Frances Perry

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty 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's the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection. It was archived without the music, so although the Castaways choices are introduced, they're not part of this recording. Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website.

Speaker 10:26

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty.

Speaker 10:30

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:32

This week our Castaway is the writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on gardening subjects, Francis Perry. Now, Francis, we know from your many books and talks on flowers and gardens that you're a lover of visual beauty. What about oral beauty? What about music?

Frances Perry0:48

Well, here I have to confess that I'm rather a Philistine, although I come of a musical family. I learnt the piano for eight years.

Frances Perry0:57

I learnt the violin for two years, but I'm afraid it still passed me by. I only know one tune now that I could play at any rate. It didn't take? It didn't take. No, I think I must have taken after my father, who was always a keen gardener. And he died when I was seven, so I don't know how musical he was. But as a child we had to sit round uh my mother who would play the piano, me playing the violin, my brother playing the clarinet, and try and sing. It was all rather ghastly, but we did it regularly every Sunday.

Presenter1:28

So there are no discs about the house? No. No. Well, you're married, of course, to to Roy Hay, another gardener. He's not terribly musical either.

Frances Perry1:37

Well, I think he is, but he gives in to me.

Presenter1:39

Oh, that's it.

Frances Perry1:40

To be quite truthful. I can't help it. It's just one of those things. I see music in flowers growing and in birds and animals, and so I get it in another way. But I do like to hear a number of tunes, but some make me really want to cry. I'll be truthful with you.

Presenter1:55

What was your plan in in choosing just eight?

Frances Perry1:59

I chose eight that I liked or that had some connection with my family or myself.

Presenter2:04

What's the first one?

Frances Perry2:05

Well, the first one is the only tune that I say I could still play, which is The Soldier's Chorus from Faus.

Presenter2:11

And how would you like to hear it performed?

Frances Perry2:14

I'd like to hear a male chorus. I do like a good rousing tune, whatever it is.

Presenter2:22

The soldier's chorus from Guno's Faust, sung by some Welshmen, it's by the Trioche Male Choir.

Presenter2:29

What part of the country do you come from?

Presenter2:31

Einfield

Frances Perry2:31

Called Middlesex, a small village called Bulls Cross. I was born there, went away when I was first married, come back there.

Presenter2:38

So really, you you're a country girl.

Frances Perry2:40

Yes, it's near London, but it's near the country, too. It's in the country. When did this?

Presenter2:45

This fascination by gardening started.

Frances Perry2:48

I suppose it started when I was eighteen months old. My mother said I fell headfirst into a tub of liquid manure which my father used in the garden.

Presenter2:54

Father used in the God.

Frances Perry2:56

He brought me out looking rather green and decided to go and for solid fertilizers for that period. And that didn't put you off the whole project? No, obviously I always loved it. I always remember going round as a child and picking the wild flowers and boring my brothers. But I had the good fortune in life to live in a village where there was a very, very great gardener called EA Bowles.

Presenter3:01

Player.

Frances Perry3:17

He's almost a legend to gardeners everywhere because he was one of the best that this country's ever had this century.

Frances Perry3:23

And he taught me so much. He taught me about flowers, he taught me the stories behind the label, little yarns about them. He had a most wonderful garden.

Frances Perry3:33

I remember all sorts of things about him. I'm still interested in that garden, which now belongs to the Lee Valley Park Authority. And I remember he used to plant sponges.

Frances Perry3:43

Ordinary washing sponges under the soil because the garden is so dry in order to retain the moisture. This was of course before the days when we could get peat very easily, and all his friends used to contribute their old sponges. He was quite a character, and he said to me, If you want to go in for horticulture, which I suddenly did when I got about thirteen, I was taken to Chelsea Flower Show by my mother, and I was so overwhelmed with all these blooms that nothing would turn me off.

Speaker 13:52

Yeah.

Frances Perry4:09

that I had to be a gardener, as I called it then, and he said you must train.

Frances Perry4:14

So that was the start. Now he went to Swanley Horticultural College, which was bombed during the war and is now part of Wye College in Kent.

