Denise Robins

Speaker 10:00

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

Speaker 10:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy three.

Speaker 10:12

This is a recording as it was being broadcast, rather than the studio recording.

Speaker 10:17

and for that reason you may hear some interference, and some degradation in the sound quality.

Denise Robins0:28

As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:32

This week, our castaway is the romantic novelist, Denise Robbins.

Denise Robins0:37

How do you

Presenter0:37

Who react to a long isolation from the world in use?

Denise Robins0:41

I wouldn't like it at all because I don't like being alone. I really do so enjoy being with those I love, either family or friends.

Denise Robins0:50

I could hardly bear the idea of being sequestered forever.

Denise Robins0:54

But on the other hand, I would would try to make the best of it.

Presenter0:57

Can you think of any consolation, any one thing you'd be so happy to have got away from?

Denise Robins1:03

Well, perhaps from the everlasting question of money, the whole monetary system, always being asked to consider how much does it cost, how much should you save, how much will you want, will the prices freeze, will they unfreeze, the whole thing I find terribly boring and it'd be marvellous if I could go out and pick my coconut and not have to ask how much it is.

Denise Robins1:24

What was your guiding principle in choice?

Presenter1:26

Using just eight regular Yeah.

Denise Robins1:27

Yeah.

Denise Robins1:28

Oh, it all all tied up with nostalgia, with the things the the the type of of music that I've always loved, the themes that I've remember and that haunt me, and the things that would comfort me when I was alone.

Presenter1:41

What's the first one you've chosen?

Denise Robins1:43

I think air on this dream.

Denise Robins1:45

Which is to me one of the most beautiful things that Bach ever wrote.

Presenter2:50

Bars, air on the G-stream from Suite Number Three for Orchestra.

Presenter2:54

The Academy of Saint Martin in the field conducted by Neville Mariner.

Presenter2:59

Are you a musical person to need to play an instrument?

Denise Robins3:01

I don't play an instrument. I I think I I count myself

Denise Robins3:05

A very musical person because I'm the child of a musician and I was brought up with music.

Presenter3:11

Yes. Who was your husband?

Denise Robins3:12

My father was Hermann Kleind, who was quite in his day a famous

Denise Robins3:18

Teacher of singing, and he also

Denise Robins3:23

I was a music critic on the Sunday Times and the Manchester Guardian for ten years.

Denise Robins3:28

And I always think of him as sitting in his box in Covent Garden in all his glory with my mother, listening to the great Wagner operas, which he loved so much.

Denise Robins3:37

Unfortunately, that family broke up. My mother.

Denise Robins3:41

very romantically ran away, but it wasn't a very romantic affair for me because it meant a parting of the ways.

Denise Robins3:48

And it was one of the broken home themes which I so deplore.

Speaker 23:52

Yeah.

Denise Robins3:53

So I didn't have the chance to grow up with my beautiful father, but I still have fantastic recollections of my life with him when I was very young, especially when I was about four.

Denise Robins4:03

And uh my father was holding a studio party in his flat in Whitehall Court.

Denise Robins4:09

I never look at it without thinking of him. I passed it only to day.

Denise Robins4:13

And uh there was a little man with white hair.

Denise Robins4:17

Playing absolute fireworks on the piano and my nurse held my hand very tightly and she whispered to me, Denise, you must never forget the sight of this little man. His name is Padariski.

Speaker 24:29

Mm-hmm.

Denise Robins4:29

But apart from that, I only remember the scene and the voices that came from his studio, and then it was all blotted out because of the home breaking up.

Presenter4:39

Let's have your second record now. What should it be?

Denise Robins4:42

Well, I of course I am like my father a barbarian and I would rather love to hear Melchior singing Siden song to Valkyrie.

Speaker 25:30

I guess I still find it a cool

Speaker 25:35

Crossing its firm shall

Speaker 25:53

Yeah.

Presenter5:57

Loretz Milchio as sequenced in the first act of Wagner's Die Walker, the NBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Toscanini.

Presenter6:06

You talked about

Presenter6:08

Your parents separating.

Presenter6:10

You spent some years in the United States, didn't you, as a child?

Denise Robins6:13

Yes, because after the divorce of my parents my father took me and my two brothers to America.

Denise Robins6:20

And for three or four years I lived there.

Denise Robins6:23

with my uncle and went to school there and went to school in also in California.

Denise Robins6:30

But later on I came back to England and finished my education.

