Noel Streatfeild

Speaker 10:00

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 six, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

Our castaway this week is an author of books both for children and adults, Noel Stretfield. Miss Stretfield, you've done a great deal of travelling. Have you ever visited a desert island?

Noel Streatfeild0:42

Not desert, no. Many islands were not desert.

Presenter0:45

Have you ever experienced prolonged loneliness?

Noel Streatfeild0:48

Yes.

Presenter0:50

Do you think you could take it again?

Noel Streatfeild0:51

Under these circumstances? I don't intend to be lonely. I want to adopt an animal when I'm there. Any particular animal? Well, I would like a monkey.

Noel Streatfeild1:00

Years ago I saw a little monkey.

Noel Streatfeild1:02

in somebody's arms at a vet, a child's arms. And when they moved away and left the little monkey with the vet,

Noel Streatfeild1:09

The monkey turned round with its two little hands out, tears pouring down its cheeks, and I thought that's the beast I would like to have.

Presenter1:17

As compensation for your exile, is there any one thing you would be particularly glad to have got away from in civilization?

Noel Streatfeild1:22

Yeah. Absolutely everything that the government gives us today in the way of

Noel Streatfeild1:26

Tax on this and tax on that oh, lovely Miss the lot

Noel Streatfeild1:35

Well, you could call it skill. I learnt the violin for many years. But at the end of all my years of learning all I could play was Art Thou weary, Art Thou Languid? and my word I was.

Presenter1:44

And my wife.

Presenter1:45

Doom.

Presenter1:46

Uh did you have any plan for choosing your eight record for the island?

Noel Streatfeild1:50

A nostalgia, I think.

Presenter1:51

Hmm. What's the first

Noel Streatfeild1:52

Just one you have the

Noel Streatfeild1:54

When we were all small children in the vicarage, my elder sister, who's an artist,

Noel Streatfeild1:59

She decided, and I decided, that one day when I we grew up

Noel Streatfeild2:03

I would write a book.

Noel Streatfeild2:05

and she would illustrate it.

Noel Streatfeild2:07

and the book we wrote was Bally Shoes.

Noel Streatfeild2:10

And she did illustrate it.

Presenter2:12

Yeah.

Noel Streatfeild2:12

And when they put it on two or three times in the children's hour on the old

Noel Streatfeild2:18

Radio

Noel Streatfeild2:19

Before it came

Noel Streatfeild2:21

The Jewels of the Madonna.

Noel Streatfeild2:24

And it was enormously popular. People wrote from all over the country to know what the music was, and I should like to hear that again.

Presenter3:30

The serenata from the orchestral suite of Volferari's music, The Jewels of the Madonna.

Presenter3:37

What's your second disc?

Noel Streatfeild3:39

Whoa.

Noel Streatfeild3:41

As soon as I was old enough to go to any kind of opera,

Noel Streatfeild3:44

I was taken to the Immortal Ayre.

Noel Streatfeild3:48

What the very early operas are for me to see.

Noel Streatfeild3:51

And I'd love the fairy song out of that.

Speaker 33:57

How beautiful they are the Lordly ones.

Noel Streatfeild4:02

No.

Speaker 14:02

Oh

Speaker 34:06

Well in the hills in the hollow

Speaker 34:13

There have faces like floors, And their presence is a wind that blows O'er summer meadows filled with dewy glow

Speaker 34:38

Her limbs are more whiter than shafts of a moon shine.

Speaker 34:47

They are more fleet than the march.

Presenter4:53

Webster Booth singing The Fairy Song from Rutland Boughton's The Immortal Hour. Miss Tretfield, you were born in Sussex. Yes.

Presenter5:02

One of a number of children. Of five. Now, you were a daughter of the vicarage. Did that mean, in Edwardian times, it was a case of always being on your best behaviour?

Noel Streatfeild5:13

Well, certainly the parish expected it they didn't always get it, I must tell you.

Speaker 35:17

You asserted.

Noel Streatfeild5:17

Um

Noel Streatfeild5:18

But what we were mostly used for was not parish work, but for entertaining the parishioners. We would just be given the notice of a there would be an entertainment on such and such a day, and then we were expected to produce the entertainment and make the clothes. Yes. You were the rebellious one.

Presenter5:34

Oh, I was. I never liked vicarages. So you escaped to be a drama student?

Presenter5:40

Well, not till I was grown up. No.

