Felicity Green

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:33

My castaway this week is Felicity Green, the first woman on the board of a national newspaper. She has blazed a trail and cut a dash for over fifty years. Her early byline was Felicity Greene on the fashion scene, and as Hemlines headed north in the early sixties she hit her stride on Fleet Street, making her reputation at the mirror with, among other things, a reader's offer for a pink gingham mini dress and matching headscarf. They shifted more than seventeen thousand, proving to her sceptical bosses that she at once had her finger on the pulse and her other hand on the purse strings. She says until the nineteen sixties, young women copied their mothers. There was nothing else available. Now, nobody wants to look like an old lady, including old ladies. Do you aim, I wonder Felicity Greene, to be um fashionable or to be stylish?

Felicity Green1:26

I've never been fashionable. I think fashion needs to be followed at a very, very respectful distance. One of my heroines, fashion heroines, was Jean Muir, and Jean Muir dresses were practically invisible. They were expert dressmaking, designing. No one ever said, What a wonderful dress. They always said, Goodness, you look lovely. My blueprint for fashion was to be simple and stylish. Don't follow the latest fashion. You'll look soppy in a puffball skirt next year.

Presenter1:59

You look super stylish to day yourself. You're wearing a wonderful pair of dark rimmed glasses, very specifically circular, some beautifully crafted clip on earrings, and this fabulous sweater. I've never seen anybody manage to make a rolled neck look quite so chic. Um you've always had an eye, have you?

Felicity Green2:16

Yes, I think I inherited it from my mother, who had a very kind of difficult life. She never could indulge herself. I think she first introduced me to minimalism. Don't try too hard. Just make do with your looks. I'm very short. I'm I'm now five feet exactly. And I don't try and make an impact with fashion. I think for me and for quite a lot of women, just make yourself look your best. And honestly, simplicity is the best watchword.

Presenter2:49

So st

Felicity Green2:49

Yeah.

Presenter2:49

Well is always utmost in your mind, but you have had to succumb to the reality of a stair lift. Um, I understand. But you have customized your stair lift.

Felicity Green2:58

My Stana's stairlift is wonderful. I had to sign a letter of indemnity that if it caught fire it was my fault, not Stanna. And I got some fabric I'd had from Paris, oh, I don't know, twenty years. It's a black and grey zebra stripe, which is wonderfully smart and everybody admires it. And the engineering up the stairs I could choose between peach, pale blue or cream. And I said I wanted black. They nearly fainted and said if I changed my mind once they'd painted it black.

Speaker 43:31

Yeah.

Presenter3:31

Yeah.

Presenter3:35

Yeah.

Felicity Green3:37

I would have to pay for redoing it and it would be a thousand pounds.

Presenter3:41

It's an interesting illustration of the fact that the expectation is that when people reach a certain age, and you yourself now are in your mid eighties, that somehow all of those aesthetic things that the rest of society cares about just pass them by, that a pair of beige slacks in a beige world is just fine.

Felicity Green3:57

I'm a very, very visually orientated person. I love looking at beautiful things, beautiful people.

Felicity Green4:06

Beautiful vistas somewhere in the world. I don't know how old I'll be when I die, but I'm not going to be wearing beige all the time. Let's have some.

Presenter4:14

Music, then, Felicity. Tell me about your first piece to day. What why have you chosen this?

Felicity Green4:19

Well, this is really quite late in my life. I think the great exciting period of my life was my twenty-one years on the Daily Mirror. And I was a woman among men, and I hope I earned their respect, and we became really good friends. And at the end of a very hard-working day on the mirror, about ten of us used to go to a restaurant called Joe Allen's, and there was a wonderful pianist there, Jimmy, and we used to stand round the piano and sing. And then we could each choose our favourite songs. And my favourite song was They're Playing Songs of Love, but not for me. And now he doesn't see very well, so he doesn't see me coming in, and I still go there. So I give him a cuddle, and he recognises my voice, and he plays They're Playing Songs of Love, but not for me.

Speaker 45:11

I was a fool to fall and you get that weight.

Speaker 45:17

High-hole alas.

