Ann Daniels

Presenter0:00

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 seven.

Presenter0:27

My castaway this week is the polar explorer Anne Daniels. As part of the first British all-women teams to walk to both the South and North Poles, she's made history, enduring freezing temperatures as low as minus fifty, and seen some of her fellow travellers collapse with frostbite and gangrene. There have, of course, been brave and stoic explorers who've battled the same chilling path. What makes her achievement all the more extraordinary is that she set off on that first adventure, leaving her young triplets at home. My children, she says, were my inspiration for everything I've done, and when things got difficult I would chant their names. Coupled with that is her very normal background. She's about as far from the toff looking for a spot of adventure as you can possibly get. Brought up by hard working parents in the terraces of Bradford, she was one of five children, and hadn't even carried a rucksack till she was thirty. Um and understanding why is, of course, the difficult bit for the rest of us. I know you will have been asked this question a million times, but it does remain relevant. Why do you do it?

Ann Daniels1:33

I've always believed that you should challenge yourself and do something extraordinary. And then.

Ann Daniels1:39

A newspaper advert um came up that was an advert for ordering women to apply for the North Pole. And so I applied, sent seventy five pound off and uh thought I'd be on Crime Watch, having lost all my money. So you thought it was some sort of scam?

Presenter1:54

We thought there was a ch

Ann Daniels1:54

God

Presenter1:54

That you were being horribly taken in by

Ann Daniels1:56

I thought there was a chance, and there was this doubt of, oh, I'm going to be one of those gullible housewives that sent all this money in.

Ann Daniels2:04

But thankfully it wasn't a scam and having started that journey, I fell in love with the Arctic. I come from an ordinary background, and for somebody like me to go to the Arctic, which is magnificent, beautiful, and challenge yourself and get a world record.

Ann Daniels2:24

Why would you not do something so fantastic?

Presenter2:26

Fantastic. What about those times I mentioned in the introduction that you've seen uh people that you travel with, I mean, people who become dear and close friends to you given the proximity of of uh your your travelling situation, who've who've been struck down by uh frostbite and gangrene. I mean, that must be appalling to witness that at first hand.

Ann Daniels2:45

It is appalling. Pom particularly, who was on the North Pole two thousand two team, she had horrendous wet gangrene and frostbite. Can you explain wet gangrene?

Presenter2:54

Can you explain whether

Ann Daniels2:56

Because you're living in quite a dirty environment, you can't wash and you can get infection. And then gangrene gets into the real painful frostbite and starts to eat away at your toes, so they start to rot, and it's just appalling. And as Pom took her boots off on a night, the smell of gorgonzola cheese would just hit the tent, and we'd almost gag with it. She was in such pain, she would weep when she put her boots on. And then to keep the expedition alive, she went out of that tent every morning and skied for nine hours so that the expedition wouldn't stop. And it made me want to weep with her because she didn't get to the pole, but she just went through so much to enable us to achieve the dream. Let's take a break now.

Presenter3:44

For your first piece of music, what have you chosen?

Ann Daniels3:47

I've chosen Neil Diamond, I Am I Said. I Am I Said particularly because I feel a lot that I'm on two shores. I love the Arctic, my passion's out there, and I also adore my home life and my children. And sometimes it battles, and sometimes it's just fantastic.

Speaker 44:04

It is fine, the sun shines most the time.

Speaker 44:11

And the feeling is lay back.

Speaker 34:13

Said I

Speaker 44:18

And I am lost and I can even say why.

Speaker 44:27

Leaving me lonely still

Presenter4:34

Neil Diamond and I am I said. I hinted in the introduction, Anne, about your untypical background, untypical for an explorer. Um you you grew up as one of five children.

Ann Daniels4:44

I grew up as one of five children. I was the youngest, four boys, and then me.

