Helen Bradley

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy five, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the painter, Helen Bradley.

Presenter0:34

misses Bradley, I believe you come from a musical family.

Helen Bradley0:37

Yes, I do.

Helen Bradley0:40

My father was very keen on the violin.

Helen Bradley0:43

And he also played the viola quite well, and he was so wrapped up in it he wanted four children to have a quartet.

Helen Bradley0:51

Uh

Presenter0:51

And what did you play in the court?

Helen Bradley0:51

And what did you play in the court? Oh, I was at to be the pianist and I started when I was six.

Presenter0:57

It was suggested at one time that you became a professional pianist, wasn't it?

Helen Bradley1:00

Yes, it was but father would never hear of that.

Presenter1:03

How did you set about choosing your eight record?

Helen Bradley1:06

Well, they're all connected with painting, music and colour. They're they're connected to me.

Presenter1:12

Yes.

Helen Bradley1:13

And they're also connected with people.

Helen Bradley1:15

First one, of course, is grandma and the aunts.

Helen Bradley1:20

And Mary Ellen and Floray if you listen to this record you can hear them going down Spring Lane and stopping and talking and going on again and having another little chin wag and going on again. Eric Sarte, Jim Napody, number one.

Presenter2:36

Eric Sati's Gymnopody No. One, played by Frank Glaser.

Presenter2:41

Now, Grandma and Mary Ellen and Florrie and and Miss Carter, these are all

Helen Bradley2:45

These are all

Presenter2:47

And the answer. They're all the people from your pictures, aren't they?

Helen Bradley2:47

They're all

Helen Bradley2:50

Yes, they're all the p they're all left.

Helen Bradley2:53

And uh they all lived in Lees, quite close to us, and I was taught at home. I didn't go to school.

Helen Bradley3:00

and every day at two o'clock.

Helen Bradley3:02

Uh grandma would come and say, Are they ready?

Helen Bradley3:05

And then we would pick up the aunts and we'd pick up Miss Carter and Mrs Maitland and dear Emily. misses Maitland was a bit of a bother because she didn't know whether she felt well enough.

Helen Bradley3:15

And uh she wouldn't let Emily out.

Helen Bradley3:18

Unless she was with her. Because you see

Helen Bradley3:21

mister Taylor, really?

Helen Bradley3:24

had his eye on Emily.

Speaker 43:25

Mm-hmm.

Helen Bradley3:25

Not Miss Carter, although every one thought he'd marry Miss Carter, and I think Miss Carter did herself. But mother heard him say, my dear, to Emily.

Helen Bradley3:36

and they really fell in love.

Helen Bradley3:38

And of course misses Maiden wouldn't let her out.

Speaker 43:40

Yeah.

Presenter3:41

Uh

Helen Bradley3:41

Because she had to live with her mother.

Helen Bradley3:43

Her mother wouldn't allow her to leave her.

Presenter3:46

And these are all your old family memories?

Helen Bradley3:48

Yes, they're all they're absolutely true.

Presenter3:51

Yes.

Helen Bradley3:51

They're all our people. And it was life it began in nineteen hundred and five.

Helen Bradley3:57

My first memories.

Helen Bradley3:59

uh really of when God came to live up Springhead and he quite close to Great Aunt Jane and all the lot used to go and see Great Aunt Jane.

Presenter4:05

Yeah.

Helen Bradley4:08

Every Tuesday.

Presenter4:08

Okay.

Helen Bradley4:10

And of course I think she told us these stories because we were a bit a bit troublesome, we children, and we had to sit on a horsehair sofa, which pricked our legs, and I think we got a bit restless. So she told us the story of God.

Helen Bradley4:25

who'd come to live there, and it was really very nice.

Presenter4:28

Yeah.

Presenter4:29

Now your next record is that

Presenter4:31

Evoke a picture too.

Helen Bradley4:33

Oh, yes, come to the end of a perfect day. That's when we all went to Blackpool.

Helen Bradley4:38

and see it come in.

Helen Bradley4:40

And it was our last evening, and we couldn't walk on the sands because of course the tide was in.

Helen Bradley4:46

and I have painted this picture.

Helen Bradley4:48

and there's a landor, and there's a promenade, and there's the old horse going to sleep, and the and the driver nodding away, and there's grandma and Auntie Mary, and they're looking out to sea, and the sun had gone down.