Frances Perry4:23

It's quite a thing, you know, because in the twenties the idea of a woman taking up horticulture as a profession

Frances Perry4:29

It was rather unusual. And I remember even our clothes, we wore breeches. and sort of shirts over the top with linen jackets, and if there were any men about, the principal said you wear these jackets right to your knees the whole time. And it was so hot in the greenhouses, but we still had to wear them.

Presenter4:47

And after your academic studies, of course, some practical work.

Frances Perry4:50

Yes, in those days you did your practical work and passed your examinations and then you went for a year either to a nursery or to a good garden and worked under a head gardener for a year so that you got the practical side a little more.

Presenter5:05

potting and digging and pricking out and

Frances Perry5:07

Oh, everything, yes. But I went to a nursery near my home, Perry's Hardy Plant Farm, and married the eldest son. So that's my first husband.

Presenter5:14

Yeah.

Presenter5:16

You became Horticultural Advisor for Middlesex County Council, a big area.

Frances Perry5:22

Yes, there were about two and a half million people, because Middlesex at that time stretched from Staines to Potters Bar and all the land between except Greater London.

Frances Perry5:32

And

Frances Perry5:33

This was an interesting job. First of all, I went because of the war really. I went as a an assistant horticulturist because they were short of people to teach others how to grow food. That was the great importance at that period. I went to gun sites. I had to have a special pass for that to teach the soldiers. I don't think they liked it very much. I remember going to one, and there was such a big crowd to hear the lecture.

Frances Perry5:58

hundreds and hundreds of them, and I said to the sergeant,

Frances Perry6:02

What a big crowd You're all interested in gardening He said, Look here, sister, how long is this going on?

Frances Perry6:08

Well, I said, You're all here. He said, We've been ordered to come here. Is there a dance afterwards? I said, Right. Ten minutes at the most.

Presenter6:14

A very popular lecturer. So it wasn't just a matter of looking after parks and gardens.

Frances Perry6:15

Very popular.

Frances Perry6:17

Yeah.

Frances Perry6:20

Oh, no, no, it was schools and it was horticultural societies and allotment societies, all those people.

Presenter6:26

How long did you stay in that job?

Frances Perry6:28

Well, I got the senior job in due course. As the organiser of agriculture and horticultural education, I was there somewhere about

Frances Perry6:36

Twenty four years.

Presenter6:37

You also had a lot to do with the popularisation of allotments, getting all that organised.

Frances Perry6:43

Yes, in a way, because I was on the

Frances Perry6:47

government commission that was examining the position of allotments sometime after the war.

Frances Perry6:53

We came out with all sorts of ideas, some of which were taken on, some were not. They then became leisure gardens. Professor Thorpe was the chairman.

Frances Perry7:02

And uh there were seven of us. It lasted about three years this

Frances Perry7:06

Inquiry

Frances Perry7:08

And we went to Europe. It was rather frustrating to realize that in Britain we had started the allotment movement in the eighteen eighties.

Frances Perry7:15

And yet many of our allotments were still eighteen eighty to look at, very decrepit and run down, and you go to Sweden and Germany and Holland, and see these most beautiful allotments with little houses where people could stay the week end and where they could grow flowers it certainly woke us up to the possibilities.

Presenter7:33

Yeah. If ever I heard a euphemism, it's a leisure garden for an allotmentable that backbreaking toy.

Frances Perry7:38

If you got

Presenter7:42

You were principal of a college for a while.

Frances Perry7:44

Yes. At Norwood Hall, kneeling, which is still going. I stayed there until I retired.

Presenter7:50

and the first woman member of the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Frances Perry7:54

Yes, there are sixteen members of Council. They've always been men since the society was founded in eighteen oh four.

Frances Perry8:01

And I was the first one. I was very surprised. In fact, when they asked me

Frances Perry8:05

I said, if you're asking me because I'm a woman, I'm not coming. They said, oh no, it wasn't that reason. Wasn't that nice of them?

Presenter8:11

They were very kind to me. You remember the first committee meeting, do you? The council meeting.