Ann Daniels4:52

You weren't a girly girl. I wasn't a girly girl. Um but I came up and I'd got four older brothers who I adored and who I wanted to be with and I wanted them to accept me so I became an absolute tomboy and and did the biggest jumps, climbed the highest trees just so that they would let me be one of them and play with them. So uh playing as a little girl, where where would you play to be? We played on the streets. I lived on a state and we played out on the streets and did hop scotch and jumping middins and people had back yards and huge walls and we'd climb up onto the walls and we'd run across and jump from one gate to another and I always did get a kick out of doing that and amongst all the boys you would see this little girl that was running along the middins and jumping around and just enjoying that kind of

Presenter5:14

We

Ann Daniels5:39

exciting sort of life.

Presenter5:41

So maybe for anybody who'd cared to look for them the signs were there that you were somebody who who was untypical in that respect.

Ann Daniels5:48

I would say so, yes, I was definitely untifficult.

Presenter5:51

What's been your parents' response to this extraordinary adventure that you've gone on in your

Ann Daniels5:57

New life.

Ann Daniels5:58

My mother has always and absolutely been behind me, and isn't it wonderful?

Ann Daniels6:04

I think at the very beginning in 1997 when I began this, my father found it a little bit difficult. He's from a background where women don't go out and do these things. But what I would say about him is he still supported me and actually he's now proud of the things I've done and sometimes I my mother's heard him boasting about his daughter.

Ann Daniels6:25

Fathers don't like to do that.

Presenter6:26

What's your second piece of music?

Ann Daniels6:28

My second piece of music is Eurythmics and Sweet Dreams. I love Annie Lennox, I think she's got a fantastic voice. She to me is a great woman. And this record in particular is Sweet Dreams. Oh gosh, Sweet Dreams are made of this and life, and I love this record.

Speaker 36:40

Screw.

Speaker 36:45

Sweet dreams are made of these Who am I to disagree? I travel the world and the seven seas

Presenter7:16

Eurythmics and sweet dreams. Chosen principally, you were saying during that, because of the strength of somebody like Annie Lennox, of her version of what it is to be a woman that appeals to you.

Ann Daniels7:25

It is. Annie Lennox is, I would say, one of the people that I could aspire to be. I think she's beautiful, she's strong, she is just a fantastic icon for women and for me. What sort of woman

Presenter7:37

A schoolgirl, were you? Were I mean, were you good at exams? Were you academic?

Ann Daniels7:42

I was, which is in some ways quite a tragedy.

Ann Daniels7:45

Really, for me, I had always wanted to go to university whilst I was at school.

Ann Daniels7:51

But that's not really the background that I came from and not really acceptable for me to do. It was a case of you went to school, you left and you got a job and um What do you mean it wasn't it's more wasn't acceptable for me? Well my father would would like me to say this but the truth of the matter is that I in those days, um in my father's ideas, um long aired layabouts went to university that just couldn't be bothered to get a job.

Presenter8:04

Follow us.

Ann Daniels8:15

You know, people worked, they went out and they brought money into the family and and brought income in.

Presenter8:20

And what was the job you had then in mind as as you were leaving school? What would you what did you want to do?

Ann Daniels8:25

I wanted to join the police or I wanted to join the services or do something quite physical, but I'm also very short-sighted. And I went to the eye exam for the police and he just laughed and said, Don't be silly, Anne. And I fell into banking. It's a a career that you can use your brain with also. So I enjoyed that challenge.

Presenter8:45

It seems as far though possibly there was this kernel of thinking there's a great adventure out there, but you end up you know working for the Nat West. It's it's a pretty long way from a big adventure. How did you see your life shaping up?

Ann Daniels8:57

Well, I joined at sixteen, of course, because it was straight from school, and I just imagined I would further my career to a not a great extent, but I knew I'd do pretty mediocre. Then I would leave, I would get married, I would have children, but that would be my life mapped out. There would be no more.

Ann Daniels9:16

Tell me about your next record.

Ann Daniels9:18

My next record is The Jam and Eaton Rifles. I love the Jam. I always wanted to be a Rebel. It takes me back to my youth when we all used to dance to it. And for me, this brings back great memories of my youth.

