Rosemary Verey

Rosemary Verey0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Rosemary Verey0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety four, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:28

My Castaway this week is a gardener. As a child in the twenties, she recalls the excitement of planting and growing in the family garden. But it wasn't until the fifties, when her own children went away to school, that she began a serious study of the subject. Completely self-taught, in middle age she went on to develop a career of it, designing some of the most beautiful gardens in Britain, not least her own at Barnsley House in Gloucestershire. She's now written fourteen books, enjoys an international reputation, and numbers royalty and the rich and famous among her clients. To be honest, she says, I'm really frightfully stupid about plants, but I do have a feel for what they will look like. She is Rosemary Very. So do you have difficulty then when you say you're frightfully stupid about them, Rosemary, remembering all those Latin names? Is that the problem? No, I think so, that I can remember the names all right. But I'm not I've never had I should have studied botany at university rather than what I did, and then I would know far more about horticulture. And I think that there are so many people these days who are really learned about it.

Presenter1:30

But so do you feel intimidated by them?

Presenter1:33

No, oddly enough, I don't feel intimidated by them, because I know perfectly well that I have learnt a different way. I've learnt by the feel of the soil and knowing

Presenter1:44

when seeds should be sown, and I know when you should take cuttings.

Presenter1:48

Not because I've been taught it, but because I've learnt it from the feel with my hands, and I've done it for so long. But there must nevertheless be times when you know you're designing a garden or talking to someone about how they should plan theirs, and you just can't remember the name of the plant that you're trying to think of. Oh, yes, then I'd just say right

Rosemary Verey2:02

I was

Presenter2:04

I'll send your drawing when I get home. But but have you therefore you know have you got a a computer so that you can if you want to choose a a brilliant red flower or an orange flower or something, you can press up a great list and look through it? No, I haven't got a computer, but I do have lists of plants of different colours.

Presenter2:23

As I haven't got the computer, it means that every border I do comes out slightly differently. But you also know instinctively, do you, what plants like sitting next to each other and such? That is rather an important thing. And also what becomes kind of inheritant what in your knowledge is the fact that you

Rosemary Verey2:28

Good.

Rosemary Verey2:32

That is

Presenter2:40

know that certain viburnums are going to be in flower in March and April and then the lilacs will come out.

Presenter2:47

And so if people want a succession of bloom, then it comes automatically to you to be able to choose them.

Rosemary Verey2:52

Yeah.

Presenter2:52

And yet it's a talent that you didn't allow to to blossom properly in yourself until middle age and onwards. Do you do you sometimes kick yourself that you didn't get down to it earlier? No, I don't think I do, because every phase in my life has been important to me.

Presenter3:09

I got married when I was twenty my husband, David, was twenty five, twenty six and the most important thing to me then was caring for him, and the war was starting, and bringing up four children.

Presenter3:23

And then when the children grew older and they went off to school, then I had time to learn more about the garden.

Presenter3:31

And I'm so lucky because not only did I marry this wonderful man who I adored, but also

Presenter3:38

We had this marvellous house, Barnesdale House.

Presenter3:41

And if you've got a wonderful house, you should honour it by giving it a good garden.

Presenter3:46

Let's pause there because I want to hear more about the garden in a minute, but let's have your first record. What is it?

Rosemary Verey3:48

Let's have a

Presenter3:50

Oh, the first record

Presenter3:52

Is the band of the Royal Marines playing A Life on the Ocean Wave. And the reason why I've chosen this is because my father was in the Royal Marines. And when I was.

Presenter4:01

Sixth and seven and eight, he was brigade major at the depot at Chatham in Kent.

Presenter4:07

and I can remember very vividly listening to the band of the Royal Marines practising as they walked up and down the parade ground.

Presenter4:15

And it's had this extraordinary kind of effect on me, because every time I now hear a military band I feel they're playing for me.

Presenter5:23

The Band of the Royal Marines and A Life on the Ocean Wave.

Presenter5:27

So, tell me about your own garden rosemary at Barnsley House, which has recently won Garden of the Year award. Well, a few years ago, anyway. How big is it?

