Radar

The Radio 3 broadcaster on a composer's inspired garden, oil paintings of motorway bridges and a magical local pub.

I spoke to one of the gardeners and she said she could sense that he was still alive in the garden. A lot of them are around the north and north-west, so I recognised quite a few. The Golden Lion pub is a magical place: a big, rambling establishment with a great bar, Thai food and a pool table. I love the way he rolls everyday words around and around to reveal what they really mean to us. My husband and I recently moved to the Calder valley in West Yorkshire. Alker now hosts [Unclassified](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b02sl2) and the Saturday [Breakfast](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tmr6) show on BBC Radio 3. I’ve been to this brilliant annual music festival three times, and I’m hopefully going again at the end of this month. It’s a nice thing to break up the winter. Her 2022 album [A Journey…](https://hinakoomori.bandcamp.com/album/a-journey) was much lighter and more blissful. [Auraelia](https://hinakoomori.bandcamp.com/album/auraelia). She’s worked with the likes of Kae Tempest and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead. The second series of [Northern Drift](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011tqc), Alker’s BBC Radio 3 programme showcasing the best new poetry and music from the north of England, goes out on Mondays at 9.15pm and is on BBC Sounds.