Mollie Lee

Mollie Lee0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Speaker 10:08

Now, Molly, your childhood was spent in the North Downs, in Kent.

Speaker 10:11

As a girl, what did you want to be?

Mollie Lee0:13

A writer. Always a writer. Yeah.

Speaker 10:14

Oh, it's a red.

Speaker 10:16

You went to London University. What did you read?

Mollie Lee0:20

Uh well, I didn't in the technical sense read for a degree because I rather bitched everything up by being rebellious in the sixth form, refusing to go to university at all. So I went out to earn my living, realized I'd made a mistake, couldn't get any money and managed to borrow enough to do a two-year course in journalism, which at that time was being done at London University.

Speaker 10:38

Yeah.

Mollie Lee0:40

Um

Mollie Lee0:42

Don't know whether it helped me with journalism at all. I did do an apprenticeship on the Chatham Observer.

Mollie Lee0:48

But it gave me a great bonus in that I had a spare subject.

Mollie Lee0:52

And for that spare subject I took Russian and went to the School of Sphonic Studies. And that has been for me one of the great joys of my life, since two of the loves in my life have been.

Speaker 10:56

Here.

Mollie Lee1:01

France and Russia.

Speaker 11:03

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 11:04

You were already attracted to the Slav culture. You you had already got to love the Russian authors.

Mollie Lee1:09

Yes, yes, I'd got to love the Russian authors.

Mollie Lee1:12

Goodness knows how. I mean, how does uh a peasant child in the North Downs get to love A?

Mollie Lee1:19

the Gallic culture and B the Slav culture. I don't know, but I did get to love them both.

Speaker 11:24

Yes.

Speaker 11:25

And after you will have that chatham paper?

Mollie Lee1:30

I read a book?

Mollie Lee1:31

A book about the country.

Speaker 11:32

Yes. A novel?

Mollie Lee1:33

Yes, a novel.

Speaker 11:35

Was it a success?

Mollie Lee1:37

I don't know what success means in this context. It had extremely good reviews, and if it doesn't sound arrogant, all my books have had extremely good reviews. But of course one doesn't make money out of novels, one writes them for love.

Mollie Lee1:50

But to get back to my somewhat unsensational career, I then married and, as you know, in the thirties

Mollie Lee1:57

Nobody could get a job, let alone a married woman, so I simply stayed at home. I did a few freelance jobs, and not till the war did I get a job, and that's when I went into the BBC.

Speaker 12:05

Yes.

Speaker 12:07

And at last you were going to be able to use those Slavonic statics.

Mollie Lee2:07

Uh

Mollie Lee2:10

Well, I did because I went into there was no Russian service at the time, but there was what was known to the BBC as a Balkan service, which was in fact Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria. And that was the section I went into since I knew a bit about East Europe.

Speaker 12:21

Um

Speaker 12:24

Yes. And during the war this must have been very exciting, feeling of underground radio.

Mollie Lee2:28

It was rather it got extremely exciting at the end of the war when one by one the capitals of East Europe were liberated. So one day the Yugoslavs were having a party and then the Romanians would have a party and the Hungarians would have a party because their capitals were liberated.

Mollie Lee2:46

And then there were the Bulgarians. Now I may have got the chronology wrong here because it's such a long time ago, but the essence of this is true. For some reason, it seems to me, Sofia hung fire. It didn't get liberated. And my boss said to me, and I was doing the Bulgarian bulletin that evening, he said, look, Molly, we've got to get them to liberate themselves. Write a powerful piece.

Mollie Lee3:07

So I wrote a powerful piece calling on them to rise up and liberate themselves and blow me down. They did it that very night. No, I refuse to believe that's coincidence. Oh, you know.

Speaker 13:16

Oh, you would never know.

Mollie Lee3:17

Yeah.

Speaker 13:18

Now, when the Russian service started the BBC Russian service started after the war, you transferred from the the Balkan service.

Speaker 13:25

Wasn't this all a a little bit edgy, putting out propaganda to an ally?

Mollie Lee3:31

Yes, it was. Yes, it was.

Mollie Lee3:33

It was an unknown thing to do. Uh one anticipated a great many difficulties and of course over the years there were because there became the jamming difficulties and all that sort of thing. To me it was an absolute joy because quite suddenly one met

Speaker 13:43

Yeah.