Helen Bradley5:04

and the sky was beautiful.

Helen Bradley5:06

And

Helen Bradley5:07

Auntie Mary said, Oh she said, when you come to the end of a perfect day, and the dear friends have to part because of course the next day we were all going back, and we all parted.

Helen Bradley5:20

It was the end of our holiday.

Helen Bradley5:22

And misses Maitland wiped away a tear.

Speaker 45:25

When you come.

Speaker 45:27

To the end of a perfect day, And you sit along with your thought.

Speaker 45:40

While the child wing out with a camel gay For the joy that one day

Presenter5:53

Stuart Burrows singing A Perfect Day.

Presenter5:57

Although you you didn't begin to paint seriously until about ten years ago, you you had won an art scholarship when you were very young, haven't you?

Helen Bradley6:05

Oh, yes.

Helen Bradley6:07

Uh I was I don't think I was quite twelve.

Helen Bradley6:10

And I didn't learn a thing. Why? Because I was let loose.

Speaker 46:16

Yeah.

Helen Bradley6:16

Oh, I had the most time of my life.

Speaker 46:17

Uh

Helen Bradley6:19

I met boys and girls and people I'd never met before, and I'm afraid I thoroughly enjoyed it. But of course father said

Helen Bradley6:29

I hadn't to do any life classes, no looking at people.

Presenter6:33

No.

Helen Bradley6:34

Uh I could do jewellery and uh needlework, of course, because that was a girl sort of thing.

Helen Bradley6:42

and added a bit of stained glass.

Helen Bradley6:44

But I didn't learn anything else.

Presenter6:46

It is important to know a bit about people if you're getting to be an artist.

Helen Bradley6:49

Oh, yes, but that was forbidden. You see, I was too young.

Presenter6:53

Did you go out to work when you were young?

Helen Bradley6:55

And then of course when I was fourteen I should have stayed till I was fifteen he said he'd had enough and the war began nineteen fourteen.

Helen Bradley7:03

And of course, he took our men and he said, Now then, you'll have to come to work. No more of this business And he brought me a tweed coat and a very long skirt and I was only fourteen and I wore a man's uh sort of shirt with a tie and I had to look very grown up and I had a horse to myself called uh Gertie. What were you doing? Oh, I was delivering parcels and I went round for orders. Oh, I had some terrible shocks.

Presenter7:28

Yeah.

Helen Bradley7:31

Father gave me the list of shops. He said you'll have to learn where they all are, and it was down Hollingwood, and I opened the door of this little house shop first time I'd ever been in.

Helen Bradley7:42

and I heard she seemed a very large woman behind this table.

Helen Bradley7:46

And she said, What the? And out came a whole lot of words I'd never heard. And I shut the door and crept out. And then I thought, Oh, father, this won't do. What will father say? So I got in again. She says, Who are you?

Presenter7:53

Yeah.

Speaker 47:53

Right inside.

Presenter7:53

Yeah.

Helen Bradley7:59

I said, I'm Miss Layfield, and I've come for your order.

Helen Bradley8:02

But she turned out to be extremely nice. She always made me a pot of tea and a chunk of seed cake. She said you're too young to be out.

Speaker 48:05

Mm-hmm.

Helen Bradley8:12

But she was very kind.

Helen Bradley8:15

Uh

Presenter8:15

You married an artist, of course.

Helen Bradley8:16

Yes. Yes.

Presenter8:17

When and why did you start painting again?

Helen Bradley8:21

Well uh

Helen Bradley8:22

I couldn't get a piano in the cottage in Cartmel, and then I cut my thumb.

Helen Bradley8:28

Pretty well off?

Helen Bradley8:29

And it was my left hand thumb, which is a very

Helen Bradley8:34

Uh you've got to use your thumb.

Helen Bradley8:36

And I I found I hadn't enough pressure to make it.

Presenter8:38

In playing the piano.

Helen Bradley8:41

and I sat on a wall and I thought, well, this won't do.

Helen Bradley8:44

I'd have to do something. I'm just doing nothing but housework. And I got lots of ideas.

Helen Bradley8:50

So I said,'Whatever shall I do'? and I said it out aloud, sitting on this wall, and there was nothing but the sea at the bottom, and the sheep at the other side, and a voice said paint.

Helen Bradley9:00

But not only the voice said paint, but Laurie said paint too, when I met him in Kendall.