Presenter5:42

You studied at what is now the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. What was your very first professional job?

Noel Streatfeild5:47

Wasn't I lucky? It was so suitable for the vicar's daughter. I went into Shakespearean repertory. Yes. Whose company? It was Charles Dauden, and it was full of distinguished students, starting Ray Fritzon and Donald Wolford, goodness knows who else.

Presenter6:00

Yes.

Noel Streatfeild6:00

Uh

Presenter6:00

Yeah.

Presenter6:02

And you also played in melodrama.

Noel Streatfeild6:04

Yes, I did indeed. And I play the fairy queen in a pantomime.

Presenter6:08

I believe at some time, between jobs, you were a fashion model.

Noel Streatfeild6:11

Yeah.

Presenter6:11

Yeah.

Noel Streatfeild6:11

I was always being a fashion model between jobs. I was very tall, as I still am, of course, but in those days I was very slim. Yes. And there was plenty of work going.

Noel Streatfeild6:21

in in the fashion world.

Presenter6:24

You played in the West End quite a lot. What sort of part?

Noel Streatfeild6:28

Well in reviews and uh

Noel Streatfeild6:32

I played.

Noel Streatfeild6:34

I can't remember what the play was called now, but I took over from Margaret Bennerman in one play when she retired from it.

Noel Streatfeild6:40

And I was in the insect clay.

Noel Streatfeild6:42

Playing opposite.

Noel Streatfeild6:44

John Gilgood in his first part on stage at all, I think.

Presenter6:48

Really?

Noel Streatfeild6:49

Incidentally, we were both very bad.

Presenter6:51

And you played overseas.

Noel Streatfeild6:55

Uh South Africa.

Noel Streatfeild6:57

Rhodesia.

Presenter6:58

Yes.

Noel Streatfeild6:59

And afterwards Australia.

Noel Streatfeild7:02

To writing the death of my father, he was by then Bishop of Lois.

Noel Streatfeild7:07

And I thought well.

Noel Streatfeild7:10

Now with no home behind you, so to speak.

Noel Streatfeild7:13

Uh you really better do something safe. It's silly to go on being an actress. And I was just uh travelling home back at that moment, just passing the Barrier Reef, I remember, from Australia, this is, you see. And I looked at the Barrier Reef and I thought

Noel Streatfeild7:27

What shall I do?

Noel Streatfeild7:29

I can't go on being an actress.

Noel Streatfeild7:31

And suddenly it came to me like a flash that I'd be a novelist.

Speaker 37:34

Uh

Presenter7:35

Yes.

Noel Streatfeild7:35

What made me think that Novis was a secure professional never known?

Presenter7:40

Well, we'll talk about your novels in a moment. Let's have record number three. What's that?

Noel Streatfeild7:45

I guess rare nostalgia.

Noel Streatfeild7:47

I had a big job in choosing this one, because of so much of nostalgia to that date. In the end I've chosen Noel Cards, Bittersweet, Sung by Peggy Wood.

Presenter8:28

Peggy Wood and George Metax are singing I'll See You Again from Nero Card's Bittersweet.

Presenter8:34

Now you decided to give up acting and become a writer. You had, in fact, already taken a writer's course, I believe.

Noel Streatfeild8:40

I did. I took a writer's course, and I wrote a fairy tale for children.

Noel Streatfeild8:45

and I sent it in uh to the School of Writing.

Noel Streatfeild8:49

And they wrote back and said it was absolute rubbish, this sort of thing, writing fairy stories. There was no money in it, and it was no good my going on.

Noel Streatfeild8:56

However, my mother, who's sensible about that kind of thing, said I rather like that fairy story.

Noel Streatfeild9:02

I will send it.

Noel Streatfeild9:04

Two of one of the children's papers.

Noel Streatfeild9:06

And one of the children's papers it went.

Noel Streatfeild9:09

and came back by return of check.

Noel Streatfeild9:11

and requests me to write a children's book.

Presenter9:14

But you never did that.

Noel Streatfeild9:15

No, we just thought that was a passing thing, you know.

Presenter9:18

Was this to be a complete break with the theatre? You weren't to write in your dressing room between times? I never did.

Noel Streatfeild9:24

If

Presenter9:25

Angela. Yeah. Uh

Noel Streatfeild9:26

Uh

Presenter9:26

Uh

Noel Streatfeild9:26

Starved any work, it made it easy.