Speaker 45:20

Also like a day Although I can't dismiss the memory of his kiss, I guess he never had eyes for me

Presenter5:40

That was Dinah Washington and but not for me. So, Felicity Green, you were associate editor first at the Sunday Mirror, then the Daily Mirror. I'm wondering about the board meetings. You know, as you looked round the table there would be a grey suit, maybe a darker suit, then another grey suit, then a blue suit, then another grey suit.

Felicity Green5:57

And then there would be you.

Felicity Green5:59

Well, my mentor at the Daily Mirror was a wonderful man called Hugh Cudlip. He was as near to an editorial genius as I have ever encountered. And he sent for me one Friday. I'd been on the Mirror about fourteen years and said, I want you in my office on Monday morning at nine o'clock. And I thought, I think he's going to fire me, but give me a lot of money to go. He introduced the subject immediately and said, Right, as from two weeks' time you're going to be a director on the main board.

Felicity Green6:31

We need somebody like you.

Felicity Green6:33

who strange and unexpected things.

Presenter6:36

And how much did they listen to what Hugh had to say? Did they have the same enthusiasm as Hugh Cudlip for

Presenter6:42

appreciating that you were bringing something literally to the table, to the boardroom table, that was what they needed at that point.

Felicity Green6:48

I think, quite honestly, it took them time. I mean, the Mirror was selling five million copies a day, with an overlap at the Times at one end, and readers who could hardly read at the other. So you really cut a path for mass communication. So I think they appreciated my journalistic abilities. I'm not sure they greeted me with the greatest confidence. But honestly, Kirsty, when you deal with men in situations like I did, you learn how to deal with them. Please believe me, the moment I decided to wear skirts, I had a much easier time. They did not like women in trousers.

Presenter7:32

The skirt. Do you think that was uh I mean, did they just like your legs in a in a mini skirt or did they think it was

Felicity Green7:37

Do I do think it was Perth?

Presenter7:38

Dua.

Felicity Green7:38

I just think they liked girls in skirts. And you know, they used to wear a tie saying I am a chauvinist pig that they thought was a huge joke, so I had to pretend I thought it was a huge joke.

Presenter7:38

I just

Presenter7:41

Uh

Speaker 47:41

Yeah.

Presenter7:51

That time in Fleet Street was very it was a hard drinking culture. I mean, when typically w was the first, I don't know, glass of wine poured or the first whisky enjoyed in a day?

Felicity Green8:01

Well

Felicity Green8:02

It was a wash with Booze. It was a wash. Every semi senior executive had a refrigerator in his office full of drink, and they would open the bottles after the morning news conference. And then

Felicity Green8:19

Most of them, if not all of them, went out to lunch and had a lot to drink.

Felicity Green8:26

And then at about two o'clock, as far as I remember, a whole new team came in, who took over, because, frankly, everybody from the morning session was not up to it.

Presenter8:38

And did you take part in the hard drinking culture?

Felicity Green8:40

No, never, never, never. I decided very early on that I was not going to join the girls who were joining the boys. I saw too many girls

Presenter8:42

Yeah.

Felicity Green8:50

Incapable and drunk. And I remember when the chairman, who had been an alcoholic and was now.

Felicity Green8:58

Teeturtle issued an edict of which nobody took any notice, saying there will be no drinking in the Daily Mirror office at any time.

Felicity Green9:08

And one of the people at the conference said, Well, as from next Monday, there'll only be two people in the building, the Chairman and Felicity Greene.

Presenter9:18

Let's have some more music, Felicity Green. What are we gonna hear now? We're on discrimber two.

Felicity Green9:23

I loved dancing and I had broken my knee 15 years ago, which had been badly mended three times, and I haven't been able to dance. And somebody brought me Buena Vista Social Club, and I suddenly found, to my amazement, I was dancing. I got up in my living room and I started to dance. And I think, if I have this on my desert island, I'll be dancing.

Speaker 19:50

Ya al procero vo y para má cane, y vo a puesto vo y para mállí.

Speaker 110:02

Diando serro voji para ma cane, ye vo a puesto voj para ma yarí.