Mollie Lee3:48

emigres who had had nothing to do since the revolution, and here they were, at last they were wanted.

Speaker 13:55

Mm-hmm. And I suppose you got virtually no response. I mean, you you weren't getting mail to any considerable extent.

Mollie Lee4:01

No, not at the beginning.

Speaker 14:02

So it's rather like broadcasting into a void.

Mollie Lee4:03

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14:05

How long did you stay with the Russian service?

Mollie Lee4:07

I suppose it was about three years.

Speaker 14:09

Okay.

Mollie Lee4:10

And then I went into what is known as centre desk. In other words, I wrote news instead of editing news.

Speaker 14:14

Yeah.

Speaker 14:15

and Center Desk covers all the external services.

Mollie Lee4:18

At that time it covered all the European services. Nowadays it would cover world services.

Speaker 14:22

Yes.

Speaker 14:24

Or then you decided to move in into into calmer waters, or were they?

Speaker 14:28

To woman's eye.

Mollie Lee4:29

Yes, they were calmer, really. They were calmer.

Speaker 14:32

And that was fourteen years ago.

Mollie Lee4:33

Hmm.

Speaker 14:34

When did you first go to Russia, Molly?

Mollie Lee4:35

Well, I went to Moscow twice during my time on Woman's Art. Once I did a programme by myself.

Mollie Lee4:42

And the next time I went for a fortnight to do a whole woman's art there recorded with a colleague, Theresa McGonagall, who most people will know.

Speaker 14:51

Yeah.

Mollie Lee4:51

And it was most interesting and during that time I had the very great joy. One of the things that I thanked the BBC for was that I was able to visit

Mollie Lee4:59

Tolstoy's estate, Jasnayopolyana, which is one of my cherished memories.

Speaker 15:04

So it hasn't all been studio work or hotels and some travelling about.

Mollie Lee5:05

No no no travelling about. I've done a lot of travelling for women though.

Speaker 15:10

What does Woman's Are try to do?

Mollie Lee5:13

Tries to make as close as possible a relationship with women throughout Britain. I think that's the nearest thing I can say. I don't think it.

Mollie Lee5:24

uh stands on a soapbox in campaigns in any sense.

Mollie Lee5:28

I think it tries, or it did when I was with it, to remember that women are people. They are not odd creatures in a ghetto. They are people and they have as many and varied interests as anyone else. And in fact, they ha we have.

Speaker 15:39

Yeah.

Mollie Lee5:41

In Woman's Hour we had so many men listeners that this was very heartening. It meant that we were in fact treating women as people.

Speaker 15:48

Where does it stand on women's lips?

Mollie Lee5:51

I think it approves of the less lunatic fringes of women's lab. I think it agrees that there is a lot in what they say that is entirely reasonable.

Speaker 15:56

Uh

Speaker 16:02

Yeah.

Mollie Lee6:02

I don't think it chucks its bras all over the place.

Speaker 16:04

And you've never been tempted to release your own revolutionary tendencies by

Speaker 16:08

Uh campaigning.

Mollie Lee6:10

No, I haven't. If I've done any campaigning at all, it has been anti-pollution, anti-overpopulation.

Mollie Lee6:19

Anti-

Mollie Lee6:20

too much technology, which I think is a very great danger at the

Speaker 16:23

At the moment. What have been the most controversial subjects?

Mollie Lee6:27

Uh sex education, I imagine, is one. That always gets a very um strong response, both pro and ante.

Mollie Lee6:36

Factory farming is one that gets women very hot around the collar. You know, battery hens and things like that.

Mollie Lee6:44

Uh and of course there is always a continuing sniping between the women who stay at home and say they want to stay at home and the women who go out to work and say they want to go out to work. Both sides snipe at the others.

Speaker 16:58

Now you worked hard in in in the BBC studio all day, put getting the programme on the air. Then you went home afterwards to look after your husband and and your daughter.

Mollie Lee7:06

Yeah, yes, that's right.

Speaker 17:07

And you found time to write some novels as well. How many is it now?

Mollie Lee7:11

Uh it's found.

Speaker 17:12

Yes. Most of them as Molly Hails.

Mollie Lee7:15

The first four is Molly Hills, the last one is Molly Lee.