Denise Robins6:34

And once again I found myself amongst a lot of musicians and I played the piano just as any schoolgirl. I was not particularly good, but I could play from ear, which was rather annoying to my music teacher, but which has since then been a very great joy to me because I can generally play

Denise Robins6:51

I pick up a few tunes that I hear without having to get the music. You were then living with your mother? I had been sent back to my mother. Yes, now she was a writer, actually. She was a writer. She did quite a lot of stuff for women's magazines in her time. And I, as a child from about 12 upwards, used to type her manuscripts for her because we were all so poor in those days, she couldn't afford to have her stuff typed. And so I used to type it for her, and this gave me a tremendous feeling that I could do it, too.

Presenter7:19

What was the first thing of yours that you saw in print?

Denise Robins7:23

Oh, well, it was really rather um interesting because it was a very holy, spelt H-O-L-Y type of story in in a little magazine called Christian Novels, which I'd picked up off a station platform newsagent.

Denise Robins7:38

And I thought, well, I can do one of these. So I wrote it and sent it up, and it was actually taken and paid for. It was about 25,000 words. And they gave me 10 pounds, and I thought I was enormously rich. So that encouraged you to go. And that encouraged me to carry on and to write for different sorts of papers. Yes, you.

Presenter7:56

I were a reporter for a while, weren't you? You were a journalist?

Denise Robins7:59

Yes, I went up to Dundee and had a year on the Dundee Courier where I love journalism.

Denise Robins8:04

And also I was one of these writers who was handed impossible manuscripts and said, now do something with this. We can't print it as it is and we bought it, so you must make it so that we can print it. I learnt quite a lot by doing that.

Presenter8:19

I'm sure of it. Uh what was your first novel? When was that?

Denise Robins8:23

Ah, that was 1924 and quite a long time ago. What was it called? It was called Sealed Lip.

Denise Robins8:30

And uh it was a a a very much in love story. I don't think it d it it did particularly well, but it it made its way, sufficiently so so that my publisher said I was to do another one. And my third one really went down very well.

Presenter8:44

Yes, you will know I'm at it.

Denise Robins8:46

I was now married to a

Denise Robins8:48

man who'd been badly wounded in the First World War.

Denise Robins8:51

And for a time I had to help with the finances and so I turned my attention almost entirely to the type of romantic novel that I was able to sell and which I found that I could write.

Presenter9:03

If the money hadn't been essential, do you think you would have written differently?

Denise Robins9:07

I think I would have concentrated on history, especially if my mother had been able to afford to send me to a university, which in those days was quite impossible and there were no such things as grants. I just had to do without such an education. But I am very, very devoted to history. I have written six

Denise Robins9:25

historical novels, but they're not particularly good. I just think they're they're good enough. But I would like to have written something very terrific.

Presenter9:34

Well, there's still time. Let's have your third record.

Denise Robins9:37

Well, this time Rachmaninoff, the rhapsody on the theme of Paganini.

Denise Robins9:41

One of the loveliest accounts.

Presenter10:42

That well-known variation from Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini, Vladimir Askenazi with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrei Previn.

Presenter10:53

Now you tell us about writing your first novel, Denise. How many have you written altogether?

Denise Robins10:58

Well, I'm just on my 166th.

Presenter11:01

That's a lot of books, isn't it?

Denise Robins11:02

Yes, it does seem rather a lot, but I worked very hard when I was young. I generally pulled out four books a year.

Presenter11:10

Clears.

Presenter11:11

How emotionally involved do you feel with your characters? Do you suffer and rejoice with them when you write?

Denise Robins11:16

I'm too much involved. I've always been told so by my secretary. I find it very hard not to burst into tears at times. I feel the the the sufferings of my heroines and and the griefs of uh of those who are grieved in my books. I can't help feeling it, and maybe it's that which makes me write that kind of thing. You suffer with your heroines.

Presenter11:34

Her wins more than with your heroes.

Denise Robins11:35

Yes, I think I've got a great feeling for women and a feeling that they're not always treated as they should be treated by men, although I know the position can be reversed. But from the romantic point of view, it is the women who have, I think, the greatest sense of romance as a whole.

Presenter11:53

Do you write regular hours every day?

Denise Robins11:54

Right.

Presenter11:54

Yeah.

Denise Robins11:55

Yes, I do. I discipline myself very much like a man who goes to his office. I go into my study at half past eight.

Denise Robins12:02

I work until nine by myself, then my secretary arrives and I dictate and answer my letters.

