Sir Edmund Hillary

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive. This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection.

Speaker 10:14

The recording didn't contain the guests' eight music choices, so we've rebuilt the original show by using discs from the B B C Gramophone library. For Wright's reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 10:25

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Speaker 10:30

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy nine.

Speaker 10:34

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:54

Our castaway this week is an adventurer.

Presenter0:57

and a very distinguished one, Sir Edmund Hilary.

Presenter1:00

Sir Edmund, I'm sure your adventurous career must have taken you to a desert island or two. Is that right?

Sir Edmund Hillary1:07

Yes, I I have sort of paddled around on desert islands and uh and actually camped on them in in the Fiji area.

Presenter1:12

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary1:14

And uh in the Solomon Islands.

Sir Edmund Hillary1:17

And I really rather enjoyed them. Have you adventured in music? Is that one of your interests?

Sir Edmund Hillary1:22

No, I I would say that um I've enjoyed music, but I'm sort of signally um ignorant really about the names of things. You know, I can sort of hum tunes. I have a a redoubtable ability to

Sir Edmund Hillary1:35

Whistle songs, the same song, for about three hours.

Sir Edmund Hillary1:38

Which has irritated my family for many years. How did you set about choosing your eight discs? You you chose

Sir Edmund Hillary1:44

ones that you whistled.

Sir Edmund Hillary1:46

To tell you the honest truth, I

Sir Edmund Hillary1:48

had uh great uh doubts about just precisely what songs I should choose, because I have a terrible memory for names.

Sir Edmund Hillary1:56

So I uh telephoned up my daughter in New Zealand.

Sir Edmund Hillary1:59

And said, Sarah, what are my eight favourite songs?

Sir Edmund Hillary2:05

Whereupon very accurately she she remembered the names, of course, and of them, and they were the the songs that I would have chosen.

Presenter2:05

Provon.

Sir Edmund Hillary2:12

You whistled a bit occasionally. Yes, I did.

Sir Edmund Hillary2:15

Right, what was the first one?

Sir Edmund Hillary2:17

The first one is Red River Valley.

Sir Edmund Hillary2:20

I remember this very, very clearly. I mean I haven't used it a great deal lately, but when I was a child I used to go to the Turkow movie theatre.

Sir Edmund Hillary2:31

And always before the the start of the actual main film occurred, for quite a long period they used to play this Red River Valley, and I used to find it really one of the most exciting things I'd ever heard at that stage.

Speaker 42:44

From this valley they say you are going.

Speaker 42:49

We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile.

Speaker 42:55

For they say you are taking the sunshine That has brightened our pathways awhile.

Speaker 43:05

Come and sit by my side if you love me Do not hasten to bid me adieu.

Presenter3:15

Red River Valley, to remind you of the Tour Cow Movie Theatre, although this was a recording by Pete Seeger, which is probably a a bit later.

Presenter3:24

You are, of course, a a New Zealander of Yorkshire stock, right?

Sir Edmund Hillary3:28

Yes, three of my grandparents came from Yorkshire, and one from Ireland.

Presenter3:33

Now what makes an adventurer? As a boy, did you have a a fairly tough upbringing, a lot of camping out, field sports, rugger?

Sir Edmund Hillary3:42

Well, I I was um I was very busy when I was uh young. I had to work very hard. I didn't really have a great deal of time being involved in sports, because my father was a a beekeeper, and uh even from an early age my brother and I used to have to go out and and work uh with the bees and so on, and so we were kept extremely busy. He was a man, I believe.

Presenter4:04

I believe of many pots. He was proprietor and editor of a local newspaper. Um, and he had a few cows. I believe he used to fix a rack to his cows' backs so that he could read while he was milking. He

Sir Edmund Hillary4:17

Tell us But

Presenter4:17

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary4:17

Do not

Speaker 44:17

And yes.

