David Linley

Speaker 30:00

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. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and two, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My castaway this week is a furniture designer. As a member of the royal family he was brought up surrounded by beautiful and memorable things which his parents taught him to understand and appreciate. He trained under the distinguished craftsman John Makepeace, and then went into business himself.

Presenter0:46

His love of beauty and his determination to create things that will last has always been accompanied by a desire to earn his living from his craft. Today, nearly twenty years on, his shop is beginning to show a profit. So the royal woodworker, incidentally the only castaway I believe, both of whose parents have been guests on this programme, is set fair to achieve his ambition. That must be due in part to common sense, because, as he observes, working with wood brings everything down to a level. He is David Linley. What is it about wood and working with it, David, that you find so attractive?

David Linley1:23

I think ever since I sort of picked up a piece of wood, first of all, every piece of wood is different. The nature of the wood, the the way that you work it, the knowledge that you need to build up to use it properly. It's a warm material, it's it's very tactile and people love to touch it.

Presenter1:39

That's right. And you often say to people, I know, sort of, touch your furniture. I mean, people who own furniture should touch their furniture to make it their own.

David Linley1:46

Yes. So often you go into antique shops and it says please don't touch. To me the joy is to run your hands along the outside and underneath to see that the carpenter's finished underneath properly.

Presenter1:56

Your trademark, I know, is marketry. This is this sort of inlaid patterns of veneers of different woods. And again, that's about enjoying the wood. That's pointing out the difference in the woods, really, isn't it?

David Linley2:05

Well, I went to a a veneer merchant's in the East End years ago with a friend of mine who was an artist, and we really didn't realize how many colours that you can get in veneers. And so you begin to have a palette of colours that you can use like an artist. And so we started making these very, very basic screens in the shape of watercolours using handmade techniques, very simple. You've got a scalpel and you cut out a shape.

Presenter2:30

But you make vast pieces of furniture, like you made a twelve-foot bed, I think, for Elton John. Was was the whole thing a bed?

David Linley2:37

The whole thing was basically a screen that was meant to resemble a Palladian courtyard. And um it it's sort of been described as a room really. I mean it it's it's an all enveloping bed. And we tried to get away from the traditional four poster approach.

Presenter2:53

You could set it in the middle of a room, that's it.

David Linley2:55

It's set against the wall, so so really using up as much of the room as possible.

Presenter2:59

This is this was a special commission, obviously.

David Linley3:01

Yeah.

Presenter3:02

But but also you make very tiny things. And it seems to me, reading about you, that you're quite obsessed with secret drawers.

David Linley3:09

Well, I l I love the fact that when you're designing something, that it should have some kind of element of wit about it. And when you're showing somebody s something who may be not interested at all, it's quite fun to say, Well, try and find the secret drawer. And it suddenly engages people in a way that they don't really believe that they would be engaged in the piece of furniture.

Speaker 13:22

Uh

Presenter3:22

And then suddenly

Presenter3:29

But I'm told that your the the obsession with secret drawers actually originated with your grandmother, is that right?

David Linley3:35

Well, my grandmother found a chest of drawers in the corridor and said there is a secret drawer here somewhere, and I can't remember where it is, so we spent a very rainy afternoon looking for it, and eventually found a rather nice letter that she'd lost for a long time.

Presenter3:47

Tucked away in the drawer.

David Linley3:48

Yes.

Presenter3:48

But but you made something for her. I mean, if we're going back to your very beginnings of making things with uh yourself, I think this was at school with a a secret mitre dovetail.

David Linley3:58

There was a box that I wanted to really make that had a lot of precision into it, and using a secret mitre dovetail joint effectively hides the dovetails.

David Linley4:07

And I spent a week making it.

Presenter4:09

How old were you?

David Linley4:10

I was uh fifteen.

David Linley4:12

And everyone went off on their O level break, and I had to stay behind because woodworking was of course in the middle of it. And so I made this box, and it took enormous amount of time to do. And when they all came back my friend said, So what did you do? I said, I made this box with secret mitre dovetail joints. And they said, Well, how do we know it's in there?

