HRH Princess Margaret

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:26

I'm delighted that our castaway this week is Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, Countess of Snow.

Presenter0:32

Ma'am, have you a big collection of records?

HRH Princess Margaret0:35

Yes, quite.

Presenter0:37

If you kept your old seventy eight.

HRH Princess Margaret0:39

Oh yes, they're all very carefully.

HRH Princess Margaret0:42

Preserved.

Presenter0:43

They're very heavy, of course, if you've got them down in the cellar.

HRH Princess Margaret0:46

I have them up in the attic, actually.

Presenter0:50

How old were you when you began to be interested in music, when you began piano lessons?

HRH Princess Margaret0:55

Well, I wasn't interested in lessons, but I began when I was about five.

Presenter0:59

You were put to it.

HRH Princess Margaret1:00

This

Presenter1:01

When did you begin to take an interest?

HRH Princess Margaret1:04

When I was about fifteen, I suppose.

Presenter1:07

When you got past the

HRH Princess Margaret1:08

Woman's fingers got strong, I think.

Presenter1:11

Yeah.

HRH Princess Margaret1:11

Do you play frequently for your own pleasure? Well, sometimes, just for singing. Do you compose yourself? Oh, no. Well, I have composed one or two things, but uh very slight.

Presenter1:21

What's on? Uh

HRH Princess Margaret1:22

Yes.

Presenter1:23

Did you find it very difficult to choose?

Presenter1:26

Just eight records that may have to last a long, long time.

HRH Princess Margaret1:31

Yes, I found it very difficult and

Presenter1:33

Deeve

Presenter1:34

How did you go about it? Did you have any kind of plan?

HRH Princess Margaret1:37

Yes, I thought that one ought to have perhaps something of every category.

Presenter1:43

What's the first category, what's the first record?

HRH Princess Margaret1:45

Well, uh I suppose I thought back to my childhood, and that I thought of the practically the first record that my sister and I used to play most at Scotland, and uh it was a march called King Cotton by Sousa and we used to march up and down the drive at Burke Hall.

HRH Princess Margaret2:07

to it with a few cousins.

Presenter2:10

Singing at the tops of your voices.

HRH Princess Margaret2:11

Absolutely the tops of our voices.

Presenter2:14

Right, let's hear King Cotton. Who would you like to play it?

HRH Princess Margaret2:18

Well, the marine band, if possible, please.

Presenter2:21

Well, here it is, conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn.

HRH Princess Margaret2:25

Well that'll be very nice indeed,'cause he's my childhood hero.

Presenter2:27

My child

Presenter2:28

I did.

HRH Princess Margaret2:29

Well, you see, whenever the Queen goes in the yacht, she still takes the marine band, and of course there's always a director of music, and it's usually the senior one, and he was the senior one for a great number of years.

Presenter3:37

Soza's King Cotton by the band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines.

Presenter3:42

Now, you were born in the Scottish home of your mother's parents, at Glams Castle. No heir so close to the succession had been born in Scotland for very many years.

Presenter3:53

Charles the First, I believe, wasn't it?

HRH Princess Margaret3:55

Yes, I think he was. The only one of our family who've been born in Scotland not so very much lately, really, was Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, who was Queen Victoria's granddaughter. Her mother was Princess Beatrice, who was the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria.

HRH Princess Margaret4:16

And Princess Beatrice.

HRH Princess Margaret4:18

was, um, so to speak, kept at home, and so she moved about with the court, and the court happened to be at Balmoral when the baby was born.

Presenter4:26

But she was fairly well down the line of success.

HRH Princess Margaret4:28

No, I should have said so being the child of the ninth child.

Presenter4:32

Yeah.

Presenter4:33

Where was the family home in London when you were a child?

HRH Princess Margaret4:35

At one forty five Piccadilly.

Presenter4:37

Oh, of course it's now a road, alas.

HRH Princess Margaret4:39

Uh

HRH Princess Margaret4:40

Yes, it's where the road comes through by that hotel.

Presenter4:43

And from

HRH Princess Margaret4:44

It got a direct hit at the wall.

Presenter4:47

And at weekend?

HRH Princess Margaret4:48

And then we went to Royal Lodge.

Presenter4:50

Windsor

HRH Princess Margaret4:51

In Windsor Great Park.

HRH Princess Margaret4:53

Yeah.

Presenter4:53

What's your earliest memory as a child?