Presenter9:06

Laurie the artist.

Helen Bradley9:07

Yes. And he said, Haven't you started to paint yet? I said, No. He said, Well, go home and paint your mother.

Presenter9:13

Yes. And you were already into your sixties at this time.

Helen Bradley9:15

I was sixty four.

Presenter9:17

Hmm.

Helen Bradley9:17

Nearly sixty-five.

Presenter9:18

I believe you hadn't even a brush. You began painting w w with a kitchen knife.

Helen Bradley9:22

Oh yes and then of course it dawned on me I thought I'd better get going. So I went off to the um joiners and I bought a chunk of hardboard. It was about six foot by three and I had to carry it home in the wind and it nearly took me off.

Presenter9:37

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Helen Bradley9:38

And I and then I thought, when I got it home, I looked at it, I thought, Good Lord, what am I going to put on this? And I had no brushes, and of course I had to borrow Tom's paint.

Presenter9:48

Your husband's baby.

Helen Bradley9:48

Yes, and I thought I'd better do it while he's out.

Helen Bradley9:52

Because

Helen Bradley9:55

Because, you know, he was very orthodox, and he'd think if he saw this lump of fard board and me, I'd think, good gracious, what sh he'd say, you can't do that.

Presenter9:56

Hmm.

Helen Bradley10:04

Anyway, I was determined I'd have a bash, so I had a beautiful fish slice. It had a lovely slant on it, and I had a lovely little whippy kitchen knife, and I stuck my paint on Tom's paint, and I only had a dinner plate to put it on, and I had just three colours.

Presenter10:22

Yes.

Helen Bradley10:22

And it was lovely.

Presenter10:24

With your fish slice and your whippy little kitchen knife.

Helen Bradley10:26

Enjoy.

Presenter10:28

Go first, Captain.

Helen Bradley10:28

And the thumbnail which I scraped out.

Presenter10:30

It's out.

Presenter10:31

Right, let's have your third record. What's that going to be?

Helen Bradley10:35

Deepusay.

Presenter10:36

Mm-hmm.

Helen Bradley10:37

In the rain

Presenter10:38

Gardens and the Red

Helen Bradley10:39

Yeah.

Presenter10:39

Uh

Presenter11:41

Debussy's Gardens and the Rain, played by Gieseking.

Presenter11:45

Now, that was your first picture you were telling us about.

Presenter11:49

That, of course, was of you and the family when you were a child? Yes.

Presenter11:54

Tell me about your first exhibition.

Helen Bradley11:57

Oh, I came down to London for it.

Helen Bradley11:59

And uh

Helen Bradley12:01

Well, not my very first. That was held in Upper Mill, and I said, Oh, no, I'm not sending those pictures. Nobody will want to see them. It's all about just us. But anyway

Presenter12:10

Yeah.

Helen Bradley12:11

They did. They asked me to send them, and they were shown in a a little museum, and Lord Rhodes came to it.

Helen Bradley12:19

And I was doing very well. I thought I'd sold them.

Presenter12:22

Yeah.

Helen Bradley12:22

And he took the stickers off. He said, No.

Presenter12:22

Uh

Helen Bradley12:24

We'll send these to London.

Presenter12:26

How much were you asking for them in that first exhibition?

Helen Bradley12:28

Oh, about three pounds ten?

Presenter12:30

See pounds ten.

Helen Bradley12:32

I thought it was marvellous.

Presenter12:33

There are people queuing up for them at more or less any price.

Helen Bradley12:33

Uh

Presenter12:39

Now, for those who who don't know your pictures, that they're they're big, they have lots and lots of people in them, they're all your family, and you've written and illustrated two books, and Miss Carter wore pink and

Helen Bradley12:52

Miss Carter came with us.

Presenter12:53

That's right. Now, who was Miss Carter?

Helen Bradley12:56

She was a friend of the aunt's, about the same age.

Presenter13:00

Why do you think she always wore pink?

Helen Bradley13:02

Because the Queen used to wear uh a beautiful purple, palma violet. So she thought, Right, if the queen can wear palma violet, I'm wearing pink.

Presenter13:10

Yes, Queen Alexandra.