David Linley4:27

So it was a very good lesson in trying to overcomplicate something that unnecessarily.

Presenter4:31

Has she still got it?

David Linley4:32

Yes, she does. It goes round the table, I think, still with a washed cigar in it.

Presenter4:34

The bottom.

Presenter4:35

Oh, it's a cigar box.

David Linley4:37

Bam.

Presenter4:38

Tell me about your first record.

David Linley4:40

My first record is The Rolling Stones called Melody. I chose it mainly because it reminds me very much of working in the workshop at school, and I just I just like the tune.

Speaker 14:51

She said I go.

David Linley4:52

Fix my face, don't you worry I'll be back.

Speaker 34:57

Looking for a high and low, like a mustard for a hand.

Speaker 15:02

Uh

Speaker 35:04

Yeah.

Presenter5:04

Hi.

Presenter5:06

My best friend

Speaker 35:12

Uh

Presenter5:12

Yeah.

Speaker 35:12

Bar's the second name.

Presenter5:17

The Rolling Stones and a Melody. So, um, David Linley, you you have memories there of dovetailing in the school workshop. Are you, therefore, a very tidy, fastidious person?

David Linley5:28

I am sort of slightly obsessed with detail and my father as as a child, whenever we were making things, you know, he always encouraged us to make sure that like if you're screwing a line of screws together they all lined up in a in a row. If you're making something, make sure that the underneath is as well finished as the top.

Presenter5:43

It's as good under as over. But you've come a long way since you made cigar boxes for grandma, because we're looking here at this amazing Servre cabinet.

David Linley5:52

Well it was certainly one of the largest cabinets we've ever made. We found a beautiful tree which we used the whole of to make it which is an English walnut. And the scale of it is quite enormous. It's sort of nearly six six foot six high, it's about five feet wide. So the the proportions of it are very generous, they're very monumental. And then it's inlaid with twelve French serve plaques.

Presenter6:14

showing different shadow.

David Linley6:16

There are six English castles and six French châteaux.

Presenter6:20

But but these are servre porcelain plaques, yes.

David Linley6:23

Yeah.

Presenter6:23

W they were made at the Sevre factory in Paris.

David Linley6:27

They were made by hand using very traditional techniques, hand painting each facade using slip, so you're not actually seeing the ri actual colour that will come out of the kiln. And then we went past the old kiln where they used to fire them using wood.

David Linley6:43

And we beg them to use that because that would make it again much more traditional.

Presenter6:46

Does it change the colour?

David Linley6:47

It just slightly changes it and makes it much warmer colours.

Presenter6:51

And this was the first time they'd been asked to do that for how long?

David Linley6:54

I think about a hundred and a hundred and twenty years. And also, you know, we haven't forgotten to put the old secret drawer of which um one only one person knows where it is.

Presenter7:02

Is that the owner?

David Linley7:03

Felt here now.

Presenter7:04

We hope it's a bit like the antiques road show here, you have to tell us the price, right?

David Linley7:08

Oh yes, well, you probably want to b know how much to insure it for.

Presenter7:10

Mm-hmm.

David Linley7:13

No, it was it was a colossal sum of money. Go on. Well, it was two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. But, taken into consideration that it was two years in the making, all things are relative.

Presenter7:15

Come on.

Presenter7:23

I mean, do you work those things out mathematically? Do you set a price per hour or how do you arrive at a price?

David Linley7:28

When we do a commission, each piece is mathematically worked out, we work out how much it's going to cost, and then we give the client the price.

Presenter7:36

I see. Well, Sir Roystrong, when he was director of the V and A, said, and he said this sixteen years ago, that your furniture would become the antiques of the future. That must have been exactly what you wanted to hear, really. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

David Linley7:49

Well, it was a very generous statement to have made. He very kindly opened the shop where we had an opening at Christie's. And he's an amazing person because he's also a great critic and will tell you exactly what he feels about things.