HRH Princess Margaret4:57

in my prayer, I think, being told not to

HRH Princess Margaret5:00

um push my prayer up and down by moving about in it in the garden of my sister's little Welsh cottage at Draw Lodge and um

HRH Princess Margaret5:10

After a little while I succeeded in tipping up the pram and was rescued, screaming loudly.

Presenter5:17

That little Welsh cottage played a big part in your childhood. It was really a a huge doll's house, wasn't it?

HRH Princess Margaret5:23

Yes, it's about inside it's about uh four foot high.

HRH Princess Margaret5:28

Say that um

HRH Princess Margaret5:30

It was perfect for children to stand up in, not so very comfortable for grown ups.

Presenter5:34

Is it still in use somewhere?

HRH Princess Margaret5:35

Oh, very much so. My daughter is now custodian of it.

Presenter5:40

Well, going back to early memories, can you remember the pageantry of the Jubilee of your grandfather, King George the Fifth?

HRH Princess Margaret5:47

No, not really. I suppose I remember from old photographs that I was there.

Presenter5:52

He died th th the following year. Do you remember him? Well, you would have been, what, four?

HRH Princess Margaret5:57

Five.

HRH Princess Margaret5:59

Um no, I don't really remember him at all.

Presenter6:03

You joined your sister in lessons by a governess. Did you miss the company of other children? Did you feel that you were being left out of a great deal of companionship?

HRH Princess Margaret6:13

Well, no, because my sister and I were very close, although um she is nearly five years older than me. We never did lessons together, we always did lessons separately. But then, of course, we had quite a lot of children who came uh to the guides, for instance, and we had a choir we used to sing in, and uh there was the

HRH Princess Margaret6:37

Pantomimes we used to do, who knows? And dancing class?

HRH Princess Margaret6:43

You know, one one saw quite a lot of

HRH Princess Margaret6:46

One's age group.

Presenter6:47

Do you remember theatre outings as a child?

HRH Princess Margaret6:49

Yes, but of course they were very rare because uh my childhood was spent um at Windsor because the bombing and everything, you know.

HRH Princess Margaret6:58

You didn't go to London?

Presenter7:01

Which did you enjoy more?

Presenter7:03

London or the country? Do did you look upon yourself as a country girl?

HRH Princess Margaret7:06

Very much so, yes.

Presenter7:08

Ponies

Presenter7:12

Let's have your second record. What should we have?

HRH Princess Margaret7:18

I hope that it's.

HRH Princess Margaret7:20

are recorded by the pipes and drums of my regiment, the Royal Highland Fusiliers.

Presenter8:25

Scotland the Brave by the band of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, your own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment.

Presenter8:33

Did your early education include

Presenter8:37

Some rather unusual subjects like protocol.

HRH Princess Margaret8:40

No, I don't think it did really, because um

HRH Princess Margaret8:43

I think one was brought up to be able to talk to anybody, and my father, of course, never had much protocol, and certainly not in the war.

HRH Princess Margaret8:52

and the Prime Minister or Archbishop or somebody like that were friends.

HRH Princess Margaret8:57

They came in very seldom, of course, being at Windsor.

Presenter9:00

There wasn't that great formality of state occasions.

HRH Princess Margaret9:04

Oh no, none.

Presenter9:06

And later did you study constitutional history?

HRH Princess Margaret9:08

No, I didn't. My sister did.

Presenter9:11

All history, of course, must have been made more interesting for you when illustrated by family portraits and

Presenter9:18

relics and that sort of thing.

HRH Princess Margaret9:20

Well, yes, they it would have been, but they weren't there, you see, an awful lot were taken away.

Presenter9:24

During the war.

HRH Princess Margaret9:25

Here's they were all in hiding and

HRH Princess Margaret9:28

Carefully preserved.

Presenter9:31

While much of your life has been spent in historic buildings, do you have a strong sense of the past?

HRH Princess Margaret9:36

Oh yes, tremendously.

HRH Princess Margaret9:38

But I think that came later, you know, when the the beautiful things came back, the heritage things came back from being preserved in the war.

Presenter9:49

Mm-hmm.

HRH Princess Margaret9:50

one was given a sort of eye-opener of all the beautiful.

HRH Princess Margaret9:54

Pictures

HRH Princess Margaret9:56

And Fernachand.

