The Verb - 23/01/2009

Ian McMillan's guests include Orange Prize-nominated novelist Xiaolu Guo, with a new short story written specially for the programme, and Buddhist singer-songwriter Padma. Born near Sheffield, for many years Padma believed he was destined for a Buddhist order, but finally gave up the idea of a monk's life to write songs. Inspired by the writings of Henry David Thoreau, he currently lives in a yurt in the Pyrenees when not recording or performing, and joins Ian in the studio to perform tracks from his EP Songs for an Entryphone.