Frances Perry8:15

I went in all fear and trembling, but they were so nice to me, so pleasant, and I learnt a lot. They're the cream of British haughty culture. I was very fortunate. And then they made me the first vice president woman vice president, that is, of the society. That again I'm very proud of. I should think so.

Presenter8:30

Yeah.

Presenter8:31

Oh, it got to your second record.

Frances Perry8:33

Well, the next one I would like, if I may, is to have a record that's connected with my grandfather. It's uh Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. And the reason I want it is because my grandfather was a bandmaster of the Royal Sussex Regiment, and I'm told that he invented the roll of drums before the national anthem and also put all Sousa's marches to band music. His name was CW Hewitt, and I know that it's there's still his music that's being played. And if I could have Nella Hall, where he was as a young man, playing it, that would be absolutely marvellous.

Presenter9:12

Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever, played by the band and trumpeters of the Royal Military School of Music, Nellow Hall. When did you start writing?

Frances Perry9:22

I was forced into it by my father-in-law, Amos Perry. He said, I want an article for country life on Aquaria.

Frances Perry9:29

And so I shut myself in an attic. I was so miserable about it. It took me hours and hours and hours. This time I was about um nineteen or twenty, so it's a long while ago. However, I wrote it and I got fifteen shillings for it. But it um it started me on the go.

Presenter9:45

And since then you've written for all sorts of papers. You're currently gardening editor of The Observer. Yes.

Frances Perry9:48

Peace.

Presenter9:52

Answering readers' letters must be a time consuming chore for anyone with that sort of job.

Frances Perry9:58

Yes, they can be. They ask so many questions, some of them. Some of them really want help. I think the funniest was one I had from a man. He said, You tell us to use

Frances Perry10:08

all sorts of fertilizers and natural things in our garden. He said, I wonder, would nail pairings help?

Frances Perry10:14

I wrote back and I said, Yes, it might be if you got the whole street. I think he thought they were hoof and horn. I can't think of any other reason.

Presenter10:23

Uh and you contribute to a rather specialized magazine devoted to flower arranging. That's another of your interests.

Frances Perry10:29

Yes, that's Flora. Flora magazine, which of course comes out once every other month. It started once a quarter.

Presenter10:35

And a number of books. How many?

Frances Perry10:38

Roughly.

Frances Perry10:39

I was thinking it's about sixteen, but I've got three on the stocks. You see, we have several on the go at once, and contributed in part to many others, of course.

Presenter10:49

Flowers of the World are a beautifully produced book, beautifully illustrated.

Frances Perry10:53

Well, of course I didn't do the illustrations and had the good luck to have Leslie Greenwood to help me with that. It took us a long time because every one of those plants were drawn from life and many of those I had to supply.

Presenter11:05

A book about water gardens that's a special subject of yours.

Frances Perry11:08

Yes. My father was just starting that and he gave me that job when I first went as a student and I became intensely interested in it and uh it is a fascinating thing and of course millions of people now have small water gardens so it's universally

Frances Perry11:24

Popular.

Presenter11:25

And what other subjects have you

Frances Perry11:26

Oh, I've written a book on shrubs and bulbs.

Presenter11:26

Uh

Frances Perry11:29

Uh general gardening books, a number of them. The last one was on beautiful leaved plants, taken from an eighteenth century book, as a matter of fact. Uh some of the old illustrations have been recaptured. They were all wood cuts, and I have written the text to them. That's rather fun, Do you know?

Presenter11:44

Question.

Presenter11:46

Your third record, what's that to be?

Frances Perry11:48

If I might, I'd like because it's fun, gardening, you see, it's not all seriousness, and I'd like to hear Gracie Fields The Biggest Espadistra in the World.

Presenter12:00

A Song of Horticultural Significance by Gracie Fields. When did you start broadcasting?

Frances Perry12:06

1946, I can tell you that exactly. But television came a little later. But the first broadcast I ever did I was a spelling bee, and they were silly. They gave me names like Fuchsia.

Presenter12:18

Oh well that should have been a piece of money.

Frances Perry12:18

We'll actually have a lot of people who are going to be able to.

Presenter12:22

And you were in the early days at Alexandra Palace, of course, when it restarted after the war.