HRH Princess Margaret9:58

China, well, you know all the.

HRH Princess Margaret10:01

things that were hidden rarely, and had hit one at a very good age, of about fifteen, when one's eyes are rather waiting to be opened to the beauties of life.

Presenter10:12

What was the occasion of the first ceremonial you saw?

HRH Princess Margaret10:16

I think my grandfather's um

HRH Princess Margaret10:19

Jubilee

Presenter10:20

There.

HRH Princess Margaret10:21

But as I said, I don't remember that very well. I can remember my father's coronation better.

Presenter10:26

That must have been a a very long ceremony.

HRH Princess Margaret10:29

Yes, it was, because of course it was twice as long as the Queen's coronation, because my mother was crowned as well.

Presenter10:35

Now when your father ascended the throne.

Presenter10:38

At his match to King George VI, there must have been a a sudden and confusing change in lifestyle for a little girl of six.

HRH Princess Margaret10:46

Yes, it was very surprising.

HRH Princess Margaret10:48

My first impression was of

HRH Princess Margaret10:51

Having to leave home.

HRH Princess Margaret10:54

and go to Buckingham Palace, which we didn't know very well.

HRH Princess Margaret10:57

and battling through these enormous, loving crowds that were surrounding my father and mother, I think they were greatly relieved to have somebody who they could depend on again.

Presenter11:11

and Buckingham Palace itself must be a very daunting place from its sheer size.

HRH Princess Margaret11:16

Well, no. Um Buckingham Palace is a very cosy house.

HRH Princess Margaret11:21

Uh we were put into the rooms which are nearly always the nursery.

HRH Princess Margaret11:26

and the Queen's children have been brought up in the same.

HRH Princess Margaret11:30

apartment. It's quite high up and

HRH Princess Margaret11:34

looking over the Victoria Memorials, where one could see the changing of the guard every day and all that sort of thing.

Presenter11:41

So you didn't have to get lost in the State apartments.

HRH Princess Margaret11:44

Oh no,'cause that's the other side of the palace to where we live.

Presenter11:49

You mentioned earlier on that you and your sister formed your own company of Girl Guards.

HRH Princess Margaret11:54

Yes. Well, I think my mother did, actually.

Presenter11:58

How many of them were you?

HRH Princess Margaret12:00

I can't remember. We must have been about twenty each, I suppose, twenty in the girl guides, and twenty in the brownies, of which I was a part.

Presenter12:08

Now what happened to you when war broke out?

HRH Princess Margaret12:11

Well, first we were left in, um, Scotland, at Balmoral, because of course

HRH Princess Margaret12:16

When the war was declared, nobody knew whether the Nazis wouldn't uh bomb us all to pieces, so we were left in in safety in Scotland, hoping they wouldn't bomb us there.

HRH Princess Margaret12:28

And then we came down about Christmas time and then we went to Royal Lodge, which was in the park, as I've told you, the Windsor Great Park.

HRH Princess Margaret12:36

And, um

HRH Princess Margaret12:39

Then suddenly we were asked to pack and move to Windsor.

Presenter12:43

To the castle.

HRH Princess Margaret12:43

To the castle.

HRH Princess Margaret12:45

When the Nazis invaded Belgium and Holland.

HRH Princess Margaret12:49

'Cause they're getting rather close.

HRH Princess Margaret12:52

And we packed for the weekend and stayed for five years.

Presenter12:56

For security reasons, was your life greatly circumscribed?

HRH Princess Margaret13:01

Uh well, yes, during the bombing, of course, we weren't allowed to go very far from the house in case there was an air raid.

HRH Princess Margaret13:08

And uh the usual sort of pathetic attempt to defend the castle of those days.

HRH Princess Margaret13:15

happened, you know, I mean they

HRH Princess Margaret13:17

dug trenches and put up some rather feeble barbed wire. And the feeble barbed wire, of course, wouldn't have kept anybody out, but it kept us in.

HRH Princess Margaret13:29

Rather more'cause there were any of you.

HRH Princess Margaret13:32

Hills in it, so to speak, where they could get through.

HRH Princess Margaret13:36

So in a way that was a little bit

HRH Princess Margaret13:38

Circumscribing

Presenter13:40

Will you tell me about those famous pantomimes which took place in the castle? I believe they were your ide

HRH Princess Margaret13:47

No, they were my father's.