Sir Edmund Hillary4:17

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary4:19

Well, he was a great reader, actually, and uh he used to find milking cows a rather boring procedure.

Sir Edmund Hillary4:25

So by hanging uh a book over the over the back of the cow, he got through uh quite a lot of literature.

Presenter4:32

You went up to university. What were you reading?

Sir Edmund Hillary4:35

I was um science.

Sir Edmund Hillary4:37

I was one of the original dropouts, I might say. I only spent uh two years at university and then decided that uh it really wasn't my forte.

Presenter4:37

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary4:46

and reverted then back to uh beekeeping.

Presenter4:50

At what point were you bitten by the climbing bug?

Sir Edmund Hillary4:53

Well, the first time I really ever went to the mountains as such, where there was snow and ice, was my last year at high school.

Sir Edmund Hillary5:01

and I went skiing.

Sir Edmund Hillary5:03

And I I really enjoyed this. I found this, you know, tremendously exciting.

Sir Edmund Hillary5:08

And for a few years I I did a little bit of skiing and a lot of walking about in the in the forest and in the in the mountains. And it wasn't really until I was about nineteen or twenty that I really became interested in mountaineering as such.

Presenter5:21

You used to go climbing on your own and and take a few chances before you

Sir Edmund Hillary5:25

You were really adept, I believe. Well, I I did have difficulty in finding people to go with me because I was very enthusiastic.

Sir Edmund Hillary5:33

and I didn't seem to mind going out in uh miserable weather.

Sir Edmund Hillary5:37

And um my companions would go out on one trip and then they'd say, Well, we enjoyed it very much, but we're not going next time So I in the end I sort of ran out of companions and had to do it solo. Just fair weather friends.

Presenter5:49

Uh

Speaker 45:49

Yes.

Sir Edmund Hillary5:50

What's your second record to be?

Sir Edmund Hillary5:52

Well the second uh record is one that I really have a great affection for, and it's called There's a Bridle Hanging on the Wall.

Sir Edmund Hillary6:01

Now this sort of came into my life at a slightly later stage in the Red River Valley.

Sir Edmund Hillary6:08

And it sort of stayed with me all the time because I actually learned to sing it.

Sir Edmund Hillary6:13

And uh on party nights, you know, about two o'clock in the morning, if I'm uh properly prompted, I can even do a rendition myself.

Speaker 46:23

There's a bridle hanging on the wall

Speaker 46:30

And a saddle in an empty stall

Speaker 46:37

You ask me why the teardrops fall

Speaker 46:43

Is that bright or hanging on?

Presenter6:43

Is that bright? I don't

Presenter6:49

There's a Bridle Hanging on the Wall by Carson Robison and His Pioneers, a great record.

Presenter6:55

I'm glad you introduced us to that one.

Presenter6:58

Now, a family trip to Europe gave you your first chance at the Alps. Did they present any problems you hadn't encountered in New Zealand?

Sir Edmund Hillary7:06

No, I wouldn't have said so mainly because we tackled pretty much the routine type of routes on the mountains and we had a a very exciting time and a very enjoyable one. But compared to the sort of fantastic routes that are being done these days, our trip wouldn't have been regarded as one of the great ventures into the Alps. What took you for the first time to the Big Stuff, to the Himalayas?

Sir Edmund Hillary7:33

Well there was a group of us who'd decided we wanted to go to the Himalayas and we organised a shoestring expedition. There were just four of us, New Zealanders, and we went over there and we went into the Gowal Himalaya and we were fit and strong. We didn't have any experience of the Himalayas but we really did have quite a successful time. We climbed quite a number of peaks of over 20,000 feet. And this brought us to the notice of the famous mountaineer Eric Shipton, who had just had permission to take an expedition to reconnoitre the south side of Everest. And he invited two of us to go along. So that's how I got involved with the Everest story.

Presenter8:19

I can understand the exhilaration of climbing, the heights, the vistas, but I've been reading your autobiography, Nothing Venture, Nothing Win, and the dangers really seem daunting. It it's a long catalogue of avalanches, fishing chaps out of crevasses, casualties through frostbites.