Presenter8:01

You mentioned quite a bit about how you had this opening here or you were very privileged to have the other there. I mean, obviously, o over the time people have said, oh, that's because you are who you are. I mean, there has to be a bit of that. Do you think it would have happened if you weren't who you are?

David Linley8:16

Well, hopefully, we're doing something that again makes people go, oh, that's not exactly what we get every day. And so we do offer something quite different.

Presenter8:24

So you would argue you've earned your place, would you?

David Linley8:27

Well, I think we do offer something quite unusual and um hopefully people can come to the shop and and walk through and just get an idea and criticise quite rightly.

Presenter8:36

Yeah.

David Linley8:36

Code number two.

Presenter8:36

Uh

David Linley8:37

This is the The Animals and the The House of the Rising Sun. Going back to my early days with my mother, we had a vast collection of forty-five RPM records. We very often listened to those or danced around them and um to me this one was a very symbolic record of listening with a reason, with a cautionary tale.

Speaker 18:57

There is a house in New Orleans.

Speaker 19:03

They call the rash insulation.

Speaker 39:04

Alright.

Speaker 19:09

Let it spin!

Speaker 19:10

Better rule it!

Speaker 19:12

And you know, World War I

Speaker 19:15

And God

Speaker 19:17

I do

Presenter9:26

The Animals and House of the Rising Sun: Memories of Your Childhood. Now, you didn't only have a workshop at school, apparently, you had one at home at Kensington Palace as well. Tell me about that one.

David Linley9:36

There was always a sort of wonderful working atmosphere in the house. Amazing designers and makers would come in and out of the house.

David Linley9:43

Architects.

David Linley9:45

My father was designing the London Zoo Avery with Cedric Price. So there was this incredible excitement of things being made and, you know, that's what you did. There was no sort of element of sitting down. It was always down in the workshop. That's where the action was.

Presenter9:59

Did your mother make things as well?

David Linley10:01

Yes, she did. She made the the doors in the drawing room. She veneered those with an iron and

Presenter10:05

What did you make?

David Linley10:06

Toys. I'm I'm in my first toy. I went I went down stupidly and asked if I could have one that everyone else at school had. They said, uh well, no, look, why did you just make one? What is it? So I said, It's a submarine. So he said, Look, you get a piece of wood like this, you bang a nail on the front, you curve it up like this, you put a few weights on it and it'll sink to the bottom of the bath. As it hits the bottom, the ring will come off and it'll go up again. There you are.

Presenter10:25

And and apparently you sort of waved oxyacetylin torches around as well at a very small age.

David Linley10:30

No, I d I didn't, but uh I was at the other end, um again, amazing things being made for the garden. Very dangerous, very much like a sort of ski lift, but in reverse, which whistled one down from one end of the garden to the other, which my father made, and that was using oxycetylene.

Presenter10:44

And you were taken to a lot of factories.

David Linley10:47

Why?

Presenter10:47

Why?

David Linley10:48

Pure interest uh on my behalf to see how things were made and also my mother was going round them anyway. Official business, yeah. Either official business or unofficial business.

Presenter10:53

Official business

Presenter10:56

And I mentioned in the introduction that you were also taught an appreciation of beautiful things. How did that happen? Where were you taken? What happened?

David Linley11:03

Well again my mother was very good at taking me to see just one object, so we'd go to the National Gallery and see the Leonardo and the cartoon, or we'd go and see the Vermeer.

David Linley11:12

But only that. So you'd you'd constantly be dragged going, Can't we just sit see see that? and say, No, we come back again when you want. So one actually became very, very keen to go back.

Presenter11:21

And your father took you into people's houses to see things.

David Linley11:25

I missed

Presenter11:25

Deep.

David Linley11:25

Angel

Presenter11:25

Because

David Linley11:26

Well, there w there was always a a road trip or w we were coming back from somewhere and we'd see a beautiful house and come on, let's go and see if I'm sure they won't mind, they'll be thrilled. And they were, of course, often very thrilled to share a beautiful house or a piece of furniture or a piece of a piece of it.

Presenter11:41

But did you really not know them?

David Linley11:43

No, no, I don't think so. Um but I mean I think

Presenter11:45

But as a child you must have been so embarrassed.

