Shaken and stirred

No matter what memories you take away from your school days, there's usually one teacher who leaves a profound and lasting legacy.

The sort of tutor who, at the merest mention of their name or the subject they taught, can induce nostalgic smiles and a wealth of positive stories.

It's there with most people. Even award-winning and highly acclaimed songwriters like PJ Harvey.

Her English teacher left such an impression on her that, at the age of 41 and needing a few pointers on lyrics for her new album Let England Shake, she knew exactly where to turn.

"I had so much respect for her," she reminisces. "She was highly critical of us at school, but always pushed us to do our best work. I hadn't been in touch with her for years before I went back to see her, so I was really nervous going in."

It's difficult to imagine Polly Jean Harvey being nervous about anything concerning her craft.

Having recorded some of the most dazzling albums of the last 20 years, she's now the kind of artist talked about in hushed, reverential tones and receives the kind of praise awarded to only a handful of musicians every generation.

The Dorset-born songwriter has a Mercury Prize and a handful of Brits under her belt but, more than any piece of silverware, she also possesses a rare commitment to her artistic vision.

Aside from her sometimes extreme lyrics, knack with bleak imagery and music that veers between the brutal and sublime, it's perhaps that truth in her work that has attracted such devotion from her fans.

"Not staying true to my instinct would be a death for me," she says, reclining in the library of a London hotel. Dwarfed by a giant Chesterfield and sipping coffee, Harvey cuts a very different figure to her on-stage persona which has catapulted her, whether she likes it or not, to the position of feminist icon.

Today she's delicate and thoughtful and doesn't waste so much as a syllable when she's talking.

The fact that she's so concise when discussing Let England Shake, her phenomenal eighth album, is hardly a surprise. It's been the best part of five years in the writing. Every word on the album has been pored over.

"That's how I start writing songs now," she begins. "They're poems, really, and have to work on their own on the page before I write any music. I've begun to find it makes for a stronger song, as well as having the benefit of being a poem too."

"The beauty of human beings is that we all interpret things in different ways, but I want to get a story across in a very clear language on this album, and it has to be that way or my whole image or vision won't be clear and what I'm saying won't work."

"Words have such great scope and power, and I take care over every one, making sure not to use any that are superfluous or don't have any business being there."

With Let England Shake, Harvey is approaching the minefield of the protest song for the first time - hence needing both guidance and encouragement from her old teacher.

As she's all too aware, protest music is a genre that's been with us ever since there were things to get riled about, and has been tackled by everyone from Woody Guthrie to Eminem with wildly varying degrees of success.

"There's such a fine line between writing a good protest song and being dogmatic and preachy," she says. "That's why I've never done it before. It's very difficult and I didn't want to fall flat on my face and produce an awful piece of work."

"It's only now I've been writing songs for 25 years that I have the confidence to write about things that have always affected me hugely, but didn't feel I had the ability as a songwriter to bring them into my work."

"Humanity is the key, that was the way in for me, to keep that human and emotional quality. They're the things I feel qualified to write about. Because we can all empathise and transport ourselves into other people's shoes."

Using events from across the ages, battles in Gallipoli and Afghanistan, for example, the album paints a vivid portrait of Britain, specifically England, as it stands today.

Her stunning lyrics examine her relationship with her homeland, the nature of patriotism and frustration at the previous government's decisions, indirectly and, most importantly, without ever sounding like she's standing on a soapbox.

Themes of Britain's post-imperial delusions and yet more troops marching off to war resonate throughout the album, specifically on All And Everyone, Hanging In The Wire, and The Words That Maketh Murder.

The last-named features the bitter refrain of 'What if I take my problems to the United Nations?', a not-so-subtle snipe at the organisation and its role in the Iraq war.

Musically, Let England Shake is largely acoustic, featuring olde worlde folk instruments (autoharps and the like), with her breathtaking voice at the core.

It was recorded in a church not far from Harvey's home in the South West, although she maintains the building added little to the recording.

"I would have made the same album wherever I was," she says. "I did look around Berlin, and it can be a wonderfully unsettling place, but I couldn't find anywhere that felt right."

"Then a friend who runs the church as an art space said I could work there if I needed to."

"I chose musicians that would bring out the best of the songs, and I wanted to record live - that interaction was very important rather than overdubbing things, but by that point everything was so well-formed that I knew exactly what record I was going to make."

"I'm really looking forward to it being released and then going and playing it to people. I've a good sense of anticipation."

Extra time - PJ Harvey :: Polly Jean Harvey was born in Bridport, Dorset, on October 9, 1969.

:: She grew up on a farm with her stonemason father and sculptor mother, both huge fans of American blues music and art rock, in particular Captain Beefheart.

:: Until his recent death, Polly would send Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, a copy of her album as soon as she had finished it and ask for his verdict.

:: Her fifth album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, inspired by her affection for New York, won the 2001 Mercury Prize. In a tragic twist, the result was announced on September 11, the day of the terrorist attacks on the city.

:: It was announced this week Polly will receive the Teenage Cancer Trust Outstanding Contribution To Music award at the NME Awards later this month.

:: PJ Harvey releases her new album Let England Shake on Monday, February 14.