Presenter9:28

What was your first book?

Noel Streatfeild9:30

Called the Wichards. It was taken from the title was taken from the Lord's Prayer, Our Father Witchart.

Presenter9:35

This was the family in the book, The Witch I was.

Noel Streatfeild9:37

Well, the three legitimate children of a colonel

Presenter9:39

Yeah.

Presenter9:40

Was it a success?

Noel Streatfeild9:42

Yes, it was. It and it got um very good notices. And I had a most wonderful fan mail, first one I've ever ever had, which came from John Galsworthy. Really?

Presenter9:53

Now the second book is said to be harder to write than the first.

Noel Streatfeild9:56

So they all told me. But um I'm told the second my second book was better than my first was called Parsons Nine.

Presenter10:04

Why with your theatre background were you writing novels rather than plays?

Noel Streatfeild10:09

I just think I couldn't write plays. Did you try? Oh, yes. I had two two on, I think it was. But I wrote them with other people. And my gifts did not lie in that direction. When did you start writing for children?

Noel Streatfeild10:21

In the nineteen thirties.

Speaker 310:22

Yeah.

Noel Streatfeild10:22

When the publisher came to me and said, Would you write a book for children, rather like your first book, The Witch Arts, uh, Children on the Stage?

Noel Streatfeild10:31

Of course they couldn't be three illegitimate daughters of a colonel in a children's book, so I didn't want to write it at all, but I did in the end sit down and write it.

Noel Streatfeild10:40

And I called it battery shoes, and that's where I was telling you before my sister illustrated it.

Presenter10:45

Yes. Written, well, about forty years ago, still a big seller and a a children's classic now.

Noel Streatfeild10:49

Children's.

Noel Streatfeild10:51

I know you're not supposed to be alive when you when there's a classic around.

Presenter10:55

How many copies have been sold?

Noel Streatfeild10:57

Over nine million.

Presenter10:57

Nine million.

Presenter10:59

And you followed it with others in the same vein. Now you knew about dancing in the theatre, but big time tennis, skating, circus, the subjects of later books, these were new worlds for you. A lot of research must have been needed.

Noel Streatfeild11:12

Cam.

Noel Streatfeild11:14

Particularly for skating, I can't tell you what that l what that's like.

Noel Streatfeild11:17

Oh, the ice I've knelt on being frozen to death to understand the tracings. Yes. And even now, on television when they put on an ice show, I'm nearly always within

Noel Streatfeild11:28

Reasonably correct answer to who's going to win the high marks.

Presenter11:32

And you went on tour with the circus to get material for that book.

Noel Streatfeild11:35

That was fun, of course, touring with the circus.

Presenter11:37

Hmm.

Noel Streatfeild11:39

I love that.

Presenter11:40

And children are very critical readers. If there's anything wrong, they tell you.

Noel Streatfeild11:43

Writing for children's extremely difficult.

Noel Streatfeild11:46

You n they not only tell you, but they uh

Noel Streatfeild11:49

Oh, write firmly and correct you. So the result is that you've got to know a great deal of the subject, but not of course bore the children to death with telling it to them.

Presenter11:59

Do children's tastes change as rapidly as adults' taste? Does it go in in crazies, in in in waves?

Noel Streatfeild12:06

Well, you wouldn't believe this. But I've looked up look it up to be sure.

Noel Streatfeild12:10

The letters that I received when Barry Sheus was first published in the nineteen thirties

Noel Streatfeild12:15

Almost replicas of the letters I'm getting to day.

Presenter12:17

Okay.

Noel Streatfeild12:18

Children's taste does not change.

Presenter12:20

Mm-hmm.

Presenter12:21

You talked about Ballychoes having been a big success as a children's are serial. You've written a lot, especially for radio.

Noel Streatfeild12:29

Oh, yes. I had the Bell family.

Noel Streatfeild12:32

Bell Fandley was enormously popular for some reason.

Presenter12:34

Yeah.

Noel Streatfeild12:35

There was the youngest daughter, Miss Virginia Bell, she called herself.

Noel Streatfeild12:39

who's very, very popular all over the country, particularly I noticed through women's institutes. When I went to speak to them, their first question always was, What's the news of Miss Virginia Bell?

Noel Streatfeild12:48

And the Bell family went on

Presenter12:50

And for years.