David Linley11:47

Oh, my sister and I died in the back of the car. We were sort of saying, Please, no, no, no. No, I'm sure it'll be all right. And um the awful thing is that I found myself reenacting things like that now.

Presenter11:57

Really? What? Knocking on people's doors and saying, can I come in?

David Linley12:00

We've just been taken by something rather beautiful on the on the road and just finding out a bit about it and taking a detour.

Presenter12:06

But I wonder what

Presenter12:07

I was going to ask a foolish question, which is what did you think of your parents? I mean, we only have one set of parents, so we we always think that they everyone's parents are the same. But I wonder if you were aware that

Presenter12:18

Um, yours were particularly glamorous. I mean, Tony Armstrong Jones, as we knew him, was a very glamorous figure. Were you aware of that as a child?

David Linley12:26

Now I was aware of somebody who's very funny and was always either making things or going on trips with my mother. So I didn't think we were aware as such, but we had an immensely happy childhood.

Presenter12:37

And did did you go on feeling supported and happy after the divorce? I think you did, didn't you?

David Linley12:42

Very much so. And they're they were incredibly grown up about it and they would spend some time with each parent. And each each one of those times was again more special.

Presenter12:52

Code number three.

David Linley12:54

Well, I tried to find something that reminded me of my mother and going into her room she's always playing Radio three and listening to classical music. And I particularly like to choose Mozart's Piano Concerto, number twenty four in C minor.

Presenter14:09

Alfred Brendel playing the end of the second movement of Mozart's piano concerto number twenty four in C minor with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles MacKerris, and uh memories there of of your mother who took you on holidays to Cornwall and to Scotland and uh obviously to Balmorrow, where apparently you were jealous of your cousins Andrew and Edward because they had smarter toys than you. They didn't make their own.

David Linley14:31

Oh, not jealous, I'm sure.

David Linley14:33

Now I think that the nearest to jealousy I got was the fact that they were allowed to wear a kilt and I wasn't. My father considered that I was more Welsh than Scottish, so therefore I wasn't allowed to.

Presenter14:41

But your parents were so different. I mean, yours was, I'm sure, a a much much less regimented existence, wasn't it?

David Linley14:46

Yes, much less. And going into that environment was obviously a great change for us. So suddenly you had people looking after you and didn't have to boil your egg in the morning. So

David Linley14:56

There was that change there, whereas they probably had more continuous life. We we had a sort of

Speaker 114:59

Yeah.

David Linley15:01

Again, going backwards and forwards, or smarter cars, or whatever it was. So, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Presenter15:07

They're probably jealous of you, truth be told.

David Linley15:09

Coverly.

Presenter15:11

Were you always determined I mean, can you remember to earn your own living? Was that always exactly what the plan was?

David Linley15:17

Very much so. We were always so keen to get on to the next stage that

Presenter15:21

Days

David Linley15:22

We never considered having a gap here or going on and taking experience somewhere else.

Presenter15:26

But but when was the moment that you knew that uh working in wood was how you were going to make that living?

David Linley15:32

Oh, quite early on, at Bedell's I had this fantastic teacher called David Butcher, who is an inspirational character.

David Linley15:38

and gave me a key to the workshop so that we could work late at night.

Presenter15:41

But was there a single moment when you stood there, maybe, late at night, and thought this is very romantic of me, but thought, hey, hang on, this is how I can make my my way in life.

David Linley15:41

Uh

David Linley15:51

I think at a very early age, probably fifteen, I'd already well, I'd already exhibited my first piece of furniture. It was a desk which I still use.

David Linley15:59

At home.

Presenter15:59

What a full size desk

David Linley16:00

Yes, which um was something that I'd made from start to finish and learned how to make mortison tenon joints and a bit of inlay.

Presenter16:07

All sounds very successful. You must have had things that fell apart too.