HRH Princess Margaret13:50

They were written by the local schoolmaster in Windsor Great Park School. Where did you perform them? In the Waterloo Chamber.

Presenter13:58

And so you could have a a very big audience.

HRH Princess Margaret14:01

Oh yeah, it's about six hundred.

Presenter14:03

There's what what?

HRH Princess Margaret14:05

From this stage.

Presenter14:06

Yeah.

HRH Princess Margaret14:06

and everybody round about.

Presenter14:09

Were you always principal girl?

HRH Princess Margaret14:11

Uh yes, I was, except for once, when I went on strike and thought somebody else should do it.

Presenter14:17

But it's a plum pud, don't you like it?

HRH Princess Margaret14:21

Well, I think I was a little self effacing, and I thought I was perhaps sort of hogging it a bit.

Presenter14:26

How many pantomimes were there?

HRH Princess Margaret14:28

4.

Presenter14:29

And and you played them what for a week?

HRH Princess Margaret14:31

Oh, no, four days. We were all at school, you see, really.

Presenter14:35

Yeah.

Presenter14:35

We must be in great fun.

HRH Princess Margaret14:37

Boom.

Presenter14:38

It said that on VE night, Victory in Europe night, you were outside Buckingham Palace in the crowds joining in the peace celebration.

HRH Princess Margaret14:44

Yes, indeed we were.

Presenter14:47

Were you were you disguised in any way?

HRH Princess Margaret14:49

No, it was most exciting.

HRH Princess Margaret14:52

We went out with a party of friends. Of course they were all in uniform then, including my sister who was in the ATS.

HRH Princess Margaret15:00

And we

HRH Princess Margaret15:01

We went everywhere. We

HRH Princess Margaret15:03

Rushed down the street. We had an uncle with us, my mother's brother, who was very jolly and gay.

HRH Princess Margaret15:10

Then the crowdish just behave very badly.

Presenter15:13

Good.

HRH Princess Margaret15:13

As usual?

Presenter15:13

Zero?

HRH Princess Margaret15:13

Uh

HRH Princess Margaret15:14

And we came back to the palace and we found that

HRH Princess Margaret15:19

We'd just missed the King Queen out on the balcony, and so we got rather bored waiting, and I'm very sorry to tell you that we sent somebody in to tell them that we were outside, and would they please come out? It was a very long walk, I can tell you, for them to come to.

Presenter15:29

There's a very

Presenter15:32

Yeah.

Presenter15:33

Nowadays, to what extent do you find you can move about without being recognized? Can you slip out and do a little shopping ordinarily?

HRH Princess Margaret15:40

Oh yes. It depends if one's been photographed, or appeared in the paper, or been on the television.

Presenter15:47

Let's have your third record. What's that?

HRH Princess Margaret15:49

Well, um this was a record that I remember cheering me out very much.

HRH Princess Margaret15:54

In a traffic jam.

HRH Princess Margaret15:57

and everybody was in the traffic jam. We were all listening to the wireless, and it had

HRH Princess Margaret16:01

This wonderful tune called Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ford.

HRH Princess Margaret16:06

and instead of everybody looking

HRH Princess Margaret16:08

absolute daggers at each other, like everybody does. Everybody was banging in rhythm on their steering wheels, and we all caught each other's eye and laughed.

Presenter16:18

Some people say a man is made out of mud. A poor man's made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood and skin and bones. A mind that's weak and a back that's strong. You load sixteen tons. What do you get? Another day older and deeper in depth. St. Peter, don't you call me cause I can go? I owe my soul to the company store.

Presenter16:47

Sixteen tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Presenter16:50

When did you carry out your first solo public engagement? Do you remember what it was?

HRH Princess Margaret16:55

When I was twelve.

Presenter16:57

That's

HRH Princess Margaret16:57

Dirty is that?

Presenter16:58

Uh

HRH Princess Margaret16:58

Uh

Presenter16:58

Uh

HRH Princess Margaret16:58

Yes, I went to present the school prizes at the Princess Margaret School in Windsor.

Presenter17:05

We were very nervous.

HRH Princess Margaret17:06

I felt dreadfully sick, yes.

Presenter17:09

Well, the first to say very many. I have a list here.

Presenter17:12

Your presidencies and patronages of various welfare organizations and children's societies are very long lists, scores of them, and they must all be visited, of course.

HRH Princess Margaret17:21

This they must all be taken an interest in.