Presenter5:35

Well, in all it's just over four acres.

Presenter5:38

And inside the garden wall, which was built in seventeen seventy.

Presenter5:43

Those about three acres.

Presenter5:45

and I have made, with the help of David,

Presenter5:48

We made four pata beds.

Presenter5:51

But basically the great thing is that there's this wonderful wall that was built in seventeen seventy which surrounds it on two or three sides.

Presenter5:58

And then one of the best things that's happened is the fact that David was given this marvellous classical.

Presenter6:06

Tuscan, Summerhouse.

Presenter6:09

which came from Fairford Park.

Presenter6:11

which was the same date as the war.

Presenter6:13

It has really been the making of the garden, because if you've got this wonderful building, you then have to make a vista from it.

Presenter6:20

And from there I kind of worked on and

Presenter6:23

You say to yourself, Well, you've got a vista, what you're going to have at the end? And at the end of it, we put a fountain. And this is all.

Presenter6:31

Part of my philosophy in making a garden that you should have certain features which are important. So it's quite a formal garden in a sense, that you have these these box hedges or and you and so on, and then they end up with some architectural feature at the end. I mean you're quite mathematical in your approach, aren't you? Well, yes, I am mathematical because this is what I first of all studied at university.

Rosemary Verey6:38

That you have the

Rosemary Verey6:41

And then they

Rosemary Verey6:46

The person

Presenter6:55

But although I don't really go along with drawing everything out too carefully on paper, I think it is important to be able to do a few scribbles on a bit of paper, and then you get the ideas of where the vistas are coming. But it's important to break the line. I mean, when we say mathematical, we don't mean you design in straight lines. No, you've got to break that line. But it's most famous, isn't it? The garden for its Laburnum Avenue.

Rosemary Verey7:13

No, you can break that line.

Presenter7:18

We've got the Laburnum Walk, that's right. It's become quite a feature.

Presenter7:24

And now I believe that quite a lot of people have got Laburnum walks. And and it's under planted with purple it's a garlic plant, isn't it? Yes. In the spring it's underplanted with bright red tulips and white, honesty, and then when those are finished

Presenter7:37

You'll get the

Presenter7:38

Alliums the allium aflatunensae, which is about two and a half foot tall and pale mauve colour.

Presenter7:46

and this is a per in perfect harmony with the yellow.

Presenter7:50

Of the laburnum. But it's all a lot of upkeep. It's a very well-ordered garden, extremely labour-intensive. Yes. How much help do you have?

Rosemary Verey7:53

Fellows are gone.

Presenter7:58

I'm really lucky. I've got these two

Presenter8:01

Marvellous brothers. One is called Andy and the other is called Les, and they have been with me, I think, for fourteen and twelve years. They've never worked anywhere else.

Presenter8:10

And we're fond of each other. And how hands-on are you? Do you tell us? We work together. And I try and go out most mornings, they come at quarter past eight in the morning, and we discuss what's going to happen. Let's have your second record. Right. The second one is of Chopin Wars.

Rosemary Verey8:23

Happy.

Presenter8:28

I've chosen this.

Presenter8:30

Because when I was at school

Presenter8:32

I was lucky enough to have some really good friends at my former. They were all rather musical, and I was they also ran.

Presenter8:38

The other girls were allowed to play preludes and mazurkas and all the rest, and I was allowed to play the warses'cause they were easier.

Presenter8:46

but they have always remained with me, and I know them by heart.

Presenter8:50

And I've loved them.

Presenter8:51

And I have chosen this recording.

Presenter8:54

Because it is played by William Hard, who is a neighbour, and he's the same age as my family.

Presenter9:01

and he is a very talented concert pianist.

Presenter9:05

But at this moment I'd also like to say that I do think that Gloucestershire has made a contribution.

Presenter9:10

to music.

Presenter9:12

Because we have Elgar, we have Vaughan Williams and Parry, and now we've got wonderful William Hard.

