Persons from Porlock,: And other plays for radio;

Louis MacNeice's radio plays are, apart from his verse, his major work. The freedoms of radio drama - to change scene at will, to move smoothly from soliloquy to dialogue, to use the unprojected voice - and its complete dependence on the spoken word offer unique opportunities to a poet. MacNeice took advantage of them and his plays are among the classics of the medium. In making this selection, W. H. Auden has chosen four plays well suited to radio. "Persons from Porlock" is a psychological drama which spans twenty years in the life of a painter. In "Enter Caesar", Caesar's rise to power is seen through the eyes of others. "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy tale, and "They Met on Good Friday" concerns the complicated and ambiguous relations between the vikings and the native inhabitants of Ireland during the tenth and eleventh centuries. They prove the strength and flexibility of the medium and show a master of language working in an area which suits him supremely well. (Inside cover). Contents: Enter Caesar. East of the sun and west of the moon. They met on Good Friday. Persons from Porlock.