HRH Princess Margaret17:24

I'm president of quite a few rather important national ones, of course, like the

HRH Princess Margaret17:31

NSPCC, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. My sister was um president before me, and I'm very sorry to be able to tell you that

HRH Princess Margaret17:42

It's got very much worse.

HRH Princess Margaret17:44

The crowded to ch.

Presenter17:44

Yeah.

HRH Princess Margaret17:44

Yeah.

Presenter17:44

Yeah.

HRH Princess Margaret17:44

Yeah.

Presenter17:46

And of course you are now President of the Girl Guide.

HRH Princess Margaret17:49

Yes, I took over from my aunt, Princess Roll.

Presenter17:53

And your colonel in chief of several regiments?

HRH Princess Margaret17:56

Guess three.

Presenter17:59

As someone with a taste for figures has listed about

Presenter18:02

A hundred and seventy engagements you'll fulfil in a year. Does that seem reasonably right?

HRH Princess Margaret18:08

Well, I don't think I've ever counted.

Presenter18:11

Well somebody has to be able to do that.

HRH Princess Margaret18:11

That seems to keep pretty busy.

Presenter18:13

It seems a lot of work. You have your own office staff which arranges all the details.

HRH Princess Margaret18:18

Oh yes, I couldn't do without them.

Presenter18:21

How far ahead do you make up, your diary?

HRH Princess Margaret18:25

About six months, I think. If you do it any further ahead, of course, it may have to be

HRH Princess Margaret18:30

put off or postpone because one might have to go abroad.

HRH Princess Margaret18:34

Or something else might happen.

Presenter18:37

You are usually accompanied on an engagement by a lady in waiting.

Presenter18:41

Are they appointed by yourself from from among your personal friends?

HRH Princess Margaret18:46

Yes, not particularly personal friends. Some of them are appointed because they're suitable.

Presenter18:52

Mm-hmm.

HRH Princess Margaret18:53

And they are perhaps a friend of a friend who, you know, has recommended them.

Presenter18:58

And they are concerned in some way that they're knowledgeable about the kind of organizations that you're going to.

HRH Princess Margaret19:04

Well they learn.

Presenter19:05

Ha ha ha.

Presenter19:07

Right, we got to number four.

HRH Princess Margaret19:10

May I have please a small portion of Brahms's Symphony No. Two?

Presenter19:16

Why do you choose this one?

HRH Princess Margaret19:18

I think it's the most beautiful tune in the world.

HRH Princess Margaret19:21

In fact, it's beautiful all through, but I know we can only have a little bit of it.

Presenter19:24

Afraid so. And which recording have you chosen?

HRH Princess Margaret19:27

Toscanini, please.

Presenter20:29

Part of the first movement of the Brahms Second Symphony, Arturo Toscanini conducting the N B C Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter20:37

Now as well as there's

Presenter20:39

Many engagements in the United Kingdom. You undertake overseas tours two or three in a year sometimes. Yes. The schedule of some of them looks daunting.

HRH Princess Margaret20:49

Yes, they are very busy, but then of course if one visits abroad that there isn't very much time for doing anything else than being there, if you know what I mean. Although I must say people who got very kind nowadays, they do give one little time off in the middle of it.

HRH Princess Margaret21:04

'Cause otherwise one gets stale tarred, you know.

Presenter21:08

When Her Majesty is abroad, you're one of the councillors of state who act in her place. Is this a permanent appointment, or is a council arranged afresh for each absence?

HRH Princess Margaret21:18

Oh, it's arranged a fresh fruit serpent, but we have um letters patent.

HRH Princess Margaret21:24

And there are always four of us, the four senior members of the family, whoever is available.

HRH Princess Margaret21:30

and react in pairs.

HRH Princess Margaret21:33

And it's really a form of regency. Why impaired?

HRH Princess Margaret21:37

It was declared to be so. There were always two that acted. I like two of us have to sign all the

HRH Princess Margaret21:45

papers and two of us have to receive the people in audience on behalf of the Queen.

Presenter21:51

Are the powers of the council as complete as those of the queen?

HRH Princess Margaret21:55

No, they aren't.

HRH Princess Margaret21:57

I could read you out a list, but I don't think

HRH Princess Margaret22:01

Be very interesting.

Presenter22:02

Right, we'll leave it there and move on to our next record.