Presenter8:36

Does one get inured to all this?

Presenter8:39

Uh

Sir Edmund Hillary8:39

Well, I think perhaps that um

Sir Edmund Hillary8:41

One has to remember that

Sir Edmund Hillary8:44

During the period you spend on an expedition, there's only about sort of 5% of the time that you're involved in tooth and nail activities. The other 95% is really good fun. It's exciting and stimulating. I think you're sort of sharing things with the other members of the party. There's a lot of comradeship. And the five minutes of excitement and of fear, perhaps, is a stimulating factor, I think, during the course of the trip.

Presenter9:13

In your climbing lifetime have you seen equipment get very much better?

Sir Edmund Hillary9:18

Oh yes, there's no question at all that the equipment uh as used uh nowadays is vastly superior to uh what we used on Everest in 1953.

Sir Edmund Hillary9:28

And this has helped the standard of mountaineering to improve enormously over that period.

Presenter9:34

Was it oxygen that really made Everest possible?

Sir Edmund Hillary9:38

I think oxygen played quite a big part, although now of course the mountain has been climbed without oxygen. But in 1953 we still had these grave doubts as to whether it was physically possible to climb the mountain even with oxygen. And I think that sort of problem had to be overcome. That psychological barrier really had to be broken before people could attempt devast without oxygen.

Presenter10:05

Now nineteen fifty three and the assault on the highest peak in the world. What is the height of Everest?

Presenter10:11

Twenty

Sir Edmund Hillary10:12

Yeah.

Presenter10:12

Oh.

Sir Edmund Hillary10:12

Mm-hmm.

Presenter10:12

twenty eight feet.

Sir Edmund Hillary10:13

Yeah.

Presenter10:14

An expedition led not by Eric Shipton, but by a soldier, John Hunt. Did you know him?

Sir Edmund Hillary10:20

No, I hadn't met John before. In fact, in fact, I'd never even heard of him before he was appointed leader of the expedition. But once I got to know him, of course, I very quickly came to realize his virtues and his strengths. How big was the expedition? How many chapters? Well, really, according to modern-day standards, not terribly big. There were ten climbing members of the party and three others who were involved in filming and press and things of that nature. The Sherpas. Plus the Sherpas, yes, we had I think it was about thirty uh Sherpa porters who carried loads up into the western Coombe and up onto the South Coal.

Presenter11:01

You worked upward through a number of increasingly smaller base camps, so that's the sort of routine, isn't it?

Sir Edmund Hillary11:06

Yes, it is. It's really a sort of a pyramid of effort. You carry vast quantities of stuff to your first camp, and then a little less to the next one, and so on and so on, up the mountain.

Presenter11:16

Right, before we get to the the great moment, let's have another record.

Sir Edmund Hillary11:19

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary11:20

This one is uh blowing in the wind.

Sir Edmund Hillary11:23

And uh I think

Sir Edmund Hillary11:25

For me anyway, it sort of uh epitomised the period of protest which uh

Sir Edmund Hillary11:32

that was so strong a few years ago and which I personally found very attractive, the the concept of protest against many of the strange things that we have in our society.

Speaker 411:43

How many times must the cannon balls fly before their forever pass

Speaker 411:53

And

Speaker 411:55

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.

Speaker 412:08

How many years must a mountain exist before it is water?

Presenter12:16

Peter Paul and Mary blowing in the wind. How much did the route to the peak owe to the reconnaissance expedition you had been on?

Sir Edmund Hillary12:24

Well I think that any attempt on a mountain is a culmination of the efforts of previous attempts and previous efforts. I mean we benefited not only from our reconnaissance but by the two attempts made the following year by the Swiss expedition. We learnt by their experience and it helped us in our push to the summit.

Presenter12:48

Well, you successfully established the camps, passing supplies up one to another.