Presenter10:03

One of Chopin's three walces, Opus 64, played by William Howard. So, Rosemary Verie, you were a country-loving and quite sporty child. Weren't you Kent Junior tennis champion at one point? Oh, yes, but I was. And you loved hunting and you loved riding. Yes. But nothing can have been further from your mind than gardening when you went off to London University to read maths. I mean, what did you intend to do with the maths? Goodness knows.

Presenter10:27

We didn't have to decide in the end, as we will discover. But just tell me, your economics tutor, I think, because you changed to economics as well, didn't you? Was a future Labour leader, Hugh Gateskill. That's right. Now what did you learn from him?

Speaker 310:27

Would you do that?

Rosemary Verey10:27

To decide

Rosemary Verey10:29

But right

Rosemary Verey10:33

Yeah as well.

Rosemary Verey10:37

That's right.

Presenter10:39

Well, he was an extremely good teacher.

Presenter10:43

And I think through him I decided that I wasn't going to go on. I did maths for one year.

Presenter10:48

and then decided that I really was much more interested in history and and social history. And so I did economics, which he taught me, and, as I say, social history. But you're obviously quite close to him, because didn't you ask him when the dis the moment of decision came whether you should carry on your studies or give it all up and get married? Oh, yes. You see, the war came, as you know, in the autumn of nineteen thirty nine.

Presenter11:13

And I had one more year to go, and the students from the University College were being sent to Avaris with.

Presenter11:20

And friends my generation weren't doing things from the Red Cross or the Wrens or the Ats, whatever they were called then.

Presenter11:28

And it was an absolute change of way of life.

Presenter11:33

And honestly, I didn't want to go off to Aberispis and go on doing one more year. What I wanted to do was to be part of life. And did Hugh Gateskill concur? Oh yes, absolutely. I can remember he came to lunch. I remember it very well. He thought it was better to get married, and he was quite right. I'm deeply grateful to him for ever. So who did you marry? How did you meet this girl? Well, he and my brother, Francis, were in the same house together at Eton.

Rosemary Verey11:53

Well

Presenter11:59

And so David and Francis, you see, were friends from the age of twelve.

Presenter12:03

And David used to come and stay in the holidays.

Presenter12:05

Being five years older than me, he probably didn't pay any attention to me, nor I to him. And then I just suddenly discovered in nineteen thirty eight and thirty nine that he danced rather well.

Presenter12:16

So it was really quite an impetuous, a romantic thing to do, and not least because of the drama of impending war, is that what you're saying?

Rosemary Verey12:24

Uh

Presenter12:26

was all wrapped up together, really, and I had known him, and I we got on very well together. It was just as though I was just taking one more step in life.

Presenter12:35

Let's have record number three.

Presenter12:37

All this time, when I was almost still at school.

Presenter12:40

one became very conscious of the coal porters and Ivanovellos and Ferdistars of life, you know how girls when they're fifteen and sixteen talk about all these things. And I couldn't help but choose night and day, because this is one of the tunes that I actually managed to master and could play on the piano myself.

Speaker 412:59

Night and day.

Speaker 413:02

You are the one who.

Speaker 413:05

Only you beneath the moon and under the sun.

Speaker 413:12

Whether near to me or far, It's no matter, darling, where you are, I think of you.

Speaker 413:21

Night and day.

Speaker 413:24

Day and night Why is it so?

Presenter13:26

Uh

Presenter13:30

Fred Esther and Night and Day. So after three years of marriage and two babies, your husband went away to War Rosemary, and leaving you in Gloucestershire by this time to cope on your own. Well, you would have been, what, twenty four?

Speaker 313:36

Uh And she

Speaker 313:39

Dash.

Presenter13:43

How did you manage?

Presenter13:45

Well, I was very fortunate. I had a nanny, a real old fashioned nanny. Nevertheless, you were making all the major decisions at home, obviously. Oh, yeah. You were in charge of and and you did that for some three years before David came back. David came back on the fifth of November, nineteen forty five.

Rosemary Verey13:52

So you were in charge of it.

Rosemary Verey13:57

Yeah.

Presenter14:00

So, how was it when he came back? I mean, it must have been.

Presenter14:04

Very strange. I mean, a, he would have been something of a stranger, and, b, you would suddenly have to abdicate all sorts of roles, which you'd come to do quite naturally.