Speaker 110:14

Die loser voice para marcane, Que vo a puerto vo y para mallamir.

Presenter10:20

The Buena Vista Social Club and Chan Chan. So, Felicity Green, it was nineteen twenty six, the year you were born, and you were brought up in in Dagenham, in Essex. Uh how did your mum and dad get on?

Felicity Green10:34

Not very well. Um my mother was totally deaf, and my father was impatient, and the only way my mother could communicate was lip reading.

Felicity Green10:46

So I learnt to speak very clearly and very slowly.

Presenter10:51

And you were an only child.

Felicity Green10:52

I was an only child, and my role was to make peace between the two of them from an age I can't remember when I started. I'm three I should think. My father had a terrible temper, and my mother was always trying to persuade him

Felicity Green11:10

you know, not to ruin the family, not to spend money we didn't have. He was generous to everybody except us. We had a very, very poverty stricken life.

Felicity Green11:22

So it was a difficult time for me. Did that make you feel nervous or insecure or? It made me feel insecure. It did make me feel insecure. We lived in Dagenham.

Presenter11:27

But what a

Felicity Green11:33

We were the only Jewish family in Dugenham as far as I can remember. Um I didn't like being Jewish. You know, a child always wants to be like the other children, and I wasn't like the other children.

Presenter11:46

And you had this family ritual. You you and your father would go religiously every week to the cinema.

Felicity Green11:49

Religiously

Felicity Green11:51

Oh yes. My mother would go to the East End to buy kosher food because she came from a very orthodox family. And my father and I used to go to the pictures. Um we used to go to two cinemas where they had a double feature film. So every week on a Thursday my father and I went to the pictures and I became at that age a dedicated, devoted film fan which I still am.

Presenter12:19

And were you when you were going to the cinema with your dad, were you looking at the outfits that the actresses were wearing? Were you sort of modelling yourself on a certain look of the time?

Felicity Green12:27

I think I must have been, but I always was wearing something extremely simple. I used to draw my clothes, and we had a fish shop on one side, and a barber shop on the other side of our shoe shop in Dugenham.

Felicity Green12:42

And the barber's wife was a dressmaker, and so I would take my sketches to Mabel, and Mabel would make my clothes for me, and I reckon I could wear them now.

Presenter12:53

Let's have some more music, then. What are we going to hear now, Felicity Green?

Felicity Green12:57

One of my father's virtues was he had a lovely singing voice, and he used to sing this song to me, in fact to anybody who'd listened.

Speaker 413:07

By the light.

Speaker 413:10

Of the Silvery Moon.

Speaker 413:13

I want to spoon

Speaker 413:17

To my honey I'll croon Loves to Honeymoon

Speaker 413:24

Keep her shining in June

Speaker 413:28

Your silvery beams will bring love's dreams We'll be cuddling soon

Speaker 413:34

Uh

Speaker 413:35

By the Silvery Moon

Presenter13:38

Doris Day, and by the light of the silvery moon never mind dancing to the last track, Felicity, you looked as if you were almost out of your chair to that one, too.

Felicity Green13:46

I was a keen dancer from the age of four, and that's one that gets me going every time I listen to it.

Presenter13:53

So you learned to dance, you were a shy little girl, and your parents wanted what for you?

Felicity Green14:00

My mother was ambitious for me. She wanted me to be a shorthand typist and then a private secretary to a very important, nice man.

Felicity Green14:12

My mother felt I had to learn shorthand typing. What do you

Presenter14:17

Yeah.

Felicity Green14:17

Were you good at shape?

Presenter14:17

Don't

Felicity Green14:18

Got hand

Presenter14:18

Do you?

Felicity Green14:19

I have to impress you, Kirsty. I went to Pittman's College and I have at home listen to this.

Felicity Green14:27

A certificate for two hundred and forty words a minute, which you can hardly speak two hundred and forty words a minute. It's absolutely impossible to speak. But I got a certificate for that. It was really almost impossible.

Presenter14:39

And how was your typing?

Felicity Green14:41

I was the worst pupil Pittmans had ever had, and I still am the worst typist. And it's terrible'cause being a sub editor I have to go back and correct everything. I'm a terrible typist.