David Linley16:08

That was very

David Linley16:11

Yes, the f the first piece I made after the desk did fall apart and my father lifted it up at School Parents' Day and said, Can I have a look underneath and check that all the screws line up? And of course the leg fell off and there was this death-like silence which I still haven't heard to this day, and everyone looked round in sort of rather like sort of Bateman cartoon. I think that was my worst moment in woodworking probably.

Presenter16:32

So you went off to Parnham School for Craftsmen in Wood, run by the master craftsman John Makepiece. How much did you learn there?

David Linley16:39

I'm just giving an idea the first day at school.

David Linley16:42

They said, Here's a bit of plate glass and some wet and dry sandpaper and your plane and I want you to plane your plane flat.

David Linley16:50

and after three days of going round and round and round, eventually I could understand that there was indeed a very, very slight indentation. So you actually get sort of honed down into the kind of precision that we're actually talking about.

Presenter17:03

So it suited you down to the ground.

Presenter17:06

Echo number four.

David Linley17:08

This is a record by Serge Gensberg, singing a reggae song called Ozam etc.

David Linley17:14

My father took the photograph when he was doing the photographs for Death on the Nile and Jane Birkin was in that and she was married to Serge Ginsberg.

Presenter17:22

And he took the photograph for the album cover.

David Linley17:23

The album covers by him. He said um I need a a photograph quickly, Tony So they they wi literally whizzed round the the corner and uh took a picture of him on the top of a sandbox.

David Linley17:36

Looks at the rock

David Linley17:39

What's up?

David Linley17:41

Take ball!

Speaker 117:42

Saint Clubon?

Speaker 117:44

Carry

Speaker 117:46

Who's in it?

Speaker 117:51

Blocky pussy

Speaker 117:53

Et latrice de la Roberté.

Presenter17:56

A sorry situation

Presenter18:00

Serge Gansbourg singing Ozam, etc., and we're playing that on the old vinyl at your request. Can you hear the difference?

David Linley18:09

Oh yes, it's a much warmer sand, I think.

Presenter18:11

And you say that your love of music is really inherited from your mother, is it?

David Linley18:15

I think probably mostly from my mother and my grandmother, a little bit from my father who used to sing Marlaine Dietry's songs in the car.

Presenter18:23

Yeah.

Presenter18:23

So the point of this school parnham was that you left with a career. How would you characterize what you thought that career would be? Because I don't think you imagine being in a smart shop in an upmarket thoroughfare of London.

David Linley18:35

Not at all, no. I mean, uh my idea was to wear cuddly jerseys and work in a workshop on my own.

Presenter18:41

In a barn in the country.

David Linley18:41

In a barn in the country.

Presenter18:43

So what went wrong?

David Linley18:45

Well I I I began basically trying to get a lot of work for the workshop, going back to the workshop, making it, going back to the customer. And the customers would then give advice. Miriam Stoppard was an early example and she came to the workshop and said, you know, come on boys, what are you doing? Get forward. So I then realized that to make the business grow, you had to have an opening, somewhere that people could visit and see the the pieces of furniture and not just in a photograph, but in reality.

Presenter19:14

So you quit the cooperative, you went on your own, you eventually bought a a shop at the wrong end of the King's Road to start with well number one new King's Road, I think right down the other end.

Presenter19:24

And you were doing mainly commissions. You must again have had some disasters along the way.

David Linley19:30

Well, I think probably the there's one that springs to mind is that we had a a commission from Lloyd's Insurance who were going to give a present to the People's Insurance Company of China in a very short time scale, but we wanted to get the job, so I said, Of course we can do it in three weeks, and which basically make working round the clock fairly compulsory. Anyway, to my amazement, the thing all came together, and the only thing that we had to out contract was the veneering of the top, and it came back, and the edge, which was rather beautiful, sort of inlayed marquetry, had to line up in the middle, and it didn't.

David Linley20:02

And at that point, it just didn't work.

Presenter20:02

But the pan just contradicted itself.

David Linley20:05

It didn't even nearly hit, it sort of was about an inch out.