Presenter14:12

I had changed, he had changed.

Presenter14:15

And I think this is where a lot of marriages came unstuck.

Presenter14:19

And you had to say, Right, well, you know, I married this man'cause I loved him.

Presenter14:23

I must still love him.

Presenter14:25

And it worked all right. But also suddenly to have a man in the house again when there hadn't been one for three years, I mean, makes a difference.

Presenter14:33

It was quite horrendous, to be honest and truthful. You had to, as you say, abdicate certain things.

Presenter14:39

But equally he had to get used to

Presenter14:42

life in England, I think it must have been even more difficult for the man coming back.

Presenter14:46

They had to get a job, and he was an architect. He was a fully trained architect. He was offered things, but he didn't really want them. And then.

Presenter14:56

This wonderful thing happened because the the Ministry of Housing, as it was then called,

Presenter15:00

We're recruiting people to list or grade buildings.

Presenter15:06

He got involved with this.

Presenter15:08

and he very fortunately was allowed to what is called investigate.

Presenter15:14

In Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and the counties all around. And so we were able to come back and live in Gloucestershire. So you went back home? Yes. And and you completely resumed your wifely duties, as it were, and and and were an obedient wife and a good mother. And you taught the two girls at all. I I was an obedient wife. I don't know if I was a good mother. That's a different problem. I did teach them, yes. Was that legal? Could you do that? Yes, absolutely. We belonged to a thing called the PNEU, which was Parents' National Education Union.

Rosemary Verey15:21

And

Speaker 415:30

There's a different

Presenter15:45

Each term they sent you out a syllabus. I've talked to both the girls about this.

Presenter15:50

Because the boys went off to school, but the girls didn't go to school. Veronica went

Presenter15:55

in the autumn when she was going to be twelve.

Presenter15:58

And Vina went off at the same time she was two years younger.

Presenter16:02

And it had pros and cons.

Presenter16:05

The worst thing was that they didn't learn to rub shoulders with other children at an early age.

Presenter16:11

And so possibly it

Presenter16:14

made them more inhibited and maybe shyer.

Presenter16:18

But on the other hand, I do truly think, whatever they may think.

Presenter16:23

They learnt.

Presenter16:25

What fun it is to learn And also it taught them, I think, a way to concentrate on what they were doing. So at what point did you decide Right now the girls have gone away to school, I'm going to do something myself? Well, that was in the late fifties.

Presenter16:39

and I started collecting old gardening books and I became really interested in the history of garden design and the herbals and the introduction of plants and you name it, all those things that will make up the whole design of gardening.

Presenter16:54

We were living at Barnslyn. When we first went there I grassed over a lot of the borders, because they were a bit weedy, and anyhow it then left more space for the children to play croaky and cricket and all these other things on the lawn. And then the day came and David said to me, Right,

Presenter17:10

You've got to get on with it. You've

Presenter17:11

Grassed over my mother's borders. You'd better put some oil in. Put the borders back.

Presenter17:16

And then it kind of went on from that. Grew from there. Let's have some more music.

Presenter17:21

When the girls and the chaps, the boys, were at home, one of the evening amusements was to we got a nice large drawing room with um good boards and rugs, and it was the great thing of the evening was to pull the rugs back.

Presenter17:36

and turn the music on and

Presenter17:39

I asked Davina which was one of the records she remembered, and she said the dance of the sugarplum fairy.

Presenter17:45

So this is why I've chosen that, because I think it's really

Presenter17:48

It's really tuneful.

Presenter17:50

And you could dance to it.

Presenter18:48

The Dance of the Sugar Plump Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Schulte. Well, now, apart from your own books, Rosemary, you've co-edited two others, one The English Woman's Garden, and the other The English Man's Garden. Yes. Is there a definable difference in the approach of the sexes to gardening, do you think? Yes, I think there is.

Presenter19:08

Since the war.

Presenter19:10

When there's no longer head gardeners, who has taken charge of the garden has been usually the woman of the house.

Presenter19:16

And this has been a way for her to express her artistic talents.