Speaker 39:47

What's a catalyst you don't have to be like the guns and you run off one for your team?

Speaker 39:54

Left me standing like a beauty schoolboy

Presenter10:01

The jam and Etern Rifles and memories there you were saying of jumping on the back of your boyfriend's scooter. What would you what would you have been wearing on the back of your boyfriend's scooter?

Ann Daniels10:09

Jevin and his parker'cause I got cold in those days. But we did, we'd leave the club, jump on his scooter, and we just thought we had the world.

Presenter10:17

We did, of course. You did, of course. That you'll be around about eighteen then. Yeah, yeah. And you met your first husband when you were eighteen.

Ann Daniels10:20

Yeah, yeah, right.

Ann Daniels10:24

I met him at eighteen. Um, I have brothers who are in the services and I came down to visit them and I met my husband.

Presenter10:32

And it's it seems uh Anne such a sort of conventional path, doesn't it? Out of school, into the bank, married at uh just after twenty one. But the family didn't come easily though. You ha you had to have m well, you had many years of fertility treatment.

Ann Daniels10:44

I did, and it was six years of operations and tubes removed and goodness knows wha what to try and actually have uh my family. And that then I was desperate, then I want a child.

Presenter10:57

Did you imagine at any point I suppose you must have that maybe it was never going to be something that you would achieve to have your own family?

Ann Daniels11:04

I did. And by the time I got to the IVF I was really told this is your last chance and the likelihood is in those days it wasn't as successful as now is that it may not occur. And you had one shot at IVF. Just one shot at IVF. And by then I'd accepted that I probably wouldn't have children.

Presenter11:16

And you had a woman.

Presenter11:17

Just one

Ann Daniels11:22

And thought, well, okay, if that is going to happen, I will then look at other things. And if it doesn't work, then I will give up the job and we'll travel. And we decided that we would sell the house, buy a camper van, and go and travel. So I had accepted it, and perhaps that may have been one of the reasons that when I went for my first IVF treatment, it worked.

Presenter11:45

It worked. Boy, did it work. I mean, that that that point at which they said to you, not only has it worked, but there are

Presenter11:52

Three little babies in there. Goodness me. What went through your mind?

Ann Daniels11:56

Well, I knew as soon as they put them in, I came out and um

Ann Daniels12:01

Jess said to me, You think you're pregnant, don't you? I went, I know I am, I know I am. I said, I've got them all, I've got all three of them, they've got they're not going, I've got them. And so for me, when they told me, You've got the three of them, I thought, Wow, I've kept them all, that's fantastic And I was never afraid of the three. I've just thought never, not once, I just kept thinking, How wonderful I've got three and I got to know them and the way they were and put on nine stone and just got enormous with these babies out here.

Presenter12:19

Left us.

Ann Daniels12:34

And I got to know their features. Rachel sucked her thumb all the time she was inside. Me, Lucy curled up, and Joseph being the boy to call the room. It was he did.

Presenter12:42

See the

Presenter12:44

It's it's diffic I mean, for any of us who've just struggled with one pregnancy, goodness knows, the idea that, as you say, you put on nine stone is just I mean, w you were never depressed by that. I mean, you seem such an above character, didn't never get you down.

Ann Daniels12:57

Well, because I'd got my dream and I knew I was going to get horrendously big and fat and I knew so I expected that. And it was what I had to do to have my babies.

Presenter13:07

And and when you were leaving I mean, women always talk about this, don't they? When you when you leave hospital, there's that moment when you leave hospital and you leave the confines of of the that warm, womblike environment

Presenter13:17

As you were leaving hospital, were there any words of advice did people say would be there to support you?

Ann Daniels13:23

What did they say to you?

Presenter13:23

Yeah.

