Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Historian, journalist and broadcaster, known for books about Ireland and television work.
Eight records
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The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
You read history at Oxford with a view to what? What did you want to do?
I didn't know. I had absolutely no idea. I read history because that was what I was good at at school, the only thing I was good at at school. And I just thought I'd read history.
Presenter asks
And what happened to you when you came down [from Oxford]?
Well, mercifully, the war … happened to lots of us. The war came. And so one didn't have to decide. As it happened, I was stuck in Ireland for six, nine months after the war began, waiting to be called up to fly aeroplanes for the REF.
Presenter asks
What were you doing in that time [in Ireland]?
I went lu again, a slice of luck, the editor of the Irish Times was a member of the local golf club, and he said, 'Why not come along and do an apprenticeship in the Irish Times', which I was delighted to do.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Brian Inglis
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Speaker 1
You said you're from Ireland, Brian. English, of course, is a Scotch name, isn't it? It is. My grandfather was a Scot.
Speaker 1
And I believe you're also a descendant of the Colonel Blood who tried to steal the Crown jewels.
Brian Inglis
Yes, he was offered by Charles the Second estates in Ireland because the theory is that he tried to steal them for Charles. He was going to take them to the continent and hawk them, and Charles was going to get half the
Speaker 1
Use can
Brian Inglis
So he got estates there on my mother's side, descended from that disreputable character.
Brian Inglis
Now you read history at Oxford with a view to what? What did you want to do? I didn't know. I had absolutely no idea. I read history because that was what I was good at at school, the only thing I was good at at school.
Brian Inglis
And I just thought I'd read history.
Speaker 1
Yes. And what happened to you when you came down?
Brian Inglis
Well, mercifully, the war when I say mercifully it's a strange thing, but it happened to lots of us. The war came.
Brian Inglis
And so one didn't have to decide.
Brian Inglis
As it happened, I was stuck in Ireland for six, nine months after the war began, waiting to be called up to fly aeroplanes for the REF. Yes. What were you doing in that time? Well, I went lu again, a slice of luck, the editor of the Irish Times was a member of the local golf club, and he said, Why not come along and
Speaker 1
Daily.
Brian Inglis
Do an apprenticeship in the Irish Times, which I was delighted to do. You were a film critic for a time, weren't you? Yes, I did six months of
Speaker 1
Film criticism there. Mm-hmm. Rather cut versions they show in Dublin, I believe.
Brian Inglis
Well, in those days, I think in the thirties there weren't all that many films of the kind which they wouldn't dare show in Dublin. Certainly after the war they began to cut them like mad. Still do, don't I?
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Speaker 1
And in the RAF you were in coastal command, flying boats, flying boats.
Brian Inglis
Flying buttons.
Speaker 1
Where did that take you?
Brian Inglis
Mainly to West Africa, to Gibraltar, in that area, flying out of the Atlantic, looking for U-boats.
Brian Inglis
Very seldom seen them.
Brian Inglis
What happened when you were demobilized?
Brian Inglis
I went back to the Irish Times and worked there for the next
Brian Inglis
Seven, eight years. I believe you took the unusual step of reading
Speaker 1
for a PhD while being a working journalist.
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Brian Inglis
Yes, I did. There was uh the Forces Grant was operating them, and it enabled you to take a PhD. I seized the excuse to do so. Yes. How did you organize this?
Brian Inglis
Well, by becoming freelance and just doing uh leaders and criticism for the Irish Times in my spare time. When did you decide to come to London?
Brian Inglis
That was in nineteen fifty three. I didn't decide so much as that I was offered a job and the job was leader writer on the new Brash Brave Daily Sketch which has now disappeared. Which has now disappeared. At the time they thought it was going to be the great rival to the Murrow.
Speaker 1
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1
I'm sorry, I don't remember the the the leaders and the daily skate. Which page were they on?
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Speaker 1
Uh
Speaker 1
The wrong
Brian Inglis
On page two there were about two hundred words, and they were not very good.
Speaker 1
You are writing leaders for the Daily Sketch. How long did that last?
Brian Inglis
That was a year only, and then I l left and I joined The Spectator.
Speaker 1
Now since those spectator days, your main activities have been books and television. Let's deal with books first. First, you wrote a couple of books about Ireland.
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Speaker 1
A history?
Brian Inglis
A history well, the one was my PhD thesis and then I did a history of Auburn. Yes.
Speaker 1
Ryan, you've written four books about medicine, and what they all have in common is that they're very critical of the medical establishment, orthodox medicine.
Speaker 1
What got you onto those lines of thought?
Brian Inglis
I suppose it was the fact that when I was writing a column for the Irish Times, as I did for a while,
Brian Inglis
I used to long for subjects which would get readers' letters to pour in, which helped eke out the column. And there were three obvious ones. Railways fascinated people for some reason or other, cruelty to animals, and health, medicine. Whatever you wrote about health or medicine there was always a flow of letters.
Speaker 1
And there was
Brian Inglis
And it happened that at this time
Brian Inglis
I was lucky, I had a lot of medical student friends and doctor friends, and they fed me with information. But one of the things which was going on was psychosomatic medicine, which at that time was a new phrase. And I got interested in this, and it used to enrage me, the fact that there wasn't
Brian Inglis
Any interest in the higher echelons of the profession about it. And so I became.
Brian Inglis
as it were, prejudice against medicine as a profession, as distinct from the individuals who practice it.