Noel Streatfeild12:51

Yeah.

Presenter12:51

Six years.

Presenter12:53

Let's have record number four.

Noel Streatfeild12:55

Record number four is the hymn All People That on Earth Do Dwell from the Coronation music. I've chosen the very end because I love all the fanfares and the trumpets and the rousing sound.

Presenter14:06

All people that on earth do dwell the Vaughan Williams arrangement recorded at the coronation service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Presenter14:15

What are your writing habits, Miss Dretfield?

Noel Streatfeild14:17

I break mic regularly every day.

Noel Streatfeild14:20

From about nine o'clock to lunch time.

Noel Streatfeild14:23

And you write in bed, I'm told.

Noel Streatfeild14:25

Well, that was going back into my the having left the theatre.

Noel Streatfeild14:29

You see, everybody used to say, Oh, I've got tickets for this or that, and what about coming to this? and you know and you can't write a book that way, as you know, you've got to sit down and write.

Noel Streatfeild14:38

It's a very disciplined world.

Noel Streatfeild14:40

And so one day, when some one was offering me something particularly tempting to go and see,

Noel Streatfeild14:44

I

Noel Streatfeild14:45

Instead of saying, No, I can't because I'm writing a book which no one believed anyway

Noel Streatfeild14:49

I suddenly took all my clothes off and got back into bed and I thought, Well, now I can't go out on the street and that's the end of it. And I've been in bed ever since.

Presenter14:56

Yes.

Presenter14:57

I've been dipping into your three volumes of autobiography, all of which have the word vicarage in the title. That background certainly seems to have conditioned your life. How right it is. Yeah.

Presenter15:09

Why have you told your own story in the third person? Uh

Noel Streatfeild15:12

It's much you feel much less self-conscious.

Noel Streatfeild15:15

I couldn't do it at all to start with, and then I decided if I did it in a third person I'd feel less embarrassed about it.

Noel Streatfeild15:22

I mean, who on earth, I thought to myself, wants to read my life story? You know, you do feel like that.

Presenter15:28

What are you writing at the moment?

Noel Streatfeild15:30

I'm I'm writing a book for children.

Noel Streatfeild15:34

which was meant to be a book about the theatre at the beginning of the century.

Noel Streatfeild15:38

And then, just as I got past my research stage and was getting on to thinking about the story.

Noel Streatfeild15:43

A voice called out to me and said, What about me? and I found it was exactly right for the heroine of Thurst's Child.

Presenter15:51

So really it's a sequel.

Noel Streatfeild15:53

It's a sequel only sequel I think I've ever written.

Noel Streatfeild15:56

Not have re

Presenter15:56

Record number five.

Noel Streatfeild15:59

As you know, all my life I've been crazy on the belly.

Noel Streatfeild16:02

But the most brutal one to me was danced by Veronova.

Noel Streatfeild16:07

You know, a ballet now out of date and certainly wouldn't suit to day's dancers called Pressage to the music of Tchaikovsky.

Noel Streatfeild16:15

She was passionate.

Noel Streatfeild16:17

And I'll never forget her coming on in a scarlet tunic. Oh, she was a beautiful dancer

Presenter17:27

The opening of the second movement of the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony.

Presenter17:30

The USSR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Svetlanov.

Presenter17:35

You have indeed been to Russia more or less specially to see Bally, haven't you? No, not to see Bally.

Noel Streatfeild17:41

I went to write about schools.

Noel Streatfeild17:43

The ballet came in as a sideline, and went every evening.

Noel Streatfeild17:46

You've done a great deal of travelling.

Noel Streatfeild17:49

whenever I possibly could, and a great deal on cargo boats.

Presenter17:52

Yeah.

Presenter17:53

The slow boat.

Noel Streatfeild17:55

Slow boats and in many ways very uncomfortable, but still you stop at a lot of places where no big boat would, you know, and you see a lot of life.

Presenter18:02

Yes. Do you work when you travel or is this purely recreational?

Noel Streatfeild18:05

No, not not at all, no. Uh the worst boat I ever went on it was a nice boat, and all was right about it. But it was a Polish ship, and I didn't know until I had started that not one soul spoke English.

Presenter18:16

Who did?

Noel Streatfeild18:17

Talk about being lonely. That was one of the times when I was.

Presenter18:20

Right record number six.

Noel Streatfeild18:22

This really goes back to my childhood again.