Ann Daniels13:24

There was one nurse in particular called Carol who came up to me and she said to me as I was leaving, she went, Ryan, she said, I have to say this to you. When you leave this hospital, you will not cope. She said, I'm not saying that because I want to be horrible, because I want you to be realistic, seek advice, take help, and above all, don't feel you've failed. And as she said it, I thought it was a wonderful thing to say, actually. But I also thought inside myself, I've waited six years for these. I will cope. Not only will I cope, I'll enjoy these babies because this is what I've wanted. And I went out with what she'd said, new determination that, yeah, I'm going to cope, but I'm also going to enjoy them as well.

Ann Daniels14:07

Can you give us a flavour of what life was like day to day, having Yeah.

Ann Daniels14:11

It was pure madness and my life was a whir of bananas and ten minutes sleep and just running around and shopping. I had them all in a big pram and the cute factor of three new babies in a pram is great. And whilst I enjoyed it, I did, but I think it's a state of mind. When I look back now, I just think, How did I get through that? How did we get through that? Tough love. It was tough. Tough love.

Presenter14:24

Crap.

Presenter14:34

Tough love.

Presenter14:37

Tell me what your force record is.

Ann Daniels14:40

My fourth record is the finale of the last act of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Presenter14:46

And why have you chosen it?

Ann Daniels14:47

I only went to the ballet as recently as around three years ago, Pom Oliver took me, and it just hit me emotionally. The music, the sounds, it reminded me in many ways of the Arctic and and how it moves. And I loved the grace with the dynamic music, and I just love this music. And every time I hear it, I'm taken back to the ballet and that rush of emotions. And this is wonderful music.

Presenter16:13

The finale of the last act of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. It's always mentioned, Anne Daniels indeed I have mentioned it I don't know how many times already that you are the mother of triplets, as well as being a polar explorer. Indeed, you've got four children now,'cause you had Sarah later on.

Presenter16:28

It's sexism, isn't it? It's blatant sexism. Because what you do is enough. Why should we bother to mention the children?

Ann Daniels16:35

Because

Ann Daniels16:36

What I do is about life as well, and I am a mother and I have children. Yes, it's blatant sexism, and people don't say that about Richard Brunson when he goes on his balloons and his children, but actually I want people to know that I'm a mother as well as doing these things. It's a part of who I am. And whilst yeah, it's enough, it is enough, but also as characters when we do things and we talk about them, the whole of who we are is important.

Presenter17:02

Given all the attention that the fact that you're a mother of uh triplets and now a mother of four has got, along with it, of course, has come commentary from people, people saying that, well, if you were being a responsible mother, you wouldn't do it.

Ann Daniels17:13

That's right. And I think that people are entitled to their own opinions, and that's the way it is. But I think.

Presenter17:20

Colour. Imagine it's Europe.

Ann Daniels17:21

Not my opinion. And I actually don't want to change them because life's about different people.

Presenter17:21

Not my opinion.

Ann Daniels17:25

But I haven't just suddenly said I'm going to go solo across the ice. My first expedition had guides and I learnt my craft. And yes, what I do is really difficult and you have to suffer the pain and keep going, but I don't take reckless risks. The children

Ann Daniels17:42

keep me safe, because when I get to a piece of particular tricky ice that might be thin, I think about them. And so in many ways I use the children to make safe and sensible decisions rather than recklessly just charging ahead.

Presenter17:58

And what about this thing of chanting their names almost as a sort of mantra? You really do that?

Ann Daniels18:02

I really do do that, mainly with the South Pole because you're crossing Antarctica. It's the windiest continent in the earth and you're just walking for miles upon miles in this terrible cold and it's really a battle of the mind. And so I chant their names just to get me through the day and get the rhythm and keep their picture in my mind. And it just drives me on and stops me from the pain and thinking about. Uh Uh

Presenter18:26

You described to us this advert that you answered for uh well, so called ordinary women, whatever that is. Uh you very clearly are not an ordinary woman. You answered the advert. Around about three hundred odd women applied, and and they picked out this group of sixty five. What happened to you on that first weekend when you all got together?

