmingham Stage Company), The Fabulous Flutterbys (the Little Angel Theater Company), Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Dick Whittington for the Newbury Corn Exchange, and an adaptation of Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt with the Little Angel Theatre Company.
What are you currently reading?
Robert MacFarlane’s The Old Ways. I’ve been a walker for some time now, I fell in love with walking on The Isle of Skye many years ago and since then have walked coastal paths, inland paths, mountains and Munroes and have so many still to do. He has an extraordinarily poetic understanding of psycho-geography, of the way that walking can inform us, it's inspiring. And he’s a polymath; history, nature, law, town planning, geography and the contemporary world are cradled together in this quite beautiful writing. He conveys his love of landscape and life with precision and passion. I hadn’t known of him but last year two entirely unconnected friends sent the book to me when I moved to the South Downs. I read it under the covers at night the way I read when I was a teenager. I use to do the bulk of my reading on trains and planes and of course for the last year all that has changed, so I have found new ways and times, and patterns, of reading. I can’t wait now to read his other books. He complimented Nick Hayes’ The Book Of Trespass which is also on my reading pile alongside the David Sedaris The Best Of Me short stories.
What's the last great book you read?
Hamnet. I read it because I was asked to review it for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, and I devoured it. Maggie O’Farrell caught so much in her net. I fell in, drinking it up, spellbound by the romance between Will and Agnes. And the Plague, how it carried itself ingeniously across Europe to devastate not only the country but Agnes and her family themselves. The portrayal of her grief was so accurate and visceral. And of women’s lives. The endless work that they did, daily. The baking and fire making, water carrying and sewing, growing, shopping, caring for everyone and healing. There was nothing they didn’t have to turn their hands to. The details and the writing. Gorgeous. I cannot recommend this novel more full heartedly. I gave it as gifts and will continue to do so. It’s a great book.
What's your best advice for aspiring writers?
The open page, the open road, it’s in front and it’s there waiting. I feel about writing the way I feel about everything. Start doing it and practice doing it and keep on practicing doing it. It will get better. I think also reading. Reading if you write for the page, watching if you write for the screen, familiarising yourself with everything and anything in your field is a good thing to do.
I’m a believer in continuing to learn through life, I think the world has so much and we never know it all. Learning is staying alive. So write, read, watch, learn, listen and enjoy it. I started writing again - I’d tried and given up because it was so hard, when I was asked to do write songs for panto in Newbury and since then I’ve learned so much about lyrics and structure and every day there’s something new to amaze and entice. It’s a privilege to be able to do anything, creatively, and an honour.
What's the most interesting fact you've learned recently?
I learned you can re-use soil in pots by adding soil food made of blood and bone probably boiled at midnight under a full moon! I’ve started gardening up a frenzy and consequently like a born-again person I scramble for information about this brave new world of shrubs and plants and shade and light and soil types and compost. I can spend literally hours reading packets at the garden centre to improve my soils. My plants are living in well fed heaven these days. You can re-use captive soil by feeding it! Who knew? Probably everyone else in the world but it’s my new fun fact!
What film or TV show do you never tire of watching?
Curb Your Enthusiasm because any time spent with Larry David and his friends always brings joy. I can laugh again and again at the same episodes. One of my most favourites is the Wagner humming Trick or Treat episode but that’s beside the watch loosing porn star home wrecking episodes to say nothing of the entire series leading up to Larry’s performance in The Producers on Broadway which has the best comic structure and arc over each episode and entire series. It is joint first with the IT Crowd and once again, I can laugh again and again at that ensemble cast. Richard Ayoade in court splits my sides Then there’s The Godfather One and Two which I can literally recite. “Fredo. You broke my heart!” Did I mention Father Ted? All of the scenes with Graham Norton, I can be on the floor again. Luckily I’ve not once been bored in lockdown accordingly!
Thank you, Barb! And thanks to all of you for reading and subscribing. Have a great weekend!