Denise Robins12:09

You'll dictate your books as well. I dictate my books as well.

Presenter12:12

It's said that you're never at a loss for a word when you're dictating. The ideas flow.

Presenter12:18

Uh

Presenter12:19

A practical demonstration, Venice. You're going to write a romantic novel about life at Broadcasting House. Will you dictate to me the first paragraph?

Presenter12:28

Or just off the cup. Just off the cup.

Denise Robins12:30

Oh, dear me. Well, um

Denise Robins12:34

The title would be important because

Denise Robins12:37

Um

Denise Robins12:38

After my experiences in Broadcasting House today, I suggest we call the story The Long Corridor.

Presenter12:43

That's intriguing good title.

Denise Robins12:46

She walked down the long corridor.

Denise Robins12:49

To the left and the right she saw the signs on the doors, particularly intrigued by those which said no entry.

Denise Robins12:56

She walked a little further. She saw a red light, then she saw a green, and then suddenly she saw nothing because the whole corridor was plunged into darkness. And she wondered if it was a power failure, or if something terrible was going to happen to her. And suddenly a door opened and a hand took her hand.

Denise Robins13:13

and pulled her into one of the rooms, and the door was shut again.

Presenter13:17

I want to hear the rest of the story. Will you promise to finish that book for me?

Presenter13:24

Uh

Presenter13:25

I record number four.

Denise Robins13:27

Well, after that, I feel I must choose my most romantic and beautiful, and the one which I think I hold very dear.

Denise Robins13:35

Victoria de Los Angeles singing The Lover and the Nightingale.

Presenter14:36

Victoria at Los Angeles singing The Lover and the Nightingale by Granodos.

Presenter14:42

Which has been your most successful book?

Denise Robins14:45

I would say possibly that the one that has had the biggest sales is a book called I Should Have Known.

Denise Robins14:53

which was a love story based in South France.

Denise Robins14:56

How many copies have you sold altogether?

Presenter14:58

Uh

Denise Robins15:00

I honestly can't tell you how many copies of hardbacks and paperbacks combined, but I have been making some research and I find I've passed the 10 million mark in the paperback world.

Denise Robins15:11

in many languages.

Denise Robins15:12

in every language now that it can possibly be translated into all over the world.

Presenter15:18

Do you feel neglected because the literary critics seldom take romantic novels seriously?

Denise Robins15:24

I don't feel resentful about it, but I think it's a great pity that people who write the sort of things that I do, or who write in my sort of world, should be left out every time, and especially the national newspapers who concentrate on the finest, most intellectual book of the day, and really the people who are reading these papers would like perhaps to know a little bit more about us.

Presenter15:50

Here.

Presenter15:50

Social behavior has changed very rapidly in the last few years. Have your books changed in accordance?

Denise Robins15:58

I think they have. I remember my old friend Roland Patui once said Denise's books always lead you up to the bedroom door and then there are asterisks.

Denise Robins16:09

And I can only say that I think I've dropped the asterisks and I do get through the bedroom door, but I do abhor.

Denise Robins16:18

Pornography by some violence and I never use

Presenter16:22

And there's still a happy ending.

Denise Robins16:24

In most cases, there's a great deal of pain and suffering in between time, but I do like to bring them together in the end because I myself believe in love and happiness.

Presenter16:34

Record number five, please.

Denise Robins16:36

My next choice will be.

Denise Robins16:38

Romeo Julief of Tchaikovsky, quite apart from the fact

Denise Robins16:42

But it's a very beautiful piece of music.

Denise Robins16:45

It does depict the love and the longing of two.

Denise Robins16:49

ill-starred lovers and we've all got to admit that there is the unhappy as well as the happy love.

Presenter17:55

A theme from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Marcel.

Presenter18:03

Denise, you still do some journalism. You deal with readers' problems in a woman's magazine. This must be a great responsibility.

Presenter18:12

Yeah.

Denise Robins18:12

It is an enormous responsibility. It's one that I like.

Denise Robins18:17

I find it it it's a a tremendous link between me and the other women of the world. I get so many letters from so many different kinds of people, including men and even children. I feel in touch with their troubles and emotions and I'm able to

Denise Robins18:34

to get to know them and to be able to answer them with what I think is a

Denise Robins18:39

is sympathy and understanding.

Presenter18:41

Here's

Presenter18:43

One of your daughters is a novelist, too.

Denise Robins18:45

Here's Patricia, who writes under there the same name as myself, Patricia Robbins.