David Linley20:09

And we had to get people out of bed from the factory and literally work again three nights in a row, no sleep at all, something we're quite used to, and um get it delivered on time. And I remember changing in the car with the the table in the back and everyone saying, Come on Dave, you know, put your whistle and flute on and so then I then had to sort of brush my hair and go upstairs and and then um meet the chairman.

Presenter20:31

You seem to have specialized in tables. You may made another table for the G eight Summit, I think, in Birmingham, at one point, which was huge. And and another one that you could apparently dance an Irish jig on. What was that all about?

David Linley20:43

That was when I first met my father-in-law and he came in and asked if I could make a a table strong enough to dance an Irish jig on. So I said absolutely, here are all the samples of veneer. And he said, No, I don't want veneer, I want solid English walnut, which as you can probably guess is the hardest to obtain. So we set about trying to find, I think, quite a lot of trees to get this table made. And indeed, he did dance a jig, and it didn't fall apart.

Presenter21:05

But you didn't know he was going to be your father in law at the time.

David Linley21:08

No, no, that was a very long time ago.

Presenter21:11

Echo number five.

David Linley21:13

This is Elton John's, I guess that's why they call it the Blues from Too Low to Zero. I chose that particularly because, again, it reminded me of Happy Times. In fact the whole album is a a constant in my holiday record collection.

David Linley21:29

And I guess that's why they're calling the blues.

David Linley21:37

And I guess that's why they call it the blue.

David Linley21:47

And I guess that's why they call it the blue.

Presenter21:53

I guess that's why they call it the Blues. That was Elton John, a man with universal appeal. You say that's a record that you, your mother, and your grandmother all like.

David Linley22:02

Oh yes, abs absolutely. I was talking to my grandma the other day and she said, I've just got his new album. Not bad for one hundred, isn't it? She really

Presenter22:08

He wrote it.

David Linley22:09

Yeah.

Presenter22:10

Does she play it?

David Linley22:11

Absolutely.

Presenter22:12

Um and Elton is a mate of yours. As we said at the beginning, he's commissioned pieces from you. He also commissioned a spectacle chest for all those glasses he's got. What was that like?

David Linley22:22

Well, it was a chest of drawers, made in sycamore, and designed to hold his rather comprehensive.

David Linley22:29

Collection of spectacles.

Presenter22:30

How many?

David Linley22:31

About two hundred and fifty. And we we joke it's daywear.

Presenter22:34

But was it what the spectacles are just for dead? I see. So you might get the commission for another one. Well, it won't be. We live in hope.

David Linley22:39

We live in hope.

Presenter22:41

But what happened then? Did draw after draw pull out a bit like going to the optician's really, and choosing your frames?

David Linley22:45

Exactly, except you don't have to move from your bed. I I think that the idea was that, um, basically he chooses one for each each moment of the day.

Presenter22:53

But what was it lined with? How did it look?

David Linley22:55

It was again very architectural. We used corbels and cornerstones, very thick sycamore, carved and then beautifully finished. So it was an architectural, monumental piece of furniture.

Presenter23:08

What's the strangest commission you've ever had?

David Linley23:11

Well there are lots of strange things that we get asked to make, because we're basically like a tailor, we can make anything. So people come in with extremely odd requests. But one thing that sticks out in my mind is a a a box that we made for a man who wanted to give something unusual to his wife, who'd just had their first child. And it was a little temple, and you opened the doors and inside there was a little cushion, and on the cushion was an eternity ring.

Presenter23:34

It's a little temple of love.

David Linley23:35

Yeah.

Presenter23:36

So you're the person who discusses all these commissions. You're now the front man. There must have been a a moment, again, when you

Presenter23:44

Decided, or it was decided you had to take your apron off and get out of the workshop, is that right?

David Linley23:49

That's right. I could I couldn't do both. It was unfair to try and pretend that you made half of that or a bit of it.

Presenter23:55

But how does it work? What would happen, for example, when you were sent for? Because I know you've only talked about furniture, but you did the you redid the whole of the lobby of the Savoy, didn't you? You would be sent for, you would say, Right, I'll come and see you, I'll come and talk about this job. What happens?