Presenter12:53

And then Camp Seven, I think, was the last one, wasn't it?

Sir Edmund Hillary12:57

Well, Camp Nine actually was ours because yes,'cause we had a a lot of sort of strange inter little intermediate camps. But um

Presenter12:58

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary13:05

At Cap Nine was the the one that was highest on the mountain, at nearly twenty eight thousand feet.

Presenter13:10

When did John Hunt decide that you and Sherpa Ten C

Sir Edmund Hillary13:13

King should make the final assault.

Sir Edmund Hillary13:15

Well when we'd established the the camp on the South Coal at 26,000 feet, we all withdrew for a few days down off the mountain, more or less to have a rest and get reorganised. And it was then decided as to who was going to do what. I mean there were plenty of jobs that had to be done.

Sir Edmund Hillary13:34

And it was then John's decision that Tenzing and I should be in the summit assault.

Presenter13:42

Now you struggled up to the top. Was it a case to the last

Sir Edmund Hillary13:45

few hundred feet being the worst.

Sir Edmund Hillary13:47

Well I think that once we reached the south summit at 28,700 feet and looked along the ridge which was quite impressive, but I really felt that now that we did have a a good chance of reaching the top. Up until then it had all been sort of very debatable. I really didn't know whether or not we were going to be successful.

Sir Edmund Hillary14:09

Along the ridge there was this step in the ridge, which we knew was there, and we knew might be a problem, and we did have a little bit of a struggle getting up it. But once we got up that,

Sir Edmund Hillary14:19

Then for the first time really I was quite confident that we were going to get to the top. And then that terrific moment.

Sir Edmund Hillary14:25

Yes, when finally we reached the summit.

Presenter14:27

And it happened to be Coronation Day, June the 2nd, 19

Sir Edmund Hillary14:31

1853. Was that planned?

Sir Edmund Hillary14:33

Well, we actually climbed it on uh May the 29th.

Sir Edmund Hillary14:36

And it took several days for the news to reach London, and it arrived on the night before the coronation on June 2nd. It wasn't planned really at all, but it was an effort by James Morris, our Times correspondent. He realised that if he really got cracking, it would be possible to get the news out, and he was successful in doing this.

Presenter15:00

Good day, too. Yes, it is indeed. And your comment, your your summing up when you came down from the peak has now passed into the history book. Will you repeat those immortal words yourself?

Sir Edmund Hillary15:13

Uh Well I should explain that these uh words weren't really meant for the uh listening public of the world. I was uh talking on the South Coal and came down and met George Lowe, my fellow climbing New Zealander, and I said to George, Well, George, we knocked the bastard off Well done.

Presenter15:32

Record number

Sir Edmund Hillary15:33

Football.

Sir Edmund Hillary15:34

This is Leaving on a Jet Plane, also by Peter, Paul and Mary. I've really always rather just enjoyed the melody of this song and as I seem always seem to be leaving on jet planes for one place or another, it does seem quite appropriate.

Speaker 415:52

And on a jet plane, I don't know when I'll be back again.

Speaker 416:00

Oh babe, I hate to go There's so many times I've let you down So many times I've played around I tell you now they don't mean a thing

Presenter16:19

Peter, Paul, and Mary again.

Presenter16:21

Leaving on a jet plane.

Presenter16:23

Now you and Ten Sing were the first. How many people have stood on the peak since?

Sir Edmund Hillary16:27

Uh

Sir Edmund Hillary16:28

Oh, I think it's something now in excess of sixty people have actually uh stood on the summit of Everest. Uh many of them have uh climbed it by uh the traditional route that we used, uh but some of the more hardy souls have uh climbed

Sir Edmund Hillary16:44

More spectacular routes, face routes, and up the west ridge.

Presenter16:48

But

Sir Edmund Hillary16:49

Michael

Sir Edmund Hillary16:50

It's possible. Well it's like the four minute mile really, isn't it?