Noel Streatfeild18:25

Every Sunday night when I was small.

Noel Streatfeild18:27

We gathered round the piano to sing hymns for bed.

Noel Streatfeild18:32

I was the best thing of the family in those days.

Noel Streatfeild18:35

And one of the hymns we always sang

Noel Streatfeild18:38

as a finish, really, was Glory to Thee, my God, this night, sung in cannon, led by me and the other three supposed to come in on time, and of course once in a million times they did. It was rare, but it happened sometimes.

Speaker 319:16

Then I wait.

Speaker 319:23

Praise God from whom our rest is thrown. Praise Him, Lord, creator.

Speaker 319:35

Praise Him.

Presenter19:51

Glory to thee, my God sung by the Templars, and the first verse you heard was sung in canon.

Presenter19:58

Now, Miss Dreadfold, are you a practical person? Could you look after yourself on a desert island?

Noel Streatfeild20:02

No IPF failure.

Noel Streatfeild20:05

I couldn't build a house.

Noel Streatfeild20:06

Are you good at fishing? Well, I've got a lot of lobster catching, and I do think that if I any good reeds grew, and I hope they do, I could weave a lobster pot.

Presenter20:16

Now I know you are an indomitable person. You had a bad illness, but willed yourself out of it. I'm quite sure you could look after yourself on this island.

Noel Streatfeild20:23

What if I got a monkey to talk to?

Noel Streatfeild20:26

And if I had enough lobsters caught,

Noel Streatfeild20:29

to keep me going.

Noel Streatfeild20:31

And if there were any fruit and vegetables growing on the island, you'd do fine.

Presenter20:34

Let's have your next record.

Noel Streatfeild20:37

Again we come back to Ballet, and this again belongs to my childhood. We had moved to Eastbourne by now, and as soon as we were old enough we used to save up our money for a touring group of children's actors that used to appear.

Noel Streatfeild20:50

Every year. They've called Lila Fields Little Wonders, and they had the most exquisite leading lady dancer, aged, I should think, thirteen or fourteen.

Noel Streatfeild21:00

And she danced The Dying Swan. I learnt afterwards, I didn't know it then, that that was that was the founder of our national ballet, Innette de Balwa.

Noel Streatfeild21:09

and a great impression she left on me.

Noel Streatfeild21:11

So my choice is the dying swan.

Presenter22:13

The Swan from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Sans, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Louis Fremont.

Presenter22:21

What's your last record?

Noel Streatfeild22:23

I don't know

Noel Streatfeild22:25

Why, but I've a passion for bells.

Noel Streatfeild22:28

And I thought bells would be lovely ringing all over the island. They would raise the spirits. Or, maybe, like Joan of Arc, they'd be voices for me. I don't know. So I've chosen bells a peal from the best bells that I could think of Saint Paul's Cathedral.

Presenter23:14

The bells of Saint Paul's Cathedral

Presenter23:16

If you would take just one disc out of your eight, which would it be?

Noel Streatfeild23:21

of the coronation hymn.

Noel Streatfeild23:23

Then it was all the fanfares.

Presenter23:25

And one luxury to take with you.

Noel Streatfeild23:28

Ah, I've thought a lot about this.

Noel Streatfeild23:30

I don't know whether you can manage it, but I must have a little garden, and I would like something to sit on, being a bit lame.

Noel Streatfeild23:39

You know one of those things that they make so that you can dig and sit at the same time.

Presenter23:42

Yes. We'll give you a gardener's key. Will you have tools? Oh, everything you'll need for making your little garden. It'll be a luxury garden, of course, not Brussels sprouts and

Noel Streatfeild23:50

On the table grill at Brussels Bra.

Presenter23:52

No, no, no. I would like fancy plants. Fancy plant.

Noel Streatfeild23:53

Which I pretend she

Presenter23:56

And one book apart from the Bible, Shakespeare and Big Encyclopedias.

Noel Streatfeild23:59

Well, I shall be very happy with the Bible rally. I mean, I've never read it through from beginning to end, and that'll be a good opportunity to do it. But for light reading, I thought I'd have the goals for this saga.

Presenter24:09

The Forsyth Saga by Don Calswood. That's right. And thank you, Noel Stratfield, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Noel Streatfeild24:17

Thank you for inviting me.

Presenter24:18

I have enjoyed myself. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 124:28

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