Ann Daniels18:42

Uh we got together and um I had borrowed all this military equipment from my friends and I turned up and every single woman there had outdoor experience and I did feel totally and totally outclassed and out of my depth and my thoughts for the weekend were just get through it and that'll be fine. You've had an adventure and get through the weekend and that's it.

Presenter19:06

What did they put you through in those uh few days that you were all together?

Ann Daniels19:09

We went through two days out on the moors, eighteen hours tromping across the moors, just walking for hours on end in the dark and the mud and the rain and

Ann Daniels19:20

Particularly for me, I was sobbing most of it. Were you? There was a time that I was in so much pain, the rucksack hurt, it was raining, I couldn't see anything, it was dark, and I distanced myself from the front person and the person behind me, not enormously, and just cried for the sheer horror of it all. And at the end of the weekend, and they pulled the cars up, I crawled into this car to take us back to where we were going. And I looked out of the window at the back, and there was this group of girls healthy and happy and singing, and what a great day they'd had. And

Presenter19:54

And did you look at them and think, I want to be one of you, I don't want to be one of me?

Ann Daniels19:59

No, I just

Ann Daniels20:02

They're mad. I just feel horrendous. Get me out of here. This is ridiculous.

Presenter20:07

Right, so and thus far I'm with you. That is exactly the experience I would have had. What change?

Ann Daniels20:13

Well, what changed was I had gone through that terrible baptism and I got to the farm and I had um somebody gave me a hot mug of something and I sat down and I was interviewed by the T V and they said to me, What will it mean as a mother of triplets when you get to the North Pole of hysteria?

Ann Daniels20:32

And I had to answer them and I said, Oh, it'd be great and I said, And what will your children think about you? And I went, Oh, what a wonderful thing experience to give to your children and and somewhere along that, I suddenly thought,

Ann Daniels20:44

Wow.

Ann Daniels20:46

Actually

Ann Daniels20:47

Wouldn't that be fantastic? This is my opportunity. I'm not giving this up.

Ann Daniels20:53

I'm not going home and again going.

Ann Daniels20:56

Wow, I wanted to do that, but I just didn't have the background, I wasn't good enough, didn't have the training. I'm going to do this.

Presenter21:03

Remarkable. What's your next piece of music?

Ann Daniels21:06

My next piece of music is the title theme to Chariots of Fire by Vangelis, and it really is interwoven with the foam. And I just watched them and had so much admiration for them and what they achieved. And every time I listen to this, I really think the impossible is possible.

Presenter21:54

The title theme of Chariots of Fire by Vangelis. So Anne Daniels, you described this first weekend and the complete horror of it, but there was this personal, this epiphany at the end of that weekend, and you went back on a second weekend, which was training. And what did they put you through the second weekend in preparation?

Ann Daniels22:10

The second weekend was four days of SAS style training and selection. And we had four days of getting up when it was dark. And this time we had to navigate, we had to take a team with us, abseil in the dark, we'd go to bed, and then they would get us up two hours after we'd gone to bed and make us do a night run and race each other. And then the next morning they would take us out for hours again on a lot more. Just relentless. It was just relentless for the whole four days.

Presenter22:36

Relentless.

Presenter22:41

At the end of that four days then, you're chosen to go on the team. Do you do you find out by letter? Do they tell you by phone call? How how does it happen?

Ann Daniels22:47

Now, at the end of the four days, all the women walked into a barn and they stood up and started to call out the twenty names. And I just waited and waited, and my name was called. And it was amazing. I was so emotional, so excited. And it was a real emotional experience to actually be chosen in front of everybody else and with everybody else.

Presenter23:12

The triplets were were toddlers, they were they were tinies at this point.

Ann Daniels23:15

Yeah, and to sort of put it into context, it was a relay. So I was gone for four weeks, three to four weeks in total. My parents were the ones that were actually going to do the day-to-day taking over of the children. And they said for those four weeks, for this opportunity in your life, we will just move in and take over and life will go on as normal for the children.

Presenter23:39

Explain to us briefly how the relay works then. There are different women that are chosen for different parts of it.