Frances Perry12:27

Yes, I I was indeed. Fred Streeter and I used to do a gardening programme. Our garden then was down the hill, actually in the ground in front of the palace. And I think all the cameramen used to pray for a wet day because they simply hated dragging that heavy pipe across the road in order to take the uh pictures.

Frances Perry12:48

And often it used to blow like fury and people would come with motor bikes and there'd be swarms of children and they'd fall over the fence.

Frances Perry12:55

I can remember one or two very interesting things. We had Reg Gamble there. He was a great beekeeper and he had hives of bees and they used to go down to the local sweet factory and mess up the honey by putting in toffee as well. It was used to be an awful mess. What was that for? Well, I don't know. I suppose it was an easy way to collect

Frances Perry13:12

Something sweet to put in their hives. But we had one ghastly occasion where we had to broadcast, in spite of the fact that a swarm of bees had come out of the hive and were all hovering around us.

Presenter13:14

BAA.

Frances Perry13:23

The camera men nearly went on strike and insisted on having veils over their heads, but of course Fred and I had to go on regardless. But, however, we didn't get stung.

Presenter13:32

The show must go on.

Frances Perry13:33

Another occasion we were doing a programme. It was bitterly cold, so cold, and it seemed to be a long while hanging about because there was another programme coming in the middle. So we all went and had a hot drink.

Frances Perry13:46

And I remember Fred, who really never drank at all, he said, I've got to have something warm, I feel really chilled through. And he got rather excited and when we were actually live on the air, he picked up a handful of soil and he said, Oh, it's lovely. This is how it should break up and he threw it over his shoulder in my eye. I stepped back and went the pond. So I'll never forget that one.

Presenter14:03

I sent it back on

Presenter14:07

Oh, television was much more fun in those days. It was. Of course it must have been a big event when colour television became general, as for the gardening people.

Frances Perry14:09

Uh

Frances Perry14:16

Yes, of course, if ever it was meant for anything, it's meant for flowers. Yes. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much of that because the gardening programmes moved north. I had to stay south. I was still working and fitted it in between. But you're quite right.

Presenter14:30

Record number four, please.

Presenter14:32

Uh

Frances Perry14:32

We have

Frances Perry14:33

An old favourite of mine, Strauss's Blue Daniel Waltz. Why'd you choose it?

Presenter14:37

Yeah.

Frances Perry14:38

I just like it, and it reminds me of you know, I I had my days dancing round with my husbands and boyfriends it say brings it back.

Presenter14:49

Johann Strauss's blue Daniel, Vidy Boskowski conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter14:56

Now your travels, Frances. You've been to a lot of places, haven't you?

Frances Perry15:00

Yes, I've been very fortunate. I've been able to tour a lot with Americans, New York Botanic Garden, Garden Club of America, and of course all sorts of associations in this country. And I've been to many countries. Matter of fact, seventy five. It's rather a lot.

Presenter15:14

So that is a lot.

Frances Perry15:16

Yes, yes.

Presenter15:16

Mainly, if I suppose to lecture.

Frances Perry15:18

Uh, lettra or looking for flowers. You can't help it. You see, this is the joy of

Presenter15:20

You can't

Frances Perry15:23

my profession. Wherever you go there's a new plant to find. And there's old friends that you knew as little tiny miserable things perhaps in a greenhouse here. But when you go to the tropics they're huge and going away s as they should do. And this is so exciting. Or you see a lot of a rare plant just

Frances Perry15:40

Growing in meadows and things all over the world. It's marvellous. And also you meet so many people with similar interests, so much friendship.

Speaker 115:43

But it's my

Frances Perry15:49

Everybody wants you to see their special plant.

Presenter15:51

Have you visited a desert island?

Frances Perry15:53

Oh yes, really oh yes, I really have, more than one, but particularly in the Galapagos Islands.

Presenter15:54

Really?

Frances Perry15:59

Where my son Roger was the director of the Charles Darwin Research Station for some six years.

Frances Perry16:06

And I went out there and I was nine weeks out there on this island.