Presenter19:23

And she's learnt about plants and she's learnt about colour coordination and

Presenter19:28

She's really enjoyed doing it, whereas the men

Presenter19:32

and usually it's the man who has control of the money.

Presenter19:36

says right, you know.

Presenter19:38

Why did we plant an avenue? Why did we make a lake? Why didn't we change the drive?

Presenter19:42

And he is in the position, do you see, to be able to do the much more hard landscaping, the things that are going to be more expensive to do? So he they like doing the big planning as well. I think this is it, yes. You opened your own garden in 1970, first of all, I think for one day a week, and now it's six and big business. Did the business create itself? I mean, your visitors presumably buttonholed you and said, look, we want to know how you did this and can we have a cutting of that? Is that how it grew?

Rosemary Verey19:54

I think this is it.

Rosemary Verey20:07

We want to know how you did this and

Rosemary Verey20:09

She's done huh

Presenter20:11

Yes, it is, it grew partly from that.

Presenter20:14

and partly the fact that we had more plants than we needed for ourselves, and so we started I started by giving them away.

Presenter20:23

And then people came and they said, Oh, it's all very well, but it's so embarrassing. We don't want six, we want twenty-six.

Presenter20:30

And so we then started selling them. And then people wanted your planting suggestions in general as well.

Rosemary Verey20:34

Good tribe.

Presenter20:35

In the end you started to sell your services and found you were in business. But I didn't turn round one day and say, right.

Rosemary Verey20:37

Yeah.

Presenter20:43

I'm going to design gardens and sell plants. The whole thing happened by chance, I suppose.

Presenter20:49

Record number five.

Presenter20:50

The next record I've chosen is one of the records of the Gay Gordons. And I think kind of looking back, a lot of these tunes that I've chosen

Presenter21:02

Are motion ones, aren't they? You can either dance to them, or with a band of the Royal Marines you can march to them.

Presenter21:07

And it would be so nice on the desert island to be able to get up and to dance the gay Gordons.

Presenter22:11

Gay Gordons played by the drums and pipes of the First Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders. So you cultivated your garden, you wrote your books, you lectured, and you designed.

Presenter22:21

But then in nineteen eighty four your husband David died. How much did that set you back professionally? I just kind of felt

Presenter22:30

Shattered by it all.

Presenter22:32

And I didn't write another book for a year. He somehow

Presenter22:37

knocks you on the head over in any form of creativity. But I knew I had to go on. You know, you had to kind of brace yourself and say, Get on with it. Was gardening a a a a therapy in the end? Was it your therapy?

Rosemary Verey22:45

Oh.

Rosemary Verey22:50

Oh yeah.

Presenter22:51

Because a lot of people say that about gardening, don't they? It's marvellous. It can make up for awful voids of one kind or another. Yes, because you can become.

Rosemary Verey22:53

Yeah.

Rosemary Verey22:55

Yeah.

Speaker 322:55

Topic.

Rosemary Verey22:56

Yeah, it's good.

Presenter22:59

so easily immersed, and I can remember walking round the garden only too well.

Presenter23:04

very soon after David died, and thinking that he'd never looked more beautiful, and I was hoping that he hadn't gone so far away that he wasn't going to be able to enjoy it. I really did.

Rosemary Verey23:13

I truly did.

Presenter23:14

You you threw yourself into your garden and and then the

Rosemary Verey23:17

Yeah.

Presenter23:18

Your clients grew in number, and you had earls and marchionesses. But you also had a prince, a near neighbour, Prince Charles. I mean, did he just ring up one day and say,'Come and help me with my garden?

Presenter23:28

She rang up one day that is quite right. The telephone rang and rang, and eventually I went and answered it. And he said, This is the Prince of Wales.

Presenter23:39

And I always imagine I said you must be joking, but I don't know whether I did or not. But he did say, What are you doing today?

Presenter23:47

And I no I said, Well, I hope, sir, that maybe I'm going to see you. Would you like to come over?

Presenter23:52

And he said, Yes, this is what he'd like to do.