Helen Bradley13:11

Yes. And of course she copied oh, Queen Alexandra when she came to the throne, you know, she gave everybody, all we women, a great uplift with these lovely clothes and this colour. And of course it set Miss Carter off. And she had private means and she used to go. And we had a magazine called The Queen came out and she used to take it. She could get it from somewhere. And of course she used to bring it round to the aunts and they all used to sit in the sitting room and turn it over and read all the bits of scandal and see what the Queen wore. And then th the aunts used to make their own clothes, but she went to Manchester and had them copied, just like the Queen.

Helen Bradley13:50

And when the Queen had braid on her dress she had braid on hers, and then she bought some tongues and she curled her hair, and she bought a little toque, all with pink flowers round it, and stuck it on the top, just like Queen Alexandra. But she wasn't half as nice.

Presenter14:04

Let's have another record. What next?

Helen Bradley14:08

All on an April evening.

Speaker 414:23

Sheep with their liftful lives must be my own.

Speaker 414:39

Yeah.

Speaker 414:43

I was expressly right on the

Speaker 414:52

On the other hand,

Presenter15:15

All in the April Evening by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir, conducted by Sir Hugh Roberton. How do you like to work, misses Bradley? Do you work regular hours?

Presenter15:24

Uh

Helen Bradley15:24

Yeah.

Presenter15:24

That's

Helen Bradley15:25

Yes, I've got to

Presenter15:25

Uh

Helen Bradley15:25

Uh

Helen Bradley15:26

Uh when I first had that first exhibition and Lord Rhodes came, he gave me a talking to. He said if uh people like your work, you know, it's seven days a week.

Presenter15:35

Yes.

Helen Bradley15:35

So I do work seven days a week.

Presenter15:38

You've sometimes been compared in style with the Lowry, whom you've already mentioned, but you use much brighter, more cheerful colours than

Helen Bradley15:41

Are you

Helen Bradley15:45

Oh, well, I'm a different period. And I paint differently too, quite differently from Lowry.

Presenter15:47

Yeah.

Presenter15:50

There's also a a a sense of Bruegel about them, all these robust little things.

Helen Bradley15:54

Rebuild

Helen Bradley15:55

I think there is.

Presenter15:56

Do you paint fairly fast?

Helen Bradley15:58

Yes, I have to.

Helen Bradley15:59

Because uh when I put a row of houses in, I put all the bricks in. And of course when that paint's dry, uh it's had it.

Helen Bradley16:08

Uh

Presenter16:08

I've got

Helen Bradley16:08

I've got two.

Presenter16:09

Yes. You sign your pictures, as well as with your name, with the little emblem of a fly.

Helen Bradley16:16

Yes, I do, because I didn't know what to do with that first painting that I did, you know, with a fish slice. It was terribly lumpy, and I thought, good gracious, I can't put Bradley on this

Helen Bradley16:26

And then of course my husband was painting too, and if anybody saw it they'd say, Good heavens, look what he's done

Helen Bradley16:34

And I hid it under the bed. So I thought, well, I'll put a little fly on it, and nobody will know, and it won't be Tom's.

Presenter16:43

We've got to your fifth record. What's that?

Helen Bradley16:46

Oh, it's Chinese. It's called The Bountiful Year, and it reminds me of the year 1908.

Presenter16:52

That to you was the

Helen Bradley16:53

That was the

Presenter17:32

A solo on an ancient Chinese harp celebrating a bountiful year.

Presenter17:38

Let's go straight into your next record. What's that?

Helen Bradley17:40

Hello Nash

Helen Bradley17:42

Singing the serenade from the fair maid of Perth.

Helen Bradley17:46

Helen Nash was a great friend of ours, and lots and lots of times I've sat at the piano and he said, Come on, misses B.

Helen Bradley17:55

What about us singing? And of course he taught my daughter Elizabeth.

Helen Bradley18:00

and I used to put him up. When he came to Manchester, and he used to come back with Elizabeth.

Helen Bradley18:04

And we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Helen Bradley18:08

And we used to sing Verde's Requiem. I used to take the contralta part.

Helen Bradley18:13

and play the piano, which was terribly hard, to keep in tune and play as well.

Presenter18:16

Two.

Speaker 418:16

Dune

Presenter18:16

Yeah.

Helen Bradley18:19

and he sang the tenor and Elizabeth the top.

Speaker 418:21

Uh

Helen Bradley18:21

Uh And we we it was lovely. This is in memory of him, those happy days we had.

Speaker 418:29

At all my heart is yearning when they return the shadows

Speaker 418:46

Let all the world be wait.