Speaker 1
Yes, you wrote a book called Fringe Medicine about all the aspects of healing which are not covered by the orthodox medical profession, o osteopathy, for example.
Brian Inglis
Yes, this came later because I found when I was working on psychosomatic medicine that there was this huge field outside it which I knew nothing about, which contained things like faith healing and acupuncture at that time, which was hardly known. All these uh people
Brian Inglis
working away and doing some spectacular healing jobs, and not recognized at all by the professor
Speaker 1
Class. Peace.
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Speaker 1
Now do you think your campaign because I think one can call it that your four books has your campaign produced any seeable results?
Brian Inglis
I don't think the campaign produced results in that sense, but I think what it did was it reflected a mood within the profession as well as outside the profession. And then nowadays I find that doctors, and particular general practitioners, family doctors, are far more open about this. They're far more willing to realise that there are forces at work for health which aren't touched by the kind of medicine which they learnt in their
Brian Inglis
Medical training.
Speaker 1
Well, I think many people will agree with you and your campaign.
Speaker 1
And what's the new book you have on the stocks?
Brian Inglis
A social history of drugs. And this is not the medical kind, the other kind, things like marijuana, opium, and so on. For some reason or other nobody's written a history on the subject.
Brian Inglis
I'm just
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Speaker 1
Cool.
Brian Inglis
Completing it.
Speaker 1
Hmm. Yes. This is a pretty wide field because there are so many drugs. Now you read about people sniffing metal polish or something to to to get a a lift. You have to cover all that?
Brian Inglis
Well, yes, this is the difficulty. I mean, th when you realize that in this country there were all sorts of drugs a hundred and fifty years ago which are forgotten today, like lettuce or something.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Brian Inglis
Freely lettuce was freely used as a as a drug. You you took young, fresh lettuce and you
Speaker 1
Many left.
Brian Inglis
Squeezed out the juice and drank it and you used it as a a kind of sedative. But you get this in health food bars now. Indeed, yeah.
Brian Inglis
Nutmeg is another great uh drug which uh is highly popular to turn you on.
Speaker 1
This is going to be a fascinating book. Now, television, the other big thing in your career, for eleven years you spent part of your week looking at the newsreels of twenty-five years ago for all our yesterdays. This must have meant a great deal of background reading too.
Brian Inglis
Yeah.
Brian Inglis
Yes, it did. I I suppose I was lucky in the fact that I'd been through the war and consequently had read quite a bit about it anyway and was interested in reading what remained. Was it a question sometimes of living on two time levels? Yes. I frequently would talk as if I was living in nineteen forty two or people would step back, puzzled, you know, who is this man who's never grown
Speaker 1
There was a memorable series which you wrote and presented, Margins of the Mind. This is another interest of yours, Paranormal Manifestations.
Brian Inglis
Yes, and it's coming up very much these days with Buray Geller, who some people, including I think yourself, are slightly sceptical of, who I'm not sceptical of at all. We were talking about this earlier, and I think you convinced me. He is not the only one. There are a great many people doing this in great many parts of the world. In Russia they've got two or three on show.
Brian Inglis
But I don't know why it should be coming back at this time. It's very strange that a number of people should be doing it. But
Brian Inglis
It's a very frightening thing. I think that the idea that people can bend metal
Brian Inglis
and even bend it at a distance, is very disturbing. But on the other hand, if it happens, we should understand that it happens and should understand how, if we can.
Speaker 1
Yes, I mean if if if it would be possible for somebody with these powers to press the button.
Speaker 1
Indeed. Um
Speaker 1
Stop the button.
Speaker 1
Well this one hopes it would stop the button being pressed.
Presenter asks
What happened when you were demobilized [from the RAF]?
I went back to the Irish Times and worked there for the next seven, eight years.
Presenter asks
You got interested in psychosomatic medicine and wrote books critical of orthodox medicine. What got you onto those lines of thought?
I suppose it was the fact that when I was writing a column for the Irish Times … I used to long for subjects which would get readers' letters to pour in … And there were three obvious ones. Railways … cruelty to animals, and health, medicine. Whatever you wrote about health or medicine there was always a flow of letters. … I had a lot of medical student friends and doctor friends, and they fed me with information. But one of the things which was going on was psychosomatic medicine, which at that time was a new phrase. And I got interested in this, and it used to enrage me, the fact that there wasn't any interest in the higher echelons of the profession about it. And so I became … prejudice against medicine as a profession, as distinct from the individuals who practice it.
Presenter asks
Do you think your campaign with your four books has produced any seeable results?
I don't think the campaign produced results in that sense, but I think what it did was it reflected a mood within the profession as well as outside the profession. And then nowadays I find that doctors, and particular general practitioners, family doctors, are far more open about this. They're far more willing to realise that there are forces at work for health which aren't touched by the kind of medicine which they learnt in their medical training.
“Mercifully, the war — when I say mercifully it's a strange thing, but it happened to lots of us. The war came. And so one didn't have to decide.”
“I used to long for subjects which would get readers' letters to pour in, which helped eke out the column. And there were three obvious ones. Railways fascinated people for some reason or other, cruelty to animals, and health, medicine.”
“It used to enrage me, the fact that there wasn't any interest in the higher echelons of the profession about it. And so I became … prejudice against medicine as a profession, as distinct from the individuals who practice it.”
“I frequently would talk as if I was living in nineteen forty two or people would step back, puzzled, you know, who is this man who's never grown up?”