Presenter14:53

When did you begin to think that journalism was an interesting profession?

Felicity Green14:57

Much later, much later. I discovered a magazine called Woman and Beauty. It was so far in advance of its time. This was in

Presenter14:58

The fluff.

Felicity Green15:07

the early fifties. And while other magazines were doing knitting patterns to make an egg cosy for Christmas, she was doing virginity, frigidity, relationships, mental problems. I mean, it was amazing.

Felicity Green15:24

And I thought I want to work for this magazine, and so I wrote her a letter, and I got a reply Will you come and see the editor, Phyllis Digby Moreton, next Monday morning?

Felicity Green15:35

And I went to see her and she talked to me for quite a long time, and then she said, I'm going to give you a job.

Felicity Green15:43

You're going to walk the dog and make the fire we had coal fires in those days.

Felicity Green15:49

Until you are ready to do something better.

Presenter15:53

And working then in this office, I'm imagining it it was probably quite a glamorous place to work, was it? Oh no.

Felicity Green15:59

It wasn't. In those days it was not glamorous. And my job walking this bloody dog that never wanted to go for a walk and I had to drag it. I used to pick it up so nobody knew I was dragging him.

Presenter15:59

Blue.

Felicity Green16:11

But I looked and I learned and it took me very little time to know. A, I wanted to be a journalist and B I wanted to write about fashion.

Presenter16:20

Let's have some more music for now. Tell me what we're going to hear now, Felicity. We're on our fourth track today.

Felicity Green16:25

This was the first musical I remember going to, and when we came out and I was drunk with pleasure and sadness.

Felicity Green16:33

The gentleman we were with said, This is ridiculous. It'll close in two weeks. You can't make a musical about such a sad, sad story. Well, everybody knows what happened to Westside's story. I think for me the most emotional one in this very emotional story is There's a Place for Us, because we all know there isn't.

Speaker 416:55

God bless for us.

Speaker 416:59

What time and place are lost Hold my hand and we're halfway there

Felicity Green17:05

And we

Speaker 417:08

Oh, my hand and I came here somehow, somewhere.

Presenter17:24

That was Marnie Nixon and Jim Bryant, and somewhere from the original soundtrack of Westside Story by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. So, Felicity Green, we know that your first job then in publishing was at Women and Beauty magazine. These magazines, of course, there are uh there's a proliferation of them today on every newsstand, selling women an ideal that, you know, we can never really possibly live up to. And it's so seductive to us all. Indeed, on one occasion I understand you were called to give the Prime Minister's wife a home perm. Oh, God.

Felicity Green17:55

Yes, that's what happened. Who was it? That was the most extraordinary thing. I was working for Phillis Digby Moreton. She said to me, Will you come to dinner? We're giving a dinner for Harold Wilson at that time was head of the Board of Trade and his wife Mary, and we'd love you to join us for dinner. Well, I was deeply honoured. I couldn't imagine why, but thank you. I would love it. And then she said, I'd like you to give Mary.

Presenter17:55

That's what happened. Who was absolutely?

Felicity Green18:22

Harold's wife, a home perm. What? I'd never given anybody a home perm except myself, and it was a bit of a risk. To say I was frightened is nothing like the tr I was terrified. And I can remember going into the bathroom and opening this box which was made of recycled cardboard in those days, and vividly I can see it now inside the lid. It said, In case of emergency, phone Kingston.

Felicity Green18:54

Fortunately I didn't have to, and the poem was wonderful, and she wrote me a poem to thank me, and I've lost it, which is really, really sad.

Presenter19:03

You mentioned earlier Hugh Cudlip, this legendary figure on Fleet Street. He was the youngest ever editor of the Sunday Mirror, just twenty four. What sort of advice did he give you? What was it about his editorial judgment that was so spot on?

Felicity Green19:16

Well, he was the best tabloid journalist ever, and he created a mirror with real excitement and also, for me, a social conscience. We cared about people. We tried to make the government operate in a sympathetic, sensible, successful way. It was like working for

Felicity Green19:39

I don't know. It's a cross between a striptease artist and a priest. I mean, it really did everything for me in the right way.

