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Keeping Watch

Ed talks with Jennifer Lucy Allan - author of The Foghorn's Lament

36 min • 28 december 2023

Just before Christmas, I was lucky enough to meet up online with music writer, journalist and broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allen. I first encountered Jennifer as a presenter of Radio 3's Late Junction. If you've never listened to the programme, it's well worth staying up for. I defy you to find a more interesting, diverse and eclectic mix of sounds and music in one programme anywhere!

It won't come as a surprise, then, that Jennifer takes such an interest herself in non mainstream and experimental music. As a writer for The Wire magazine in 2013, she received an invitation to attend Foghorn Requiem, an open air performance on the cliffs at Souter Point Lighthouse, involving three brass bands, a flotilla of more than 50 ships in the North Sea and, of course, the almighty Souter Point foghorn.

It triggered what we lighthouse enthusiasts are only too happy to call an obsession, and a personal journey into the history of foghorns and the sound they make - something she so beautifully calls the disappearing music of the coast.

2021 saw the publication of her first book, The Foghorn's Lament. Naturally, I wanted to ask Jennifer all about the performance at Souter Point and how it led to her book, but I started by asking her where she first recalls hearing the sound of a foghorn. 

KEEPING WATCH is a fortnightly podcast for enthusiasts of lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation. 

We’re keen to talk with other former light vessel and lighthouse keepers and crew - as well as others currently working in the lighthouse service. Again, you can email me at [email protected]

Please spread the word to friends and family who might be interested in listening. And do like, follow or subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when each new episode is published. A comment or a splendid review on your podcast platform of choice would be very welcome and really helps us to get noticed. 

If you have an idea for a story you'd like us to cover, or an interesting person with a lighthouse connection we might interview, do please drop me a line. Or perhaps you are a fellow enthusiast and would like to contribute to the podcast either once or on a regular basis?

You can contact me at [email protected]

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive. 

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk

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