Sir Edmund Hillary16:55

I think being first, al although it may not be always uh technically difficult, there is a a major step you have to make in order to to overcome the thing and and just being up there first it's quite an experience, really is quite a thrill. Well Everest of course completely changed your life.

Sir Edmund Hillary17:13

Yes, it changed it a good deal. I I was um I think I basically followed the same pattern that I was following at the time of Everest. I went on expeditions as I had been doing before.

Sir Edmund Hillary17:26

I think the major difference was that uh the climb of Everest

Sir Edmund Hillary17:29

perhaps made it uh more possible for me to

Sir Edmund Hillary17:32

raise funds and organise expeditions certainly a good deal more easily than it would have been before.

Presenter17:40

The next major adventure was the the first crossing of the Antarctic continent through the South Pole. That was with Doctor Vivian Fuchs. Yes, right.

Sir Edmund Hillary17:47

Hmm.

Presenter17:48

Another tough one.

Sir Edmund Hillary17:50

Come off the first time, did it?

Sir Edmund Hillary17:52

Well, we went down initially the year before on the Weddell Sea and we were crushed in the ice for quite a while. But finally we were able to shake ourselves free and get right down into the Weddell Sea and establish the initial base. And then the following year of course we had the main period of the crossing over the continent.

Presenter18:13

One of the excitements of trips like that must be occasionally coming across traces of those who had been over the route before. In Antarctica you came across a hut built by an expedition that had made the attempt forty five years before.

Sir Edmund Hillary18:26

Yes, well in the down in the McMurdo Sound where I had my base, there were huts that had been built by Captain Scott and by Shackleton and these are now being preserved as relics of the past. And it's interesting that these huts are really very rugged structures and I'm sure that even though the pioneers in those days were extremely isolated, they didn't have the radio communications that we had.

Sir Edmund Hillary18:54

I think probably when they were inside their huts they were very comfortable during the winter period.

Presenter18:59

You've been on other expeditions to the Himalayas, including one which included a search for the Yeti, the the abominable snowman. What were your conclusions after weighing

Sir Edmund Hillary19:09

A lot of evidence.

Sir Edmund Hillary19:11

Well, I'm afraid that uh we went into things fairly thoroughly and investigated a lot of this evidence and and we came to the conclusion, unfortunately, that

Sir Edmund Hillary19:21

The Yeti is really essentially a mythological creature.

Sir Edmund Hillary19:25

I would dearly love uh to be proved wrong on this, because I think we'd all would uh like to to to be a Yeti.

Sir Edmund Hillary19:31

and for it actually to exist. And I know there are many people, including uh Lord Hunt actually.

Sir Edmund Hillary19:37

who um still like to feel that the the Yeti does tramp around the Himalayas on odd occasions. But my feeling on this expedition essentially was that the creature is mythological.

Presenter19:51

All those bones and skins and scalps and so on that are preserved in various monasteries.

Sir Edmund Hillary19:56

They all had a logical and practical explanation, which didn't require the existence uh um of the Yeti.

Presenter20:06

Record number five.

Sir Edmund Hillary20:08

This is Now is the Hour. It's uh sung by Vira Lynn.

Sir Edmund Hillary20:12

And um

Sir Edmund Hillary20:14

I have sort of a very I think all New Zealanders have a great affection for this.

Sir Edmund Hillary20:19

because it tends to always be sung at the end of a party or when people are departing.

Sir Edmund Hillary20:25

I can remember when we left from Dunedin in New Zealand to sail down to the Antarctic. We were going to be away 18 months. All our family were gathered on the wharf and just as the boat drew away someone started singing, Now is the hour and so everybody sang it and I think there were tears in all our eyes actually at the end of it.

Speaker 420:49

No

Speaker 420:52

Is the R

Speaker 420:57

When we must say goodbye

Speaker 421:06

Soon you'll be saved.

Speaker 421:15

Far across the sea.