Presenter19:47

Let's go to disc number five, then, Felicity. Tell me why you've chosen this and tell me what it is.

Felicity Green19:52

Record number five. Well, I was on the Mirror when the Beatles were born and they went from nowhere to everywhere. But along the way, the Mirror was doing one of their amazing promotions, fun and important. And I can remember one day in the news conference, Hugh Cundip said to me, Who are these debutantes that keep having balls? We're going to give a daily Mirror ball. We're going to give a ball for the char ladies of Britain.

Felicity Green20:22

And that's what we did. Our cabaret was Silla Black, Singing Shout, and the Beatles.

Speaker 420:36

Oh yeah

Speaker 420:38

Tell you something.

Speaker 420:40

I think you'll understand.

Speaker 420:43

Can I say that something?

Speaker 420:47

I wanna hold your hand

Speaker 420:52

What a hold on

Speaker 420:55

I wanna hold your hand.

Presenter20:58

The Beatles, and I want to hold your hand. So this pink gingham mini dress, then, Felicity Green, it was a reader's offer in the Daily Mirror. Um people were allowed to buy it for just a few quid.

Speaker 121:06

Uh

Presenter21:09

You thought you might say

Felicity Green21:11

Sell how many? I thought we'd sell three thousand. And so Barbara and her husband Fitz ordered enough pink gingham to make three thousand. And this is Barbara Hoolinicki who's

Presenter21:21

Barbara Hoolini.

Felicity Green21:23

She invented Biba. I mean, it wasn't there yet. But when the dress came in, I was so absolutely smitten by it, I decided to do it big. And I was sent for by the advertising director and Hugh Cudlip to say we're worried about this foreign person you're giving all this space to in the Daily Mirror.

Presenter21:23

See

Felicity Green21:45

How do you know she won't run off with Alrida's money? and I said with rather more confidence than was justified, I know she won't run off with the money, and if she does, I'll replace it. I think I was earning twenty pounds a week at that time.

Presenter21:59

And this extraordinary moment, I suppose, when when people at the Mirror thought, Well, here you you know, this is I said in the introduction, somebody with their their finger on the pulse. In a way they they knew that you were good at what you were doing, but they didn't really understand what you were doing, which is so sort of representative of exactly what was happening in Britain at that moment.

Felicity Green22:19

Absolutely. It was an explosion in every sense of the word.

Presenter22:23

And you yourself, apart from working hard, I I'm wondering were were you partaking of Swinging London? I mean, were you out in the clubs, were you wearing the mini skirts, were you having fun?

Felicity Green22:31

I was wearing mini skirts, and we went to lots of clubs, and the fashion scene was so exciting, and I went to all the new little boutiques in Carnaby Street. For me, it was the most exciting thing, not only in my life, but in the world's life, Britain's life. So there you were making

Presenter22:50

These great strides forward in Fleet Street at the same time that abortion was being legalised, the pill was starting to be widely available. And this is the same time that Larry Lamb, who's the the editor of The Sun, is introducing Page Three Girls into The Sun. It was a curious time, wasn't it, when those two things were going on, you know, apparently contradictory in Britain.

Felicity Green23:14

Well, I don't think they were contradictory. I think they were complementary. You do? Oh, I do. I mean, I don't believe women were one or the other at that time. So many of them were embracing the new ideas, meanwhile wearing their mini skirts, meanwhile being modern women.

Felicity Green23:31

The mirror embraced all those important social uh changes in women's lives.

Presenter23:37

For all its sort of political correctness at the time though, i isn't it the case that you were being paid significantly less than the men you were working with?

Felicity Green23:44

Oh, it was a really sad I'd been a director for five years. I discovered that I was earning 14,000 a year and the new director was on 28. And I was so outraged at this that I thought, I don't want to be here. This is not right. And I'd been offered a job for about the last ten years by Vidar Sassoon, whom I'd known since we were both about 18. So I phoned him up and said, If you want me to go and work for you, I'll come.