Frances Perry16:10

And with him I went to two uh completely desert islands. One is Hood Island, and on Hood Island it was very exciting. I'll never forget it, because his wardens had come and said that they thought they had seen signs of a tortoise. Now all these islands have different tortoises, and these were thought to have been extinct for a hundred years.

Frances Perry16:30

So they left me on the beach, and this is unbelievable. I sat on the beach, went to sleep, because I didn't go enjoying this hunt in this very thorny bush.

Frances Perry16:38

And

Frances Perry16:39

Suddenly I woke up with a great weight against my leg, and there were two sea larnesses asleep. We were all asleep together, leaning against me, and when I moved, of course, they they shuffled off. The second interesting thing was the fact that a goat and there are a lot of goats on these islands, and there's no water on Hood

Frances Perry16:56

But the goats came down to the sea to drink. I saw it with my own eyes, this goat. It's most incredible. And then suddenly there was a shout and they had found a male tortoise. And after a few days they found another one. They brought these two back. And what thrilled me last week was to see David Attenborough's Life on Earth, or a little while ago, I saw it. And there was this same hood tortoise. I know it anywhere. with its very high carapace and its long neck because these tortoises evolved to reach the cactus trees on which they live. They're very big trees with big pads and they got bigger and bigger in the neck.

Frances Perry17:34

And I remember that tortoise so well because he was tied with one leg to my cabin door and he wasn't hell strained. I had to put up with him for two or three days.

Presenter17:45

These two they found, were they a pair, could they mate?

Frances Perry17:47

Oh yes, this is a great success story, because there they were, as they thought, completely extinct. Now they've mated, and there's a nice thriving little colony, because they were taken back to Santa Cruz Island, where the Darwin station is, and now they've bred.

Frances Perry18:02

And the other island I was on was Barrington. I wanted to tell you about that because Barrington Island is quite um nobody ever lived there. But what struck me at once as I went in and sat down there were all these hawks. Now a hawk is a shy bird, but I was able to photograph five together and in fact the mocking birds were a nuisance, because I had a drink and they kept coming on my hand and helping themselves.

Frances Perry18:26

And then after a little journey up part of the hill at the back of this island we came across a phenomenal sight twenty three owls sitting down having a conference short eared owls, I think they were all sitting round. Obviously they were having a labor meeting of some kind, I'm sure.

Presenter18:41

Right, I'm sure. Uh

Frances Perry18:42

Yeah.

Presenter18:42

Right, your next record, what's that?

Frances Perry18:46

Well the next record we'll bring it all back because on Barrington Island

Frances Perry18:51

I was on the ship called the Beagle. She went with sails.

Frances Perry18:56

All night long there was these sea lions singing or or making a weird noise, like a lot of sheep, and I'd love to hear that song again. I know it's been recorded by somebody.

Presenter19:11

Well, that recording of the sea lion was recorded on Indefatigable Island, one of the Galapagos Islands, by Roger Perry, who is of course your son, and GF Wade.

Presenter19:21

Tell me about your own garden.

Frances Perry19:24

It's a garden that surrounds the house. The house is in an island site. It's not a large garden, it's under half an acre, but it's full of good plants. I like plants that are rare, that have got a story.

Presenter19:36

Well, with you and Roy both at it, it really should be perfection. Yes, the story thing. You mentioned earlier on about plants having a story.

Frances Perry19:39

Yeah, the

Presenter19:44

Well tell me a story about a plant.

Frances Perry19:46

A story. Well, I'll tell you about one that everybody knows, and that's the anemone, these colourful plants that we get at Christmastime in the forests, and of course all through the year.

Frances Perry19:56

Now once upon a time they weren't known in Western Europe.

Frances Perry19:59

But as you know, during the time of the Holy Wars, many soldiers from Western Europe went out to defend the Holy Tomb.

Frances Perry20:08

They included at one period a contingent from Italy, from the town of Pisa.

Frances Perry20:13

and the Bishop of Umberto of Pisa was blessing them.

Frances Perry20:17

As they left.

