Dame Janet Baker

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 30:05

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1982, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

On our desert island on this occasion is the excellent English singer, Dame Janet Baker.

Presenter0:37

Dame Janet ate discs that may have to last a long time. Was it difficult to choose?

Dame Janet Baker0:42

Very difficult indeed.

Dame Janet Baker0:45

I've chosen, generally speaking, composers.

Dame Janet Baker0:48

that I can't live without. Not all the composers that I couldn't live without, because again that's not possible in the time or in the number of records.

Dame Janet Baker0:58

and certain instruments, certain sounds of instruments that I also couldn't live without.

Presenter1:03

You have a lot of records to term a big collection. Quite a big

Dame Janet Baker1:06

A big collection, yes.

Presenter1:08

Could you adapt to solitude?

Dame Janet Baker1:11

I think I could, very easily.

Presenter1:13

And what would you be happiest you got away from?

Dame Janet Baker1:16

People, I think.

Presenter1:17

Keith, you mean massive deep?

Dame Janet Baker1:19

Yes, yes, the the fact of being alone is something that uh I never am and would fascinate me.

Presenter1:26

What's the first record you have on that small pass?

Dame Janet Baker1:29

Yeah.

Dame Janet Baker1:30

The first one is something I'd like to wake up with every morning.

Dame Janet Baker1:34

I can't say that it's my favourite instrument, but certainly the instrument that I couldn't live without.

Dame Janet Baker1:40

The Scarlatti sonata I've chosen is is just something very delightful and happy.

Presenter1:47

Who's playing it? And

Dame Janet Baker1:48

What is the instrument? Richard Lester is playing the harpsichord.

Presenter2:51

RICHARD LESTER playing the opening of the Scarletti Sonata in A minor, K fifty four.

Presenter2:57

Now, you're a Yorkshire girl, whereabouts in Yorkshire?

Dame Janet Baker3:01

I was brought up in York, which is a wonderful city to spend one's childhood in.

Presenter3:04

Oh, indeed. Do you have brothers and sisters?

Dame Janet Baker3:06

No. I had a brother, who died many years ago when I was ten. So uh although I was brought up as an only child, I don't feel like one, because I can still remember him.

Presenter3:16

Was there a lot of music in the home?

Dame Janet Baker3:18

Of the kind that came through a wireless set, yes.

Presenter3:21

My father did invaxing and acquired.

Dame Janet Baker3:21

My father

Dame Janet Baker3:23

Yes, he did.

Presenter3:24

And so did your brother, so you had to. How old were you when you started?

Dame Janet Baker3:28

I would think about nine.

Presenter3:30

I believe your school was connected with Yorkminster. Did you sing in that glorious building?

Dame Janet Baker3:35

As a schoolgirl, part of the school

Dame Janet Baker3:38

Set up, yes. We used to have our term communion services there, and and we felt very much part of that marvellous building. And the school's about twenty yards away from the East Door, and uh I felt very

Dame Janet Baker3:53

Influenced by it, growing up in its shadow and hearing the clock all the way through the day. Yes. Marvellous.

Presenter3:59

Marvelous. Were you given piano lessons?

Dame Janet Baker4:01

No, I didn't study piano at school.

Dame Janet Baker4:05

I think the first time I began piano was th about thirteen years old, but I sang at school quite

Presenter4:11

When you left school you sang in one of the great Yorkshire choirs.

Dame Janet Baker4:14

Yes, the Leeds for the Monic Society.

Presenter4:16

and I believe a soloist on one occasion.

Dame Janet Baker4:19

Yes, I was. It was really my putting the first toe into the water, so to speak.

Dame Janet Baker4:25

And the whole

Dame Janet Baker4:27

episode of being a member of a large choir was

Dame Janet Baker4:30

Quite extraordinary, standing in a line and and being part of that enormous sound.

Dame Janet Baker4:36

that only the Northern Choirs can make, it was a revelation to me.

Presenter4:40

What did you do when you left school?

Dame Janet Baker4:42

I worked in a bank.

Presenter4:43

Do figures mean something to you?

Dame Janet Baker4:46

No, figures don't mean anything to me at all, and and I think it was uh amazing that the bank employed me for as many years as it did.

Speaker 14:53

Okay.

Dame Janet Baker4:53

I think I must have put a spanner in the works many a time. But they were very kind. No, figures don't.