Presenter24:14

You must

Felicity Green24:15

Uh

Presenter24:15

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Felicity Green24:16

Felt so insulted by that. I was insulted. I was really insulted. But I didn't tell them. What for?

Felicity Green24:24

Uh

Presenter24:24

What for? Let's have some more music then. Tell me what we're going to hear. Uh we're going to listen to disc number six now, Felicity. What's this?

Felicity Green24:32

Well, what's next is Pergolazi's Stubbat Martyr. I've been a film fan all my life, I always will be, and I went to see a French Canadian film about which I remember nothing.

Felicity Green24:47

But I remembered this piece of music, and every time I listen to it it raises my spirits, and I think two female voices, when they're wonderful, singing together, have a special thrill for me.

Speaker 425:35

All sweetly dream.

Presenter25:55

Per Golesi's setting of the Stubbat Mutter with June Anderson and Jegilia Bartele, and the Sinfonetta of Montreal conducted by Charles Dutroy.

Presenter26:03

You were married then, Felicity Greene, for around about forty years, to Geoffrey. Was he was he always very relaxed about this very high powered career that you had?

Felicity Green26:13

He was more than relaxed. He was.

Felicity Green26:16

unfailingly proud and supportive. He gave up work where he was in the cigar business and he spent the rest of his life he died nineteen years ago looking after me. I mean there are husbands who resent a successful wife. There was never a trace of resentment. It was total support and amusement and he was just a wonderful husband.

Presenter26:42

You said a very poignant thing after he died. You said you said that you've got plenty of people to do something with, but there's no one with whom you can do nothing.

Felicity Green26:51

Well, for me that's totally true. It was true when he died, and it's been true ever since. In fact, I'm now incredibly busy, and I value time on my own. But at the beginning I wasn't very good at it.

Presenter27:04

And you never had children with Geoffrey, is that?

Felicity Green27:06

No, I this is a confession. I never wanted children, absolutely not. I just didn't enjoy my own childhood. I didn't see any point. I wasn't sure I'd make a good mother. I no, no. And I had my job, which filled my life. And that was fine. I never regretted that. What has happened to me now is as

Felicity Green27:27

cross between a comedy and a tragedy. I miss having grandchildren so badly I can hardly bear it. When I'm with friends of my age or even younger,

Felicity Green27:36

and they either produce the grandchildren or photographs of these wonderful children. I can hardly prevent crying. So, I mean, there's nothing I can do about this, but I find it tragic and amusing. I mean, honestly, what was I up to?

Presenter27:50

I wonder, though, do you think that this very demanding, high-power career that you had at the time?

Presenter27:58

At the time of your life that you had that career, do you think it would have been possible with children, or do you think inevitably being a mother would have taken over?

Felicity Green28:05

I can't answer that question because I was never convinced I would be a good mother.

Felicity Green28:12

And I'm still not entirely convinced I would have been a good mother.

Presenter28:16

Why, what do you think it is about you that might have made you a bad mother?

Felicity Green28:21

I reckoned.

Felicity Green28:23

Being responsible for another person's happiness and future.

Felicity Green28:28

I just think I couldn't handle it. I just believed I didn't have enough within me to hand on to a child.

Presenter28:36

What about your parents then and what they made of your life? Were they very proud of your career and your success?

Felicity Green28:43

Well

Felicity Green28:44

My father never really knew about my career because he died much, much earlier than my mother. My mother was so intensely proud of me, I thought she would burst. I was her life. I mean, I was just everything she lived for, all my life. and all her life.

Presenter29:02

Yeah. We're on disc number seven, Felicity. Tell me what you've chosen and why you've chosen it.

Felicity Green29:07

Well, I've been a Barbara Streisand fan ever since her first musical in New York. But the record I've chosen is something that for me combines all my enthusiasms. It's the film again called The Way We Were. And it was Barbara Streisand at her most Streisand best, and opposite Robert Redford. If you're after beauty, they don't come more beautiful than Robert Redford as a naval officer in his naval whites.

Speaker 429:41

like the cornels of my mind

Speaker 429:51

Misty water colour man breathing of the way we were.

