Voices from the Beach

About this episode

Saili Katebe explores the stories of individuals whose lives are shaped by the beach.

The young British poet Saili Katebe was born in landlocked Zambia, and grew up with an imagined beach in his mind. Palm trees would grow in the golden sands. The sun would shine all day, and naturally there’d be romance. Moving to the UK as a teenager, Saili visited a real beach for the first time. He was underwhelmed by the hazy sun and soft ice cream, and the sea at low tide was so far away he could hardly see it, let alone swim in its weedy shallows. Over the years though, Saili has come to appreciate the quiet charms of the beaches around him as places rich in stories. In Voices from the Beach he listens to lives shaped by the beach in unexpected ways. There’s the ice cream seller, who once fled her own landlocked country. Now her Mr Whippy Van now brings joy along the south coast. ‘It’s an honour to keep the tradition alive,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t live without the sea now.’ Then there’s the fisherman ‘born on the beach’ who tried to move away but couldn’t get his bearings without the sea. Voices from the Beach features chance encounters and casual conversations with many other people out on the beaches at Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Dover, Lyme Regis, Brighton and Weston…

People in this episode

Guest: Saili Katebe

Topics covered

• poetry
• beach culture
• migration
• personal stories
• identity
• community

Keywords

• beach
• poet
• migration
• stories
• identity
• community
• Zambia
• UK

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC Radio 4

Places: Zambia, UK, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Dover, Lyme Regis, Brighton, Weston Super Mare

More episodes of Illuminated

• The House in the Hole · June 7, 2026 · 28 min
• My Sister’s Daughter · May 24, 2026 · 29 min
• Tarot and the Art of Creativity · May 17, 2026 · 29 min
• Strong Women · May 3, 2026 · 29 min
• Me, Myself and the MRI · April 26, 2026 · 29 min
• Andy Mycock: Named, Unashamed · April 19, 2026 · 29 min