Frances Perry20:18

And then he said to the sailors, and one must remember that these were the days of sail,

Frances Perry20:23

When you come back, don't bring me sand, as ballast, from the shore. Go and get some soil that's actually been in the vicinity of the holy tomb.

Frances Perry20:33

And then when you return, I shall have that spread round the campus, and any soldier who comes back mortally wounded from this holy cause shall be buried in that holy soil.

Frances Perry20:44

This was done the following year, to every one's amazement. The field where the soil was scattered was red with small red flowers. Nobody knew what they were nobody had seen them before. It was looked upon as a miracle. They were called the blood drops of Christ. Actually they were small red anemones from the Holy Land.

Frances Perry21:04

And in the course of time, through the years, of course, these little plants multiplied, they went to other religious houses, and eventually got out into a good many amateurs' hands, including a merchant at Ammians.

Frances Perry21:15

And this merchant had the good luck to have a sport or a freak arrive.

Frances Perry21:21

Um this often happens with plants, and he suddenly found he got a pink one, and he saved the seed of that, and he got pink and white ones, and then he got blue ones, and then he got double ones. And for ten whole years he hung on to that stock, getting it better and better, never parting with a seed or a single tuber.

Frances Perry21:38

But the burgomaster of Amiens heard about this, and expressed a wish to have some plants. Oh, no, said the um merchant,

Frances Perry21:45

I can't part with any, but you can come and look at them. They're just at their best now.

Frances Perry21:50

So he went along one day straight from a civic meeting with his scarlet fur trimmed robes, and walked up and down these rows of anemones, which were looking very beautiful. Then he had the misfortune to drop his cloak.

Frances Perry22:02

He apologised to his host, called his man from the carriage, who carted away the offending garment.

Frances Perry22:08

Well, you can imagine he probably couldn't wait to get back to that carriage and go through that fir to see how many seeds he'd got. And fortunately, he'd got some. And so for a long time they were called the French anemones. And that's how we got the anemones, which are of course very important to people in the Scilly Isles and the west coast of Britain because they use them so much and send them up to us in Cotton Garden and other markets.

Presenter22:31

Oh, there are rogues in all businesses, aren't there? Like that Loganbuster. What are your views on artificial fertilizers, insecticides and all the other chemicals with which we have to douse our gardens nowadays?

Frances Perry22:42

I don't use a lot of insecticides.

Frances Perry22:46

I don't like to do that. I'm too fond of

Frances Perry22:51

Birds. I don't even have a cat now because I I do enjoy having the birds, the wrens and the goldfinches that we have around, even though we're fairly near London.

Frances Perry23:01

But as regards fertilizers on the soil, if they're soluble fertilizers, I

Frances Perry23:06

countenance that because I realize we're just not going to get enough of the other material, natural material, to keep the whole of the garden going. As much as possible, I use peat and leaf soil and of course all everything compostable is compost

Frances Perry23:22

But there's sometimes there's a lack of of something. For instance, we were short of magnesium. I knew this by the look of the plants. There was no way I'd get magnesium into the garden from uh my own plants because there's no magnesium naturally there, so we had to add some epips and salts.

Frances Perry23:37

It cheers plants up no end.

Presenter23:39

I've got an open

Frances Perry23:39

So I've got an open mind.

Presenter23:41

Another record.

Frances Perry23:42

It's Pierghint, sweet. I'd like mourning because it reminds me of a marvellous woman I met in the Galapagos who spent her almost her whole of her married life there, some fifty years. She went out from Norway with the belief that this was a wonderful fertile paradise. So many Norwegians went out and when they got there they found it was not all that good, but they couldn't get back because they hadn't enough money, and she died there, and she was a wonderful woman. In particular, I remember Christmas there.

Frances Perry24:09

And

Frances Perry24:11

You know, there wasn't much food on these islands. It was very difficult. But my.