Dame Janet Baker4:59

Claw

Presenter5:01

You won the Silver Rose Bowl at Harrogate Festival. Was it that that gave you the idea that you could one day, perhaps, be a professional singer?

Dame Janet Baker5:10

I think it helped, certainly. It was the first time I had

Dame Janet Baker5:15

I hate to use this word, but competed with people. Measured my strength, really, I prefer to say.

Dame Janet Baker5:23

And it it was an indication that there was something there worth treating seriously.

Presenter5:29

Let's break off your second record. What will that be?

Dame Janet Baker5:32

Well, I think to be able to play a marvellous church organ must be like being an orchestra all oneself. It's the nearest thing one can get to a full symphonic sound that one controls oneself.

Dame Janet Baker5:44

So I'd have to have Bach, and I'd have to have the organ.

Dame Janet Baker5:47

And this is the marvellous Toccata and Fugin D minor, played by Peter Hereford.

Presenter6:54

The opening of the Toccata from the Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach.

Presenter6:59

Peter Herford at the organ.

Presenter7:02

Now, music began to mean a lot to you. You began to take your singing seriously. That took you to London, didn't it?

Dame Janet Baker7:08

Yes, it did. My bank gave me a a transfer, which was very good of them.

Presenter7:13

At your request.

Presenter7:15

Just down the road from Broadcasting Houses.

Dame Janet Baker7:17

Just down the road, yes, it was, indeed.

Presenter7:19

Was it your ultimate idea to go to the Royal College of Music or the Royal Academy?

Dame Janet Baker7:23

It wasn't, because at that time I didn't think I had the qualifications for it. I realized now that I had, I'd taken piano exams and I could have done piano as a second study, but I didn't um

Dame Janet Baker7:35

have the right kind of information.

Speaker 17:38

Hmm.

Dame Janet Baker7:38

And so I went privately to a Viennese teacher who had been recommended to me, Helena Isepp, and uh in a way I missed something by not studying with other young people of my own age. I think one always does. And in another way I think it's an advantage because I believe I got on faster.

Presenter7:58

Yeah.

Dame Janet Baker7:58

Than I would have done it in

Presenter7:59

Rather cautiously you began to learn the oratorio repertoire, because that's a field in which there are jobs for young singers.

Dame Janet Baker8:06

I think in m my mind was the fact that you were either an alto or a soprano at that time. Though the idea of being a mezzo soprano, the middle voice came later.

Presenter8:16

You were a contralto to start with.

Dame Janet Baker8:18

And

Presenter8:19

How long was it before you resigned from the back, before you cut adrift?

Dame Janet Baker8:23

It wasn't very long after I I came to London, I would say about six months.

Presenter8:26

And what was your first professional engagement?

Dame Janet Baker8:29

I think

Dame Janet Baker8:31

was probably either Glenbourne chorus

Dame Janet Baker8:35

Or singing Messiah up in one of the Yorkshire chapels in Otley, just outside Leeds, something like that.

Presenter8:42

Something like that.

Presenter8:45

You studied for a while in Salzburg. How did that come about?

Dame Janet Baker8:48

Well, I won the second prize in the Daily Mail Kathleen Ferrier competition, and the money was given to me partly to spend on an instrument and partly to use to study abroad.

Dame Janet Baker8:59

So

Dame Janet Baker9:00

I decided to spend the summer in Salzburg would be helpful to my German, and since I'd never been abroad before, I thought it would be

Dame Janet Baker9:08

A helpful experience in growing up, too. Yeah.

Presenter9:11

Did you have any kind of part-time job that helped with expenses?

Dame Janet Baker9:16

Yes, I had to do that. My my father was very good to me and helped me as much as he could. But when I left the bank, and they were very understanding about that.

Dame Janet Baker9:25

I had a part-time job at Morley College.

Presenter9:27

Yep.

Dame Janet Baker9:28

It was marvelous.

Presenter9:28

It was marvelous.

Dame Janet Baker9:30

Yes, it was. It killed two birds with one stone. It paid the rent and brought me into contact with many musical people, many interesting people, and I was very grateful for that.

Presenter9:40

What was the job? What did you have to do?

Dame Janet Baker9:41

I was a sort of secretary.

Dame Janet Baker9:44

Morley College had a an over spill at that time. Now they've got a new building. But in those days, in nineteen fifty four, something like that, they had to use a school about half a mile away from the main building.