HRH Princess Margaret22:06

Well, as we've been thinking of things rather to do with this country, I should like rule Britannia, please.

Presenter22:13

And how would you like it?

HRH Princess Margaret22:15

I would like a recording, please, of the last night of the proms with the people joining in and

HRH Princess Margaret22:23

Sounding very patriotic, which is very important nowadays.

Speaker 122:27

Possessed ill with free

Speaker 122:32

Uh

Presenter23:29

Robert Britannio sung at the last night of the proms, Sir Colin Davis conducting the B B C Symphony Orchestra, Elizabeth Bainbridge as soloist, and lots of promenaders joining in the chorus.

Presenter23:40

Ma'am, you take a a very active interest in arts organisations. You're you're President of the Royal Ballet. Dancing has always delighted you.

HRH Princess Margaret23:49

Yes, I've always loved the ballet.

HRH Princess Margaret23:51

And from a long time ago I've had something to do with it, with the school, and then when it was at Saddler's Wells.

Presenter23:58

Which ballets give you the greatest pleasure?

Presenter24:01

Classical?

HRH Princess Margaret24:02

Yes, I think the classical ones nearly always do.

HRH Princess Margaret24:06

I suppose because of the music.

Speaker 124:08

Uh

HRH Princess Margaret24:08

Music with the dancing is uh sort of integral.

HRH Princess Margaret24:13

Part of it, isn't it? And if the music is bad or nonexistent or ugly.

HRH Princess Margaret24:19

I found that it takes away from the dancing.

Presenter24:21

And you're a very regular theatre goer. All sorts of theatre?

HRH Princess Margaret24:26

Yes, all sorts of theatre, but I really like the ballet best.

Presenter24:31

You were concerned with a charity performance of a of a thriller some years ago in London. Did you enjoy that?

HRH Princess Margaret24:36

Yes, very much.

Presenter24:38

What was your particular job?

HRH Princess Margaret24:40

I help the producer keep the cast in order.

Presenter24:44

Successfully I tried.

HRH Princess Margaret24:45

Yes, they were mostly friends of mine.

Presenter24:48

You have a gift for mimicry, you're a good musician, you love dancing. In other circumstances, do you think you'd have been a performer?

HRH Princess Margaret24:55

No, I don't think so. I wasn't any good at any of them.

HRH Princess Margaret24:59

I mean, you're kind enough to say that I'm a good mimic, but I can't

HRH Princess Margaret25:04

actually mimic people very well.

HRH Princess Margaret25:06

There are other members of my family who are better at that.

HRH Princess Margaret25:09

And um

HRH Princess Margaret25:11

I'm not a very good musician. I can strum on the piano a little bit for other people to sing to.

HRH Princess Margaret25:17

I never did any dancing other than ballroom dancing.

HRH Princess Margaret25:21

So I don't think I would have been accepted as an audition.

Presenter25:25

Well, let's have another record. What number six?

HRH Princess Margaret25:29

Well

HRH Princess Margaret25:30

As I am such a

HRH Princess Margaret25:32

Keen Balagera.

HRH Princess Margaret25:34

May I have a bet out of Swan Lake, please?

Presenter25:37

Of course, which bit?

HRH Princess Margaret25:39

But I think the conductor calls it number thirteen Waltz Second Act.

Presenter26:48

An excerpt from Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's Ballet Music, The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrei Previn.

Presenter26:56

About your two teenage children, ma'am. What's your son, David, Lord Lindy, studying?

HRH Princess Margaret27:02

He's at Parlem in Dorset, studying to be a

HRH Princess Margaret27:05

Cabinet maker

Presenter27:07

That is something he's been taking to since early in life.

HRH Princess Margaret27:11

Yes, he's he's very good with his hands. He's also quite good at electronics, and he also likes engines. I think it's either schizophrenic or very balanced.

Presenter27:21

And your daughter, Lady Sarah, has she started undertaking public engagements yet?

HRH Princess Margaret27:26

Oh no, n neither of them will, Lucy. They're not part of the royal family.

Presenter27:31

Few people have suffered more than you from wild and inaccurate and irresponsible press stories, especially in foreign papers. Can you laugh at them, or do you find them aggravating?

HRH Princess Margaret27:42

I found them extremely aggravating.

HRH Princess Margaret27:45

Of course, if they're absolutely invented, like sometimes they are, of course one can laugh at them with one's friends.