Ann Daniels23:44

That's right, it was a relay. It was five teams of four women with two guides. I was chosen to be on the first leg, so I physically never reached the pole on that expedition. But to me it was part of a team. And when the last team, Echo, got there, I felt it was all our achievements. And thankfully, on the 27th of May, we made it.

Presenter24:08

Now your first marriage broke up after that first trip. How how much were the two related?

Ann Daniels24:14

Um, I'm after this an awful lot and obviously um there's possibly some of it in there, but actually my marriage was breaking up uh before the trip was even thought about and that we had problems and I don't imagine it helped, but I don't think the marriage would be together without the North Pole either.

Presenter24:33

Tell me about your next record.

Ann Daniels24:35

My next recorded record is ABBA and The Dancing Queen, which really reminds me of the Polar North Pole girls, Pom and Caroline, and it's sort of a a group uh record. ABBA's something that that binds us all together. It's just such fun and great.

Speaker 325:10

Who see that girl?

Speaker 325:14

Watch that scene, digging for gold

Presenter25:19

ABBA and Dancing Queen. So Anne Daniels, you've been on three major group expeditions. That first All Women relay to the North Pole in 1997, followed by All Women Treks to both Poles. Can you explain to those of us for whom these environments are just some fantastical faraway notion? You know, we've seen it on planet Earth, we think we get it, but you know, we really have no idea.

Presenter25:40

What it's like. T tell us about the beauty.

Ann Daniels25:44

Antarctica is a continent and it is so different from the Arctic. It's a landmass and the skies are enormous because there's nothing to stop your view. The skies are really blue, azure, and they just cover the whole of your world. And then there's the snow and the ice, which is beautiful, it has sculptures and it has waves upon wave of snow. And you can ski along, and suddenly the sun will come out, and the rainbows go around the sun. So you'll have a rainbow that just circles the sun. And sometimes there's two rainbows circling the sun. And you stand there and you feel as if you're skiing between the sky and the land in that place where the horizon meets. Calm, beautiful environment. It's windy and horrible. Yes, it doesn't move. It's windy. And there are days that you ski. One time we skied for five days, constant wind and in whiteout. And then one occasion at the end of the five days.

Presenter26:32

Yes, I was gonna ask you.

Ann Daniels26:44

The sun came out, we saw a mountain and it was beautiful, so there again there's the real contrast.

Presenter26:50

Tell me about the toll it takes on on your body, you know, the physical deterioration and uh the frostbite. You've mentioned that the amount of calories you've got to take in.

Ann Daniels27:00

We took in four and a half thousand a day and still lost I lost twenty one pound um on the North Pole expedition. And the frostbite, the pain of your fingers when they've crystallized is just excruciating. It's all encompassing and you just get through those moments of real pain until they warm a little bit and you can start to think again. And that really is a battle with the mind of I've just got to ignore it and move on.

Presenter27:30

What are the most terrifying moments out there?

Ann Daniels27:33

The terrifying moments are when the ice suddenly because the ice in the Arctic suddenly can start to move. So you can be on what you consider to be a solid piece of land and it's feet deep and it goes on for a long way and suddenly there's a rumbling and a shaking and it starts to break. And that is the most heart-stopping moment in you looking around where can I go? Where did it start? How can I get away from this?

Presenter28:01

Is there any sense of history when you're out there? I mean, do you ever sort of feel the legends of Shackleton and Captain Scott and all that they went through as you're out on the ice?

Ann Daniels28:10

Yeah, often.

Ann Daniels28:12

When Scott went to the South Pole, who knew what was there? There could have been it could have been the black hole in the earth. And also when he got there with his woolly pulley and his nails in the bottom of his shoes, he had to come back. There's nothing there, he didn't know what it was, and then he would have to turn round. We're taken in, we're fed, we're at the peak of our physical fitness, we walk and then we're brought out. So I do think about them a lot and what they went through, and I'm glad and honoured to share a tiny bit of what they experienced.

Presenter28:46

Tell me about your next record.