Dame Janet Baker10:00

They took it over from the local accounts in the evening. So I had to go along with all the registers and say hello to all the teachers, give them their register, and at the end of the evening take the registers back and say good night to the teachers and and go home, which was a very easy job.

Presenter10:14

Yeah, it doesn't sound very demand. Very useful, that would be. It was.

Presenter10:19

Let's have another record. We've got to number three.

Dame Janet Baker10:21

This is a reminding record, chosen purely for that reason.

Dame Janet Baker10:28

It reminds me of

Dame Janet Baker10:30

The theatre, which has been such a heart warming part of my life, something that I want to remember, colleagues that I want to remember, singers, and places, all the opera houses I've worked in.

Dame Janet Baker10:41

But this one is a reminder of the golden days of Gleinborn when we did Cavalli, La Calisto, which was tremendous fun. It's conducted by Raymond Lepard.

Presenter11:51

James Berman's Voice and Yours in a short excerpt from the second act of Cavalli's La Callisto.

Presenter11:58

Lotta Lehmann gave some masterclasses in London that were rather useful to you. Yes, she did.

Dame Janet Baker12:03

Yeah.

Dame Janet Baker12:04

We were guinea pigs, and it was a very interesting experience.

Dame Janet Baker12:09

And very helpful to me in a practical way because

Dame Janet Baker12:14

We went to audition for her. She she wanted all the promising students in London to come and sing for her, and she picked a certain number of us. And we felt very privileged to be used by her in this way.

Presenter12:15

Yeah.

Dame Janet Baker12:27

And through it I met my agent.

Presenter12:29

Oh, that's awesome.

Dame Janet Baker12:29

Jamie Tillett, yes, indeed, who came to one of the final concerts and

Dame Janet Baker12:33

that actually appearing in those master classes, quite apart from the the musical experience, was in in this practical sense a tremendous

Dame Janet Baker12:43

Step forward for me. Quite a landmark.

Presenter12:47

You talked about

Presenter12:48

Your love for the theatre. What was your first solo engagement in opera? I mean, you you had been at Leinbourne and the chorus.

Dame Janet Baker12:54

Yeah.

Dame Janet Baker12:56

It stemmed from the Glinebourne Chorus, because a small group was formed which went to Ingestree Hall, which is the home of the Earl of Salisbury, I think.

Dame Janet Baker13:07

And we did a performance of uh Dido and Denius there.

Dame Janet Baker13:13

And I had a little solo to sing as as a second witch. That was my first essay into the theatrical world.

Presenter13:19

Well, since then so many roles. You've you've always loved Handel.

Presenter13:24

Why do you think his music suits you so well? What do you have in common?

Dame Janet Baker13:28

It's an interesting question.

Dame Janet Baker13:30

I think it's like people, some people you meet.

Dame Janet Baker13:33

you automatically like you don't have to know them very well, but somehow the vibes are right. And I feel that's true with composers. I I pick up a score and I feel somehow attuned to a certain type of person coming through the pages. It's the only way I can describe it.

Speaker 113:49

Yeah.

Presenter13:49

Yes.

Dame Janet Baker13:49

Handel is definitely one of these for me.

Presenter13:53

You joined Benjamin Britton's English Opera Company. That was an engagement that went on for a long time, took you to a lot of places.

Dame Janet Baker13:59

Yes, it was a very long and happy association.

Dame Janet Baker14:03

and still goes on. I'm still terribly attached to Warlorough and everything that happens there.

Presenter14:07

He went with that company to Russia.

Presenter14:10

Now, your pattern has always been well, since those early days, has been opera part of the year and concert recitals the rest.

Dame Janet Baker14:17

The Red

Presenter14:18

and travelling incessantly.

Dame Janet Baker14:21

Yeah.

Presenter14:21

America so many times.

Dame Janet Baker14:23

Yes, indeed.

Presenter14:23

Every gift.

Dame Janet Baker14:24

Every year.

Presenter14:25

You were building up your career on a kind of steady curve, weren't you? I mean, it moved very smoothly up it did. Was that planned? Were you planning your career or?

Dame Janet Baker14:36

Not really.

Presenter14:36

Just accepting it.

Dame Janet Baker14:38

If I look back now, it looks so ordered that a a pattern or a plan

Dame Janet Baker14:44

Seems inevitable, but it wasn't at all. Things just seemed to happen. They came to me and I tackled them, and somehow the career worked.

Dame Janet Baker14:55

But it's very much a matter of luck that that happens.