Frances Perry24:15

Son managed to get two chickens from the north of the island. When I came home one day they were sitting on the chair with their feet tied together, one ever so big and one ever so small, alive and I thought, goodness I can't cope with these But Mrs Rambeck, that was her name, she took them and she got them all and cooked them all ready for Christmas. Then I thought as I'd been taking material out for our Christmas lunch I would make a trifle. I'd got everything else there, but except the container. And there were no containers anywhere that I could find. So I went into the laboratory and there in the laboratory was a specimen a dead penguin in one and a dead booby bird in the other that had died and everybody wanted to find out why. I'm ashamed to say I took them out without telling my son, scrubbed it and w it was a marvellous party because nobody ever knew.

Presenter25:01

Or to remind you of that Christmas hairs the Priagien Sweet morning.

Presenter25:09

Morning from Grieg's Pierre Gynt, Sir Thomas Beacham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter25:15

Now, you've been on desert islands. Could you look after yourself on a desert island?

Frances Perry25:20

I'd have a job, I'll be frank with you, because desert islands are either volcanic

Frances Perry25:25

Or

Frances Perry25:27

Coral. They're both nasty things to walk about on. Near the coast, I'd have to have some stout boots and I'd struggle and hope to live mostly from the sea.

Frances Perry25:37

I wouldn't need to. If I was in a volcanic island, there are always caves. That I can tell you for sure. And if it was um um coral island, well, everywhere

Speaker 125:40

But

Presenter25:40

I can tell you.

Frances Perry25:45

Pandanus grows, which is a plant with a big leaf which you could make into very easily into some sort of cover. So yes, I could.

Frances Perry25:52

Cultivation.

Presenter25:53

What would you grow?

Frances Perry25:55

Now that's a hard one, because there wouldn't be much soil in either of these. I think I'd go for the cocoanuts if they were there, and hope they were coming in from the sea if they were not. Because a cocoanut gives you everything something to drink, eat.

Frances Perry26:07

Um shoots you can use. Otherwise, I'd grow things like onions.

Frances Perry26:12

And

Frances Perry26:13

I've seen people try and grow them in the Galapagos, and they have an awful job if they're near the coast. If they're high up, then I could grow almost any tropical fruit or vegetable. Would you try to escape?

Presenter26:24

Rather

Presenter26:27

Let's have record number seven.

Frances Perry26:29

Could I have please the Yeoman of England? I'd want to be reminded of home at times, and I think that's such a stirring song.

Presenter26:38

Peter Glossop singing The Yeoman of England from Edward German's Merry England, which brings us now to your last record. Watch that.

Frances Perry26:47

Well last record could I have The Floral Dance and Peter Dawson.

Frances Perry26:52

Because that's really

Frances Perry26:54

Stirring and so enjoyable. And also it will remind me of a place I've never been, and that's Cornwall. I've tried so hard, been to all these countries, but never got to Cornwall.

Presenter27:04

Ah well, this'll whet your appetite for going there one day.

Presenter27:11

Peter Dawson singing The Floral Dance. If you could take only one disc out of the eight, which would it be?

Frances Perry27:17

Or Sousa's March, I think. I'd want cheering up on those islands.

Presenter27:19

As we launch

Presenter27:21

A thousand stripes forever. One luxury to take with you.

Frances Perry27:25

Um, this may sound rather strange, but I know that in the tropical islands it's dark at six, and it's a long, long night, so I would like a rechargeable solar energy lamp.

Presenter27:36

I can't think of it.

Frances Perry27:36

I can't think where

Presenter27:37

Any other way to charge it? We'll pass that to our scientific department. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there, and we're not very keen on big encyclopedias.

Frances Perry27:47

Well again, I'd like a survival work.

Frances Perry27:50

a book that told me what fishes, what mollusks, what seaweeds, what shore plants are edible or poisonous. I think it's rather important, and of course here my lamp would help, because a lot of those creatures only come out at night.

Presenter28:02

Yes, well, that book of very useful information. You haven't a particular one in mind.

Frances Perry28:06

No, it's not been written, I think.

Presenter28:08

Oh, well there's something.

Frances Perry28:09

I hope somebody does.

Presenter28:10

On the long winter evenings.

Frances Perry28:12

Somebody writes one before I go.

Presenter28:14

Well thank you Francis Perry for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Frances Perry28:18

Thank you. I've enjoyed it tremendously. Great fun.

Presenter28:20

Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.