David Linley24:11

Well, in a job like that, I'm quite enthusiastic in trying to get orders and my managing director, Ruth Kennedy, is sort of more sort of sensible, who says what we can and can't do. And so we went through this whole procedure and I said, Oh, yes, I can see this doing like this and you know and she never she never sort of stopped me or coughed or which she normally does.

Presenter24:29

What she coughs.

David Linley24:30

Yes, it normally is don't think we can do that, Dave, you know. And um

Presenter24:34

'Cause you're up front with the tail wagging saying, Oh, yes, anything you know.

David Linley24:36

And it actually turned out into being a wonderful job.

David Linley24:42

We found old crafts, one in particular was a wonderful glass bending craft that was just about to go out of business. What was that for? It was to go on the top of the revolving doors. And again, it was something that had been there, and we ver felt very strongly that it should go back. It was a dome in rather opaque, beautiful green glass that had been taken away, and so it was rather stripping back what had been put up over the years.

Presenter24:48

What was that for?

Presenter25:05

So you saved the guy's business, did you?

David Linley25:07

Well, we certainly gave him a bit to keep going.

Presenter25:10

Record number six.

David Linley25:12

This is called Ride On by Christy Moore and reminds me of uh First Meeting My Wife, Serena, and I think it's a beautiful song.

David Linley25:24

Run your claw along my gut.

Speaker 125:29

One last time.

Speaker 125:31

I turn to face An empty space Where you used to lie

David Linley25:40

And look for the spark that lights the night through the

Speaker 325:45

Tear drop in my eyes.

Speaker 325:50

Right on.

Presenter25:52

Christy Moore and Ride On s sends tingles down your spine, you say that one.

David Linley25:56

Still does, yeah.

Presenter25:58

So would you recommend it as a trade for a young man to day, this kind of craftsmanship, this in in in in wood? Would you say to a young guy who might be thinking of going to university, Forget all about that. Come on, get down to it?

David Linley26:12

I think it's an incredibly gratifying career to have.

David Linley26:16

And speed is the real thing that you need to be good at to be competitive. You need to make things at a certain speed.

Presenter26:22

Hmm.

David Linley26:22

And if you're below that, then you'll you'll you will struggle.

Presenter26:26

How supportive have your family been of your crew? I mean, do they turn up to all your openings and your exhibitions and?

David Linley26:32

I can't tell you how supportive they've been. Both my parents have come to every opening of every workshop, which gives one enormous confidence you're going the right way. And they will tell you, you know, not sure about that, you know.

Presenter26:42

You're certainly an example, obviously, of how someone can be royal and, as we say, have a proper job and earn.

Presenter26:50

Your living without being accused of exploiting the royal connection. Why do you think it is that you've managed it where others, other members of the royal family, haven't?

David Linley27:00

Well I'm very fortunate in what I do. Cabinet making, woodworking is, I think, an incredible profession to have been able to have a career in.

Presenter27:10

But you th are you saying, therefore, that it's the nature of the work that there's a kind of integrity to your work that that no one can gainsay? Is that

David Linley27:17

Well, I think that you can see very clearly what we do. We make furniture. We don't hide anything. We always have the door open to anybody who wants to come in and see. So there are no secrets about how we work or how things are produced.

Presenter27:31

But do you think it's also to do with not being I don't know what you are in line to the throne, you ten, eleven, twelve?

David Linley27:37

I don't know either, I'm right.

Presenter27:39

But I mean there is a difference. There's greater pressure perhaps if you are fourth, fifth or sixth.

David Linley27:39

Wait a minute

David Linley27:42

Absolutely.

David Linley27:43

I'm extremely fortunate to be where I am.

Presenter27:46

Record number seven.

David Linley27:48

This is a record that is full of memories. Sir Daniel Rockin' the Boat from Guys and Dolls, and again something that we played in the old shop round the piano that we'd made.

Speaker 127:58

That's the moment I woke up.

Speaker 128:02

Thankful.

David Linley28:09

Uh

Presenter28:09

Uh

David Linley28:09

Uh

David Linley28:10

And I said to myself, sit down, you're rocking the boat. I said to myself, sit down, you're rocking the boat. And the devil will

Speaker 328:19

That's Rubber Aggie.