Dame Janet Baker14:58

And I think certain things you have to have in mind. For instance, as you were just saying a moment ago, my career has been this constant mixture of everything, and I'm very glad that this was so.

Dame Janet Baker15:10

I think all aspects of a singer's working life are important.

Dame Janet Baker15:14

And I wanted to have a go at them all. I wanted to try them all.

Dame Janet Baker15:18

And they've each of the different spheres of performing.

Dame Janet Baker15:22

have stayed with me. I've I've been able to do such a varied sort of work each year.

Dame Janet Baker15:28

and again it's something that I'm very grateful for.

Presenter15:31

The mix Joe is right.

Dame Janet Baker15:32

It seems to be.

Presenter15:34

Another record.

Dame Janet Baker15:35

This is a a marvellously well known piece.

Dame Janet Baker15:39

I know so much handle, and so much rare handle, but it's all in my head.

Dame Janet Baker15:43

So I can replay that any time I like.

Dame Janet Baker15:47

I've chosen the water music, the sweet in G major, played by Neville Mariner, and the orchestra of the St Martin the Fields.

Presenter16:52

Handel's Water Music, The Sweet and G. Neville Mariner conducting the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields.

Presenter16:59

You have

Presenter17:00

Without doubt, an enormous repertoire. Are you good at memorizing? Are you a quick study?

Dame Janet Baker17:05

I have been for many years. I'm not any longer. As I have grown older I find it takes me a lot longer to pick up something entirely new.

Dame Janet Baker17:16

Once I've learnt it, and I go back to it, say perhaps two years, later, there's no difficulty I can pick it up again very quickly once it is in the head. But these days it does take quite a lot of knocking in.

Dame Janet Baker17:27

But for a long time this was no problem to me at all. It's a chore, though. It's n it's a chore that I don't really enjoy. It's like being at school always, sitting down with a a new

Dame Janet Baker17:38

set book and having to get it into one's head. It isn't my favorite part of the

Presenter17:41

Here's

Presenter17:42

Can you learn straight off the page? Can you learn in aeroplanes training?

Dame Janet Baker17:46

Yes, if it's not too difficult. But I like to work with the piano at home first.

Presenter17:51

You can play your own accompaniment for

Dame Janet Baker17:52

Well enough for that, yes.

Presenter17:55

Now, your operatic work, you've been very careful in choosing the roles you'd sing.

Presenter18:01

And indeed the opera houses in which you'd sing them. You've never agreed to sing at the Metropolitan New York, for instance.

Dame Janet Baker18:07

No.

Dame Janet Baker18:08

I've had opportunities to sing opera all over the world, and it causes great deal of distress that I've confined my operatic career to this country. But that was a plan. That was a specific choice which I had to make when I went to America and suddenly the the floodgates opened and I could see my life just disappearing somehow. I would never have been in my own country because I spend so much time touring in other things apart from opera. The opera singer gets a rest and goes back home, the way my career planned out.

Dame Janet Baker18:45

I could see that I wasn't ever going to be able to do that. I would just go from one situation to another and not be at home.

Dame Janet Baker18:53

As much as I wanted to be.

Dame Janet Baker18:56

And I knew that this wouldn't be right for me. I wouldn't have been happy doing that.

Dame Janet Baker19:01

And the only way I could see to control the situation at all sensibly was to make this stipulation that I would only do my theatre work in this country.

Presenter19:11

And choosing your your roles equally carefully. I mean, you you sing donizetti, but not verdi.

Dame Janet Baker19:17

That's true. I think all of us have a very clear idea of our capabilities and our limitations.

Dame Janet Baker19:25

We have to. Um it's very clear to me that I would never be able to sing Verdi much as I'd love to, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, all the lovely big uh

Dame Janet Baker19:35

sixteen inch gun rolls, you know. I I'm not built that way and one one has to be sensible about it.

Speaker 119:36

Roles, you know.

Dame Janet Baker19:41

There are lots of things that I can do very well, which are marvellous music.

Dame Janet Baker19:45

So I don't feel that I've been uh

Dame Janet Baker19:49

deprived in any way.

Presenter19:51

A delightful double in your operatic career.

Presenter19:55

has been your two diders, the Purcell and the Bergios.

Dame Janet Baker19:58

Yes, two very different ladies at either end of the scale, one a miniature, the personal a miniature and very short characterization, and the bellios spanning over a whole evening.

