# Martha Sprackland & James Butler: John of the Cross Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/martha-sprackland-james-butler-john-of-the-cross Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/martha-sprackland-james-butler-john-of-the-cross.md Podcast: [London Review Bookshop Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718) Published: 2026-08-12T05:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB3094245518.mp3 Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB3094245518.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/episodes/martha-sprackland-james-butler-john-of-the-cross Duration seconds: 2634 ## Resource The poetry of the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, John of the Cross, has inspired and consoled for hundreds of years, influencing writers from James Joyce to Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill to T.S. Eliot. Dark Night (Penguin Classics) gathers all of John’s poetry, together with a selection of his prose. The book’s translator, poet Martha Sprackland, joined LRB contributing editor James Butler for a discussion of the life and work of John of the Cross, and his abiding influence. You can buy a copy of Dark Night from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/episodes/martha-sprackland-james-butler-john-of-the-cross/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/london-review-bookshop-podcast-169718/martha-sprackland-james-butler-john-of-the-cross.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.