Speaker 418:51

A door is

Speaker 418:53

Yeah.

Speaker 419:01

To be my own

Speaker 419:05

Thus in days of youth.

Presenter19:16

Harold Nash singing The Serenade from Bizet's Fair Maid of Perth. How are you going to manage on this island, misses Bradley? Are you a practical person?

Helen Bradley19:25

Oh, yes.

Helen Bradley19:27

Um the only thing I should be a bit afraid of was when it got dark.

Helen Bradley19:31

and things began to come out.

Helen Bradley19:35

And I couldn't see them. I'm horribly curious, you know.

Presenter19:39

Mm-hmm.

Helen Bradley19:40

Um I'm all right if I can stand on a mountain top and look what's going on.

Helen Bradley19:45

And there's some light round me, but I don't know what I shall do when it's dark.

Presenter19:49

Are you a good cook? Do you look after yourself as far as food's concerned?

Presenter19:53

Yes. If a boat or a raft were to be washed ashore, would you try to get away?

Helen Bradley19:59

Well, I don't know.

Helen Bradley20:01

No, I don't think so.

Helen Bradley20:03

I think I should stay.

Helen Bradley20:05

Because there's a lot I want to do.

Helen Bradley20:07

And I got on it.

Presenter20:09

Right back to music then. What next?

Helen Bradley20:10

What next?

Presenter20:11

Yeah.

Helen Bradley20:11

Oh, it's Stockhouse and

Presenter20:13

Stocktising

Helen Bradley20:13

Yes. This music.

Helen Bradley20:16

It's something I'm very fond of, but a lot of people don't like it.

Helen Bradley20:20

But this is the music of the earth.

Helen Bradley20:24

It's earth music.

Helen Bradley20:25

It it isn't human beings singing and violins and all that. It's worms and ants and the grass growing, and there's all the l the little tiny beetles. Lots of little things that we don't see make noises.

Helen Bradley20:41

And he's done that, and he's put it down he's collected all those sounds together and put them down for us to listen to.

Helen Bradley20:50

Many people don't realise they are there.

Helen Bradley20:54

Not only do the birds make noises on their wing, but it's the little animals that make the noises, and we don't hear them.

Speaker 421:18

Oh I think that's it.

Presenter21:57

An excerpt from Contact by Karl Heinz Stockhausen.

Presenter22:02

And now, your last record.

Helen Bradley22:04

Well, it's Elgar.

Helen Bradley22:07

The Enigma variations, this little bit of Nimrod that's beautiful, and this is my England.

Helen Bradley22:14

And

Helen Bradley22:15

I want to think of that, especially when I'm stuck away on I don't know where this island is.

Helen Bradley22:21

But of course it won't look like England, will it?

Helen Bradley22:25

And I would just like this little bit to remind me.

Helen Bradley22:28

of England.

Presenter23:30

Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations, Sir John Barbirolli conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. If you could take just one disc out of the eight, which would it be?

Helen Bradley23:42

I was tempted, of course, with Elgar.

Helen Bradley23:45

But I think I would take Eriksata, the one I began with.

Presenter23:49

Zymnopedy number one.

Helen Bradley23:50

Deep number one.

Presenter23:51

And one luxury to take with you?

Helen Bradley23:54

I'd like some soap. Oh oh, and I know what I would like. Something to put on bites, because I'm always getting bit.

Presenter24:01

Mm-hmm.

Helen Bradley24:02

Something that kills mosquitoes.

Presenter24:04

All right, a soap that's also a mosquito killer.

Helen Bradley24:05

Yeah.

Helen Bradley24:06

Oh yes, and affordable

Helen Bradley24:09

I want a great tome on the law. On the law? Yes. I want something that will tell me all about the law, how it stands with the copy.

Presenter24:21

Right, when you'll be able to come back an expert in copyright.

Presenter24:25

And as a painter, would you like to choose one picture by any other artist to take with you to hang in your hut?

Helen Bradley24:30

Yes, I'm going to take one of Tom's, my husband.

Presenter24:33

A picture signed Thomas Bradley.

Helen Bradley24:34

Done.

Helen Bradley24:35

Yes, I found it the other day and it's a beauty.

Presenter24:38

Right. And thank you, Helen Bradley, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Helen Bradley24:43

Thank you very much. I have enjoyed it.

Presenter24:46

So have we. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 324:54

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