HRH Princess Margaret27:53

But um

HRH Princess Margaret27:55

I think since the age of seventeen I've been

HRH Princess Margaret27:58

misreported and misrepresented.

Presenter28:01

A lot of it is beneath contempt, and of course you can't keep on issuing denial.

HRH Princess Margaret28:06

Well, they're not worth denying, really.

HRH Princess Margaret28:09

They usually

HRH Princess Margaret28:11

Inaccurate.

Presenter28:13

Well let's get back to music. What's record number seven?

HRH Princess Margaret28:16

Well, this is a a record, quite an old record, I think, about nineteen forty eight when I was

HRH Princess Margaret28:22

A young

HRH Princess Margaret28:23

Thing?

HRH Princess Margaret28:25

And

HRH Princess Margaret28:26

Quite enjoying life.

HRH Princess Margaret28:28

Called Rock Rock.

HRH Princess Margaret28:31

Rock.

HRH Princess Margaret28:32

By Karl Ravatza and Sid Phillips in his band and long before.

HRH Princess Margaret28:37

What we know is rock.

Speaker 328:40

Same old stuff, it's just a knockdown thing that started in Kansas City. When you're wrong, rock, rock, this is all you gotta do, you...

HRH Princess Margaret28:44

You

Speaker 328:47

Rock, rock, rock it out and rock it Then you take some jai, put it in your pocket But if you don't like it, don't you knock it Cause rockin'

Presenter29:00

Caldra Bazza singing Rock, Rock, Rock with Sid Phillips in his band.

Presenter29:05

Now, the practical problems of survival on the island. You've made many visits to the tropics. You've visited many islands. Any deserted ones? Yes. What sort of shelter would you build?

HRH Princess Margaret29:17

Well, I think it depended what sort of

HRH Princess Margaret29:19

Staff there would be to build it with.

Presenter29:21

And you've got palm trees and undergrowth and

HRH Princess Margaret29:25

Well, then I think palm fronds and um

HRH Princess Margaret29:28

Yes, that would do very well.

Presenter29:30

And what would you eat? Are you a good

Presenter29:33

Fisherman

HRH Princess Margaret29:33

Not bad, if I had something to fish with.

Presenter29:36

Would you plan to escape?

HRH Princess Margaret29:39

Oh yes.

HRH Princess Margaret29:40

I like life too much to live on a desert island.

Presenter29:43

Do you know anything about sailing, navigation?

HRH Princess Margaret29:46

No, I've never done that, although I wasn't the Sea Rangers, I'm ashamed to tell you.

Presenter29:51

Well, nevertheless, we'll do what we can to get you rescued very quickly.

Presenter29:56

Your Last Record, number eight.

HRH Princess Margaret29:59

and like the hymn Guide me O Thy Great Redeemer

HRH Princess Margaret30:02

Come on, Dan.

HRH Princess Margaret30:04

Sung by the Pandarasmel Choir.

Presenter30:07

It worked.

HRH Princess Margaret30:08

Yes, please.

Speaker 330:13

We are Godly.

Speaker 330:21

Are then

HRH Princess Margaret30:32

Bring the card in

Speaker 130:34

Uh Bring the honey

Presenter30:53

Guide me, O thou great Redeemer by the Pendaris male choir.

Presenter30:58

If you were allowed to take only one disc out of that eight, which would it be?

HRH Princess Margaret31:01

I would take the Swan Lake.

HRH Princess Margaret31:03

I could imagine.

HRH Princess Margaret31:06

Yeah.

Presenter31:07

And dance yourself on the island.

HRH Princess Margaret31:09

Cool.

HRH Princess Margaret31:10

Yes, with no one else to look, I'd probably be beautiful.

Presenter31:13

You may choose one luxury, any one object which would give you pleasure to have with you, but which is of no practical use.

HRH Princess Margaret31:21

I think I'd take a piano.

Presenter31:23

Yes, of course.

Presenter31:25

and one book apart from the obvious choices of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

HRH Princess Margaret31:30

I should like

HRH Princess Margaret31:32

War and Peace.

Presenter31:33

Good long read.

HRH Princess Margaret31:35

A good long read and rather needs reading several times, so that'll keep me going for a long time.

Presenter31:41

I should think it would. And thank you, Your Royal Highness, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

HRH Princess Margaret31:47

Thank you too.

Presenter31:49

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 131:57

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