Presenter23:55

So he came over and we sat in the vegetable garden together, in the potager, and we sat in the garden and we talked about it. And then it was wonderful because the next thing that happened was he said would I come and help him with put a garden which we call the Cottage Garden, which is fairly close to the house at Highgrove. And ever since then I don't know if he's absolutely one of my I think of as one of my best friends.

Presenter24:19

Cause

Presenter24:20

He he's so full of ideas. He's very outgoing, he's very grateful for what you do. So it's lovely to have clients who want you to do an ongoing thing. And I've worked there, you see, with him not for him, but with him. You've dug together? We've dug together, and I've dug with the princes the lovely little William when he was much smaller. But he adores walking round his own garden.

Rosemary Verey24:39

With

Rosemary Verey24:40

Uh

Rosemary Verey24:43

Yeah.

Presenter24:52

Does he like walking round yours? Well, he hasn't been lately.

Presenter24:56

But he has done. Yes. I know, I must ask him to come back.

Rosemary Verey24:56

They ask them.

Presenter25:00

Let's have record number six. Number six is Schumann's Papillon.

Presenter25:06

My eldest son I shouldn't say my David's been dead for ten years, and I'm beginning to say my our eldest son, Charles.

Presenter25:14

who was born in nineteen forty.

Presenter25:17

played this piece.

Presenter25:19

at the Eton School Conson.

Presenter25:22

And I can remember, as though it was yesterday, Charles walking up to this large piano on the platform at Eton, the concert hall.

Presenter25:30

He had his music in his hands.

Presenter25:32

And then instead of putting the music in front of him, he actually put it on the chair and sat on it.

Presenter25:38

which immediately made me think

Presenter25:40

Heavens Is she going to forget it halfway through? Anyway, he didn't forget it, and he played beautifully.

Presenter25:47

David and I were very proud of him.

Presenter26:48

Vladimir Ashkenazi, playing part of Schumann's Papillon. Tell me, then, Rosemary, about Elton John's garden. This is at Woodside, in Berkshire, his house. Is he an easy person to work for?

Presenter26:58

Yes, he is. He's again an enthusiast. Is he? So he takes part in the planning of that. But he doesn't take a huge part. He doesn't dig. He doesn't dig.

Rosemary Verey27:06

He doesn't dig.

Presenter27:08

He hasn't got time to dig. He is about the most energetic person that I possibly know. I've been working there, I think, for four years now, and half of that time he's been on tour. He's always giving concerts, he's always rushing off to do more new albums.

Presenter27:25

But he is a perfectionist, which is really good. There's about twenty eight acres altogether, and immediately round the house we've made him a white garden.

Presenter27:35

And he came home this time, just the beginning of December, before we went away for Christmas. And I

Presenter27:42

had prearranged this, and I had got a huge number of white cyclamen which had been specially grown.

Presenter27:49

and two or three days before he came back I went and collected them and then drove them briskly down to Windsor.

Presenter27:55

And they look quite wonderful in the white garden. The whole garden is white, is it? Well, it's white and green and grey. Wasn't that a Vita Sackville West concept? Yes, she had a white garden. She decided one day when she was walking in the garden and there was a snowstorm going on.

Presenter28:10

fun it would be to have a white garden. So he's got one of those, but he's still got all these other acres. What else do you think? Oh yes, and then we've made him a potager, which has been quite difficult because the land is needs draining really more. And the soil is very heavy though. A sort of vegetable garden. That's right.

Rosemary Verey28:15

Yeah.

Presenter28:26

And he's got a scented garden. So a scented garden is it scented all year round? Oh yes. What what sort of things? Well, some just leaves that are scented. Obviously there are bay trees there that are now, and there are pansies which are scented, and then you get on to the hyacinths and the narcissus.

Rosemary Verey28:32

Areas

Presenter28:44

And viburnums, and then in the summertime there are the tobacco plants and the roses and the honeysuckles. It's endless. And herb lavender and sage. Yes, there's lavenders and sages and pastlers. And is this the garden that you can see when you open his front door? When you walk through the front door, you go straight through the house. There's a glass door at the far end of the house. And so it's like walking straight through into that. And then there's this canal of water. A canal of water running through the middle of the scented garden. Yes, that's right.