Presenter21:21

Now is the ah sung by Vera Lynn.

Presenter21:24

Your latest major expedition sounds a little more comfortable than most of the others, by jet boat up the Ganges.

Presenter21:32

What was the purpose, just for fun, or to test the boats, or or what?

Presenter21:36

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary21:36

Well it was a culmination really of um adventure. We knew the upper reaches of the Ganges were very rough water indeed, and that it'd be uh extremely difficult to uh get our boats up them. But I think as well we had a feeling of, in a sense, carrying out a almost a cultural pilgrimage through the the centre of India.

Sir Edmund Hillary21:58

by travelling up Mother Ganga, which is of course the holy river of India. And as it happened, this aspect of it became increasingly important. We really were taken very much into the hearts of the Indians as we travelled along. And I think for that period at least anyway, we all became Hindus. We had many of the Hindu pujas or religious ceremonies as we travelled up. And it really was an absolutely fascinating journey. How many people in the expedition and how many boats? We had three boats, so 16 feet long, and there were five of us in each boat. So basically we had a crew of 15.

Presenter22:42

What

Sir Edmund Hillary22:43

Uh Bidkin the

Presenter22:43

Jet boats do it in in quiet water w when when you find some.

Sir Edmund Hillary22:46

Well in quiet uh water and and with uh light loads uh these boats had a top speed of about 48 miles an hour.

Sir Edmund Hillary22:54

But even with heavy loads and five people, we could cruise comfortably at thirty miles an hour. Are you called your book?

Presenter23:01

Talk about the expedition from ocean to the sky. What is the lift? How far up are the headwaters of our

Sir Edmund Hillary23:08

Above sea level.

Sir Edmund Hillary23:09

Well we um as far as the actual boats were concerned, we of course started at sea level and uh we finished up with the boats almost fifteen hundred miles up at about four thousand feet. But from then on uh we uh walked on foot up to uh the the the very sacred shrine of Badranath at ten thousand feet and ultimately we climbed uh this mountain of over nineteen thousand feet. Your son Peter was on the trip. Yes he was. He he's a very keen mountaineer and I think although he enjoyed the the journey up the river very much too, I think he was really waiting to to get into the mountains and uh do the climbing.

Sir Edmund Hillary23:50

and uh he was on the summit of the two mountains that were climbed.

Presenter23:54

One of the sad things nowadays is is that for an expedition like this you have to get permission from bureaucrats and fill up forms. I is that a very tiresome procedure?

Sir Edmund Hillary24:04

Well in our case it wasn't actually. We did have a tremendous amount of cooperation from the Indian Government and the various sort of departments of the Indian Government. I think they felt that we were perhaps encouraging tourism or something of this nature. But it was the people of India in many ways who became so absorbed in the whole trip. I really think that there was this sense that we were carrying out a religious pilgrimage up the river. and all these millions and millions of people were following it day by day over the radio and in the press and so on. And this was really a quite unexpected result as far as we're concerned. Let's have some more music.

Sir Edmund Hillary24:48

Yes, well the the next one is, seeing we've been dealing with water, is Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel. I've always rather enjoyed this song.

Speaker 425:06

I'll take your

Speaker 425:10

Oh, when darkness comes and pain is all on

Presenter25:32

Bridge over troubled water, Simon and Garfunkel. You still spend quite a lot

Sir Edmund Hillary25:37

Yes, I do. I I've become involved over the years in, well, sort of an assistance programme, particularly with the Sherpa people who live up on the south side of Mount Everest.

Sir Edmund Hillary25:49

Over the years I've built up quite an affection with these people and been aware of the fact that they lack a lot of the things that we take for granted. So for quite a number of years now I've been involved in the establishing of schools for their children, the building of a couple of hospitals and various bridges and airfields and things of this nature.

Presenter26:14

Yes, I'm going to pick up on the airfields Sir Edmund. On your American trips you've mourned the the mess and destruction that development has brought, but now you're really making possible a tourist trade to the Himalayas, to the Sherpa country.