Presenter30:06

That was Barbara Streisand and the way we were. So, Felicity Greene, this career of yours has taken in, as you mentioned, Vidal Sassoon. You worked at the Telegraph, you worked at various magazines. You were also a a lecturer at St Martin's College for many years. You're back there again at the moment. I I wonder how close you can possibly feel. I'm thinking of the age gap between you and your students. It must be, I don't know, what about sixty years between you and the people that you're teaching? Yes. Is there a generation gap that matters, or do you not really know?

Felicity Green30:32

Yeah.

Speaker 430:33

Uh

Speaker 130:33

Oh.

Felicity Green30:38

Well, um, all I can say is I'm eighty four years old. I don't feel eighty four years old. And some days I don't even look eighty four years old. So no, I don't think there will be a gap.

Presenter30:51

And the Viennae as well. Not not interested in your dresses, which I'm sure are splendid, but but very much interested in your writing.

Felicity Green30:57

Well, what happened was they heard about my Daily Mirror Cuttings books, and they're a pile as high as I am, and looking through them they're quite extraordinary. Anyway, somebody told somebody at the V and A, and they would like them for their archive.

Felicity Green31:14

And

Felicity Green31:15

I'm very thrilled about that, as you can imagine. I mean, it's a lovely thing to happen. Are you still writing now? No, I actually stopped writing. I always loathed writing. I was a very prolific writer. I'm a very fast writer, and I can only write long hand. But I've always hated writing, and a number of people, kind people, have said you've got to write a book. I absolutely have no intention ever of writing a book. I can't think it will probably sell two and a half thousand copies if I'm lucky. Writing for pleasure or publication. No, not now, not ever.

Presenter31:50

And so this very busy life that you still have, when I cast you away on to the desert island, do you think you'll be glad of a a little rest and relaxation? Top.

Felicity Green31:58

I think I'll hate it.

Felicity Green32:00

and I'll look for passing boats in case somebody lifts me off this island. But I'll do my best. I will do my best, and I've got lovely music to listen to. For neither Felicity Green

Presenter32:11

Tell me about

Felicity Green32:12

But the final piece of music.

Presenter32:13

We're gonna hear today.

Felicity Green32:13

Well, the final piece of music reminds me of my husband, because when we had friends to supper, I was writing a cookery column, among other things, and I became a really good cook, simple cook, like my clothes, very simple. And Geoffrey used to do the washing up, and I used to go to bed, and I used to listen to him, because while he was doing the washing up, this was the piece of music that he always played. So I went to sleep listening to

Felicity Green32:47

Spring, and I can hear Geoffrey clashing the plates.

Presenter33:49

The opening of spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, played by Guidon Cramer with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abado. So I'm going to give you the books, now Felicity Green, the Bible, and the complete works of Shakespeare. The other book's going to be what? What are you going to take?

Felicity Green34:04

Well, I am a Sondheim fan, and a book has just been published. It's called Finishing the Hat, and it's all Sondheim's lyrics. I would love that book because every time I read his lyrics I can hear the music in my head. So that's my book. It weighs a ton.

Presenter34:24

Yeah.

Felicity Green34:25

Right, it's yours and a luxury.

Felicity Green34:27

Well

Felicity Green34:28

Could I have a reincarnation of my black standard poodle?

Presenter34:32

No

Felicity Green34:33

No, I didn't think you would let me. Okay. So what I've got my flat is full of pictures and sculptures, and I would like to take one with me that is my favourite, and it's by Giles Penny.

Presenter34:35

Okay.

Felicity Green34:47

And it's about eighteen inches high, and it's two men on a bench. It it's in bronze. And every time I pass them, I stroke their heads. It's yours then.

Presenter34:58

And if you had to choose just one of the eight discs that you've had today, which one would it be?

Felicity Green35:03

Well, I think it has to be the Buena Vista Social Club, because its memories are so poignant for me. If I have that one with me I'll keep moving to music until my boat comes home.

Presenter35:14

It's yours. Felicity Green, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you, Kirsty. I've enjoyed every minute.

Felicity Green35:21

Yeah.

Presenter35:58

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash radio four.