Rosemary Verey29:16

Yes, that's right.

Presenter29:17

And he enjoys it. Yes, indeed he does.

Presenter29:20

We'd better have your seventh record, Edward. Right. Now, my seventh record is one of Elton's, and I've chosen Candle in the Wind.

Presenter29:29

which he wrote when Marilyn Munro had died.

Presenter29:33

And I have also chosen it to be played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter29:39

Because he himself is playing and he himself is singing, and you've got Elton as he is.

Presenter29:45

And I think that he

Presenter29:48

Not only is he a wonderful singer, but he is a genius. I believe that whatever he had turned his hand to he would have surfaced to the very top, which he has done.

Presenter29:58

And I'm terribly pleased and happy to be associated with him. It's lovely for me.

Speaker 330:04

Who do like to own you? Well, but I was just a kid.

Speaker 330:10

Your candle burned down long for

Speaker 330:16

Your legend never did

Presenter30:28

Candle in the Wind, sung and played by Ilton John. What about on the island? Will you be able to create a garden from very little, do you think?

Presenter30:36

Well, I hope so. But how I'm going to dig in it I don't quite know.

Presenter30:40

And you'll be terribly miserable if you can't create a garden, I presume. Yes. I hope, in a way, that it's autumn time.

Presenter30:47

And then well, if it's spring it'll be different,'cause then I'll be able to see. But also if I'm down in the autumn I'll be gathering the seeds. I don't know if I'm going to have a house on the Deadders Island, but will there be some bamboos or things that I can all stack up together? I have to get some shelter.

Presenter31:02

Well, you'll have to find some, I think, for yourself, yes, is the plot.

Rosemary Verey31:04

Yeah.

Presenter31:06

But you but you'd attempt to create a home and a garden, would you? I hope so.

Presenter31:11

But what worries me, Sue, is how am I going to make a far?

Presenter31:15

Rubbing your bamboo together. Oh dear, it can't be my luxury, though. No, it can't.

Rosemary Verey31:17

Yeah.

Presenter31:21

I'll ask you about that in a minute. Let's have your last record. It's church music.

Presenter31:26

And as I've said, there are several people in Gloucestershire who have made a great contribution to music.

Presenter31:33

And there's twelve, thirteen-year-old boy called Christopher Griffiths.

Presenter31:39

And I went and listened to him in Sances to church, I suppose, sometime last year, singing O for the wings, for the wings of the dove.

Presenter31:49

Sadly, they didn't do

Presenter31:51

A really good recording of him.

Presenter31:53

I think I might have chosen this anyway, even if I hadn't heard Christopher singing it.

Presenter31:58

Because it's rather a nice thought, isn't it, if you're on your desert island.

Presenter32:03

You can you suddenly think to yourself, Oh gosh, what's happening the other side of the island? If only I had the wings of a dove, I'd be able to fly over there and see.

Presenter32:50

Jeremy Budd's singing Oh for the wings of a dove from Mendelssohn's Hear My Prayer. So, Rosemary, which one of those records, if you could only take one, would it be? Probably would be Papillon. What about your book?

Presenter33:03

I want to take something that I will be able to look at every day, and I have decided that I will take.

Presenter33:10

Sir Roy Strong's book called A Celebration of Gardens.

Presenter33:14

It's got a great many pages.

Presenter33:16

It has quotations from

Presenter33:19

Pliny, right the way to the present day.

Presenter33:22

and the pieces have been chosen for true gardeners.

Presenter33:26

And what about your luxury?

Presenter33:28

I would like to have an endless supply of waterproof pens.

Presenter33:32

and an endless supply of paper.

Presenter33:35

And um I must, as well as having the paper and the pen, I must have a nice folder to put it in.

Presenter33:44

So that it didn't get sand in it or

Presenter33:47

get blown away in the wind or anything like that.

Presenter33:50

So I think that will be my luxury.

Presenter33:52

Rosemary Very, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs. Well, thank you for having me. I've enjoyed myself.

Rosemary Verey34:07

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio four.