Sir Edmund Hillary26:26

Well, I I actually do feel a certain uh sense of regret about this. We originally um built the first airfield so that we could fly supplies in to build our hospital at Kundi. And uh the the use of this airfield by the tourist traffic was really a secondary thing.

Sir Edmund Hillary26:46

I sometimes uh wonder now whether if I'd known how it had developed as to

Sir Edmund Hillary26:52

Whether we would, in fact, have built the airfield. But I suppose when I look back on it, all I did was sort of push forward the development by perhaps five years. It would have happened anyway. People do want to get into this area, they want to see Everest and these other beautiful mountains. And so I don't blame myself too badly for this. Right.

Speaker 427:00

Mm-hmm.

Sir Edmund Hillary27:14

Record number seven we go to.

Sir Edmund Hillary27:16

This is Bangladesh, sung by Joan Baez. I think it's appropriate perhaps because the Ganga, a large portion of it does go down into Bangladesh, but this also I feel represents the concern that many of these type of singers have expressed about how we're treating the third world and the problems of that area.

Speaker 427:42

Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Bangladesh. For when the sun sinks in the west, Die a million people of the Bangladesh

Speaker 428:09

Once again we stand aside.

Presenter28:13

The song of Bangladesh Joan Bayes.

Presenter28:17

Sir Edmund, you're one person I do not have to ask the usual questions about your capability to cope on a desert island.

Presenter28:25

You wouldn't be worried by the prospect, would you?

Sir Edmund Hillary28:28

No, I think probably I could uh cope reasonably well uh if there were was, you know, sort of reasonable um possibilities of getting food and so on. I think I could probably tackle the problems. Would you try to escape?

Sir Edmund Hillary28:41

Yes, I think I probably would. I don't think there's any desert island that I've seen some very beautiful ones that I would uh want to stay on indefinitely. We won't worry about it. Last record. Yes, the last record is To Bobby, uh once again by Joan Baez.

Presenter28:51

Must

Sir Edmund Hillary28:58

This is a song that I I've always enjoyed. I found it

Sir Edmund Hillary29:01

A very pleasant one, a sentimental one perhaps, but it is one of my favourites.

Speaker 429:07

But there is joy and there is hope, and there's a place for you And you have heard the voices in the night, Obi They're crying for you

Speaker 429:25

Sing the children in the morning, my Bobby, they're dying.

Presenter29:39

To Bobby, Joan Byers.

Presenter29:43

Now, we've heard your eight records. If you could take only one, if you lost seven of them on the way, which would you hang on to?

Sir Edmund Hillary29:50

Well, it would be quite a hard decision, actually, but I really think I'd prefer blowing in the wind. Peter, Paul, and Mary. Yes.

Presenter29:57

And one luxury to take to the island with you. Nothing of it

Sir Edmund Hillary30:01

Any practical use of the mm-hmm.

Sir Edmund Hillary30:05

Well, maybe I'd um perhaps a painting. Certainly. In fact, I have a a painting on the on the walls of uh my lounge at home.

Sir Edmund Hillary30:14

which is a painting of the Kathmandu Valley, which I'm very fond of. Who painted it?

Sir Edmund Hillary30:18

Well, actually I couldn't tell you the name of the painter. He was a rather obscure Indian painter.

Sir Edmund Hillary30:23

But um it is a a very a very beautiful picture.

Presenter30:27

Yeah.

Sir Edmund Hillary30:27

Right.

Presenter30:27

And one book, The Bible and Shakespeare, are already on the island. We put the bar up on big encyclopedias. What would you like?

Sir Edmund Hillary30:36

I think I would choose Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Presenter30:40

Fair enough. And thank you, Sir Edmund Hilary, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Sir Edmund Hillary30:45

Thank you very much.

Presenter30:45

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 130:56

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Speaker 131:00

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