Denise Robins18:50

She's rather a wonderful girl. She she writes quite differently from her mother, but she's quite successful in her way.

Presenter18:57

You have quite a large family around you with your daughters and your grandchildren.

Denise Robins19:01

Yes, I have. I have three daughters, three sons-in-law, thirteen grandchildren, and now, finally, a great-granddaughter.

Presenter19:09

Robert

Denise Robins19:10

You live in the country? I live in Sussex. I'm crazy about gardening. Great hobby.

Denise Robins19:17

And um

Denise Robins19:19

I even have a goldfish pool which I'm mad about. I go there and look after my fish.

Presenter19:24

Let's have a look at number six for use.

Denise Robins19:26

Well, I would like to show man Dietrich Fischer Disco singing.

Denise Robins19:32

In Bondeshan and Monat May.

Denise Robins19:34

It's the most lovely song.

Speaker 219:49

Um

Speaker 219:51

See light and everything.

Speaker 219:56

We all figured on.

Speaker 220:14

We won the sin.

Speaker 220:28

Bobby.

Speaker 220:30

You're gonna get stunder.

Speaker 220:33

My name's alone.

Presenter20:40

Showman's in the beautiful month of May, done by Dietrich Viscidiska.

Presenter20:46

How efficient would you be at looking after yourself? Obviously that interest in cultivation is going to help.

Presenter20:52

Your interest in fish would help. It might lead to a little fishing. Have you ever done anything?

Denise Robins20:56

No, I was no fisherman, but I love to look after fish, and I'm quite sure if I was on the sort of island that I imagine I'd be cast upon, I could find a little pool in which I could bring some little fish and start to to feed them and look after them. I don't know, but I would try.

Presenter21:12

Could you bring yourself to eat them after you've read them?

Denise Robins21:15

No, I would never eat them. My go-couldn't eat one of my goofy.

Presenter21:20

Uh

Denise Robins21:20

Almost a

Presenter21:21

Would you keep up with

Denise Robins21:21

Yeah, it is

Denise Robins21:23

Yes, I do think I would. I certainly would would swim and bathe two or three times a day probably if it's a hot island you're putting me on and not a cold one.

Presenter21:32

Yeah.

Denise Robins21:34

Um well I would yes I would try if I if I I don't know what I would be cast up with even if I had a comb with me but I would try to comb my hair. I would try to look reasonably attractive even for the sake of the fish.

Presenter21:35

Yeah.

Presenter21:47

If reasonable opportunities presented themselves, would you try to escape? Yes, at once.

Presenter21:52

Let's have record number seven.

Denise Robins21:54

Could I please have Rubenstein playing Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu?

Presenter22:59

Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu played by Arthur Rubenstein.

Presenter23:04

Which brings us to your last record.

Denise Robins23:06

Well, I think at the end of a long day alone on the island, I would be comforted if I could hear Bach Sheep May Safely Graze played by two pianos.

Denise Robins23:17

Philosillic and Cyril Smith.

Presenter24:20

Phyllis Sellick and Cyril Smith playing an arrangement for two pianos of barks sheep may safely graze.

Presenter24:27

If you could take just one of your eight records, which would it be?

Denise Robins24:30

Well

Denise Robins24:31

With

Denise Robins24:33

With greatest difficulty I make that choice.

Denise Robins24:36

But I do so love Seed Moon, the song that is sung by Melchior.

Denise Robins24:40

From the Valkyrie, but I think that is the one I would choose.

Presenter24:44

And

Presenter24:45

One luxury to take to the island with you.

Denise Robins24:48

What if I

Denise Robins24:50

could have an enormous

Denise Robins24:53

frame in which there were photographs of all my family, all those I loved, so that I could look at them every day, at least once a day.

Presenter25:00

And one book apart from the Bible in Shakespeare.

Denise Robins25:04

Well, I'm going to be very unoriginal and say I would take the Encyclopedia Britannica because there's so much for me to learn that I don't know.

Denise Robins25:12

And so much reading, it would take me perhaps until my death on the island before I'd finished it.

Presenter25:19

Uh

Presenter25:20

Thank you, Denise Robbins, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Presenter25:24

Thank you. Goodbye. Goodbye, everyone.

Denise Robins25:37

The guest in this episode was Denise Robbins, the interviewer was Roy Plumley, and the producer Ronald Cook.

Speaker 125:53

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 125:56

For more downloads, please visit the Radio4 website.