Dame Janet Baker20:10

It's very interesting to play the two.

Presenter20:13

You took over at Covent Garden in the Trotons in rather a hurry, didn't you?

Dame Janet Baker20:16

Yes. I think Josephine Visi was ill. She was recording and she just became ill through the overworker of the of the schedule, I believe. I'm not sure about that.

Dame Janet Baker20:26

and I had been doing it in English with Scottish Opera, and the rest of the cast sang it in French.

Dame Janet Baker20:32

And it was very strange indeed for the audience for Dido to be singing her words in English and the rest of the cast in French. But after that season I did it again at Covent Garden, and they decided to play the whole thing in English, which was very interesting, I thought.

Presenter20:48

It must have been very difficult on the first

Presenter20:51

occasion to pick up your cues and for them

Dame Janet Baker20:52

Yes, and for them to get them from me it was very odd.

Presenter20:54

Yeah.

Dame Janet Baker20:55

Interesting there.

Presenter20:57

Record number five.

Dame Janet Baker20:59

I must have Beethoven. And in this record I'm killing two birds with one stone, because I want another keyboard instrument. I want to hear the piano. I'd miss the piano very much.

Dame Janet Baker21:09

So I get two things here. I get the Beethoven piano concerto number 5 in E-flat.

Dame Janet Baker21:14

And I get the piano played by Ashkenazi, accompanied by Schulte.

Presenter22:11

The opening of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. five in E flat, The Emperor.

Presenter22:18

Ashkenazi with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Sheltey.

Presenter22:23

Dame Jarrett, many people were surprised and saddened when out of the blue you announced that you were.

Presenter22:29

Gently and gradually going to withdraw, and you started with some farewell performances in opera.

Dame Janet Baker22:37

Yes, this again was a very calmly

Dame Janet Baker22:41

Arrived at decision. One of the few things that I've planned ahead.

Dame Janet Baker22:47

The world of the theatre is terribly demanding physically.

Dame Janet Baker22:51

And I thought, as this year that we're in now this season,

Dame Janet Baker22:56

I'm returning to almost all the opera houses I've worked in, uh with the exception of Dear Old Scottish Opera. It seemed a very good moment to

Dame Janet Baker23:07

Make it my last season in the theatre.

Dame Janet Baker23:11

from the point of view of conserving my energy and in fact perhaps lengthening my career as a whole.

Dame Janet Baker23:19

cutting out this very severe physical strain which the stage imposes in order to go on doing concert work and recitals. It seems to me a very sensible thing, and a less cruel thing certainly for me

Dame Janet Baker23:36

Than to wake up one morning and say, I'm never going to sing again, I would find that very painful.

Presenter23:42

The people would.

Dame Janet Baker23:44

And I don't think it's necessary.

Dame Janet Baker23:46

It seems to be

Presenter23:46

But you are going to continue to sing to us in the concert.

Dame Janet Baker23:49

I am indeed.

Presenter23:49

and broadcast.

Dame Janet Baker23:50

Indeed, yes.

Presenter23:52

Have you any plans to teach? Are are you are you going to take a pupil or two?

Dame Janet Baker23:57

I will eventually. For the next two or three years I've got a lot of journeys, a lot of long journeys planned.

Presenter24:02

Yeah.

Speaker 124:02

Mm.

Presenter24:03

Uh

Dame Janet Baker24:03

And I feel again strongly that teaching is a very res great responsibility, and I can't be away. If I teach, then I must be absolutely at the convenience of a young person. I can't be shooting off to Australia in the middle of of teaching somebody. So it'll have to wait a little while until I'm in England.

Dame Janet Baker24:26

more or less all the time. I think that's only fair to pupils, but

Dame Janet Baker24:30

The idea

Dame Janet Baker24:32

fascinates me and terrifies me at the same time, because it is such a frightful responsibility.

Presenter24:37

Yes, it must be. And you might have a little more time for your garden. I know that's very precious.

Dame Janet Baker24:41

Yes, indeed.

Presenter24:43

Record number six.

Dame Janet Baker24:46

This must be Schubert, and it isn't the sort of Schubert you would expect. I have a lot of songs, again, tucked away in my head, so I can sing those to myself on the island any time I want.

Dame Janet Baker24:59

I've chosen the symphony number nine in C major because I'm being greedy about the sound of the orchestra.