David Linley28:20

Uh

Speaker 328:20

Under

David Linley28:21

Time and wait for

Speaker 328:21

Yeah.

Speaker 128:22

Have you never flown shit?

Speaker 328:23

Down, down, down.

Speaker 128:24

And I'll tell you. Uh

Presenter28:27

Don Stevenson as Nicely, Nicely Johnson and members of the company, singing Sit Down, You're Rock in the Boat from Guys and Dolls, with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Owen Edwards. You're living at home at the moment, David, you and your wife, Serena, and young son, with your mother at Kensington Palace. You're between houses, as they say.

David Linley28:45

Yes, I'm afraid the old fix is at it again.

David Linley28:47

We've just sold a house and we're on our on our way again to try and find just another house.

Presenter28:52

So you're lodging with mum, and I wouldn't be forgiven if I didn't ask you how she is, Princess Margaret, at the moment. Is she any better?

David Linley28:59

She's she's a little bit better, but again it we take it day to day and depending on the day, depends how much better she is.

Presenter29:05

Your being there must be a great comfort to her. I mean, how much time can you spend with her? What do you do?

David Linley29:09

Well, it depends on the day, but um we have a a son who's two and a half who rushes in and I think jollies the whole thing up a bit and again renews a little bit of energy into the house. It's nice to hear things rushing about rather than sort of dead silence.

Presenter29:23

Well, she's been to this desert island, as you know, as has your father, I said at the beginning. I'm not sure how they escaped, but anyway, they're not there. You're going to be there on your own. What's your plan? What are you going to do?

David Linley29:34

I was sort of thinking very hard about what kind of island it would be. Would there be trees? And what kind of stones there'd be, because if there were stones I could therefore make s a saw. If I could make a saw I could chop down trees and make things, sew things out of palm fronds and that sort of thing. Depends how much I'm allowed in the knife department really. If I was allowed in the city,

Presenter29:55

Not a lot from this end. But you feel you've you're inventive enough and creative enough to be able to hack it, huh?

David Linley29:56

Yeah.

David Linley30:02

Well, I think I'd certainly enjoy the the fact of having an island to myself. As a child I often had this game with my sister where we pretended that we had our own islands and we catapult each other on granite catapults to visit each other.

Presenter30:15

Last record, what's that?

David Linley30:17

This is John Lee Hooker's The Healer. We've had it for a long time and it reminds me of very good friends having a good time.

Speaker 130:26

Uh

Presenter30:26

Yeah.

Speaker 130:27

Uh

Speaker 130:29

Oh

Speaker 130:34

Blew the heel of heel ha ha ha

Speaker 130:38

All over the world, all over the world, how

Presenter30:44

Hear me.

Speaker 330:46

Can heal you?

Presenter30:49

Heal me to heal me really one

Presenter30:52

John Lee Hooker singing The Hilo with Carlos Santana on the guitar there. If you could only take one of those eight records, David, which one would you take?

David Linley31:02

probably Mozart in a sense, because

David Linley31:05

Again, it was something that I could listen to for a very long time, much longer than all of them.

Presenter31:10

And it reminds you very much of your mother.

David Linley31:12

Very much so, and very nice memories too.

Presenter31:15

What about your book? You've got the Bible and you've got the complete works of Shakespeare already there.

David Linley31:19

I'd I'd like to take a book which is not an encyclopedia, but it's not far from it, written by Alan Fletcher. It's called The Art of Looking Sideways, and I I find it a glorious book for dipping into.

Presenter31:29

What's it about?

David Linley31:31

Well, it's really his observations. It's just things that he's cut out from life.

Presenter31:35

What about your luxury?

David Linley31:37

I thought really something that I could learn, and I thought I might like to take a guitar, please.

Presenter31:43

David Lindley, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your Desert Island Iscs.

David Linley31:46

Thank you for all

Presenter31:46

Asking me.

David Linley31:47

Yeah.

Speaker 332:03

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.