Ann Daniels28:49

Nina Simone and Feeling Good is a great record for me. She has just the voice to die for. And Feeling Good, my marriage did split up after the 97 relay and it was a real traumatic time for me. But I moved on and this was I sang this all across Antarctica and going to the South Pole was me starting again a new life. I was feeling good and a new start for me and this record means.

Ann Daniels29:16

The world to me.

Speaker 329:18

It's a new life for me, yeah. It's a new dawn, it's a new day.

Speaker 329:24

New life for me

Speaker 329:27

Ooh, woo woo.

Speaker 329:31

And I'm feeling good.

Speaker 329:40

Fishing to see You know how I feel

Presenter29:47

Nina, Simone, and Feeling Good. Yours is a it's a remarkable personal journey as you've described it, and um inevitably though, among these extraordinary triumphs there's been disappointment. You were forced to abandon your solo walk from Russia. That was back in two thousand five. What tell us what happened?

Ann Daniels30:03

Um well in two thousand and five um

Ann Daniels30:06

I put together the solo because no woman has ever walked from land to the North Pole. And I arrived in Russia and set off, and there were two other expeditions doing different things on the ice. And we kept going. And then on day 21, I had a call from Ian Wesley, my base manager, and he said, Anne, I have to tell you, the Russians are removing the permits, and they're pulling you off, and they're pulling every expedition off the ice. You'll be out.

Presenter30:33

And um it is of course still in your sights given the sort of character that you are. You're planning a second attempt uh later. Is it springtime this year?

Ann Daniels30:41

I am planning a second attempt. At the moment there is still the other sponsorship problem that I am really battling against, but I want to leave at the end of February and set off from Canada and make the solo attempt. No woman has ever done it, and I feel I am the woman to bring it back to Britain.

Presenter30:59

Let's talk about money because of course there's a reason why it is um the the the privilege of a certain type of person adventure and exploration, and that's because it takes a lot of cash. It does take a lot of cash.

Ann Daniels31:11

It's very difficult. And our last exhibition, the two thousand two exhibition, got six million pounds worth of tracked coverage. It's getting over that concept and actually getting people to believe in you and back you. And you can't do these things without backing. Tell me about your rates record.

Ann Daniels31:27

And my eighth record is sometimes out of sort of disasters great things happen and what happened out of my disastrous sort of breakup of a marriage was that I met a wonderful man, a wonderful man who I now share my life with and this record is just the way he is and it's Oranoco Flow by Enya and it's me and him together in a wonderful way.

Speaker 331:52

Let me say it, let me say it, that they wore a knock of home Let me read it, let me be hitchhik The shoes are tripping Let me say it, let me say it that they crash up on your shoe Let me read it, let me be it for the other side

Presenter32:22

Enya and Orinoco flow. Um I imagine that being on a desert island doesn't hold too many horrors for you, given what you've confronted in terms of uh nature. We do, of course, give you Anne the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. You're allowed to take another book. What would you take?

Ann Daniels32:38

I'd like to take the worst journey in the world, because then I can dream of polar adventures.

Presenter32:46

And what about

Ann Daniels32:46

Yeah.

Presenter32:46

Your luxury because I I mean, you're used to not having luxury. Do would you eat

Ann Daniels32:50

Even want a luxury.

Presenter32:51

Uh

Ann Daniels32:51

I want a bar of soap to keep clean because that's what I always wanted when I was in the Arctic and the Antarctic: washing.

Presenter32:59

Yeah.

Ann Daniels32:59

And

Presenter32:59

And if um the waves were to crash to the shore and threaten to wash away these disks that you've taken to your desert island, which one would you run to save?

Ann Daniels33:08

I would run to save Eurythmics and Sweet Dreams just because of the whole package of Annie Lennox and the song and just dreaming and everything's going to be wonderful. Anne Daniels, thank you very much for letting us see you Desert Island Discs. Thank you. It's been a wonder and a pleasure.

Presenter33:32

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

Speaker 334:23

Uh