Dame Janet Baker25:06

I love the sound of the orchestra and this Mars recording of the Schubert by the Chicago Symphony and Giolini.

Dame Janet Baker25:14

is something which will give me tremendous pleasure.

Presenter26:17

The opening of the third movement of Schubert's Symphony No. Nine in C, Giulini conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter26:25

Let's go straight into the next disk.

Dame Janet Baker26:27

There are English composers like Benjamin Britton that I feel so close to, perhaps too close to. You were saying before, sometimes it's impossible to choose certain recordings because they mean so much to you and in the circumstances of the desert island.

Dame Janet Baker26:43

Some of these who have been my friends would be overwhelming to me to listen to.

Dame Janet Baker26:47

But Vaughan Williams I never knew as a person.

Dame Janet Baker26:50

And his music is so uh evocative to me of England, which I shall miss so much.

Dame Janet Baker26:55

And I shall sit and listen to this recording thinking of the English countryside and the colours of the English landscape. It's a symphony number five indeed, conducted by John Barbieroli.

Presenter28:06

Sir John Barbie Raleigh conducting the Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony, and it was the beginning of the Romancer.

Presenter28:14

Dame Janet, you're going to be on this desert island perhaps for a long time. Now, we talked about your love of gardening. That's going to be useful. You can do some cultivating.

Presenter28:22

Have you any other ideas?

Dame Janet Baker28:25

Well, I'd like to know what grows on it bananas, presumably.

Presenter28:28

Oh, bananas, yes, yes. You could chin up a banana palm and and get some bananas done.

Dame Janet Baker28:31

But

Dame Janet Baker28:33

What about cocoanuts?

Presenter28:35

Yes You shake the tree to get cocoanuts down or throw stones up, don't you?

Dame Janet Baker28:38

But that would suit me very well. If I could drink milk from coconut and eat bananas for the rest of my life, I'd be perfectly happy without having to kill any fish I might uh get out of the water. And I wouldn't fancy that somehow, hitting them on the head.

Presenter28:52

Have you any ideas on building a shelter?

Dame Janet Baker28:54

No, I used to b build camps as a child very successfully, and loved it, so presumably that might come in handy.

Presenter29:00

But if they stood up then they'll stand up now.

Presenter29:03

Would you try to escape?

Dame Janet Baker29:05

I don't think so. No, I don't like water. I'm not very good swimmer.

Presenter29:11

Oh, in that case or very wise, just stay until rescue arrives.

Dame Janet Baker29:11

Oh in that case.

Dame Janet Baker29:14

But I'm not sure if I can do it.

Dame Janet Baker29:15

Yeah.

Presenter29:16

And what's your eighth record?

Dame Janet Baker29:19

Another composer that I couldn't possibly live without, which is Mozart.

Dame Janet Baker29:24

The overture from Cosi Fantotte, which is full of

Dame Janet Baker29:28

cheerfulness which I think I'm going to need.

Presenter29:30

And you've heard that over to her many times from the other side of the curve.

Dame Janet Baker29:32

Yes, indeed. Bring back a lot of very happy memories.

Presenter30:35

Part of the overture from Mozart's Cosi Fantute, conducted by Colin Davis. If you could take only one disc of the H you've chosen, which would it be?

Dame Janet Baker30:44

Very hard.

Dame Janet Baker30:45

I think it would have to be the Scarletti, because it would keep my spirits up so well.

Presenter30:50

And one luxury to have with you nothing of any practical use.

Dame Janet Baker30:54

I couldn't think of anything until my father made the suggestion that what would keep me perfectly happy for the rest of my life would be a supply of pencils and paper on which to write.

Presenter31:04

In fact, you've just recently completed writing your autobiography.

Dame Janet Baker31:07

Yes, I've been doing it over the year. It's been fascinating.

Presenter31:10

So you can get to work on Volve too.

Presenter31:15

And one book.

Dame Janet Baker31:18

I adore Jane Austen and read them at least once a year but there are too many volumes of that there's six different books at least and uh what I would like to do is to take David Cecil's portrait of Jane Austen instead, which will remind me of all the books.

Dame Janet Baker31:36

and keep me very happy.

Presenter31:37

Right. And into that book of Lord David you may bind one of the novels, which

Dame Janet Baker31:44

Persuasion.

Presenter31:45

Right. And thank you, Dame Janet Baker, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Dame Janet Baker31:50

Thank you.

Presenter31:51

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 331:59

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