Rosamond Lehmann

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 two.

Speaker 10:30

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:33

On our Desert Island this week is the novelist Rosamond Lehmann.

Speaker 10:37

Yeah.

Presenter0:37

This layman, could you endure isolation?

Rosamond Lehmann0:40

Yes, I think I could, quite well.

Rosamond Lehmann0:42

They accustomed now to living alone and

Rosamond Lehmann0:46

I really enjoy solitude, though I can't imagine what it'd be like if I wasn't looking forward to seeing somebody or some people.

Rosamond Lehmann0:54

or a grandchild next day or the same evening.

Presenter0:58

You have this meagre allowance of just eight discs.

Presenter1:03

Is music important in your life?

Rosamond Lehmann1:04

Very important.

Presenter1:05

Yes. Have you any musical skill? Do you play an instrument?

Rosamond Lehmann1:09

Well, I used to play the piano, but I

Rosamond Lehmann1:12

was so much less good than I wanted to be that I gave it up.

Presenter1:17

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann1:17

I'm rather sorry I did now.

Rosamond Lehmann1:19

But music does mean a great deal to me.

Presenter1:21

Do you play discs a lot?

Rosamond Lehmann1:21

Do you play this?

Rosamond Lehmann1:23

Yes, I do. Yes, I do. All sorts? All sorts. That's why it's been so difficult to choose.

Presenter1:29

Well, you have chosen. We've got your list here. In fact, we've got the discs here. What's the first one?

Rosamond Lehmann1:35

Well, the first one I've chosen

Rosamond Lehmann1:37

It's been very difficult to choose, but I have chosen.

Rosamond Lehmann1:41

A song from a song cycle called In a Persian Garden.

Rosamond Lehmann1:46

which was uh composed by Lisa Lehmann, who was

Rosamond Lehmann1:50

We always called her Aunt Liza, but she was, in fact, my father's first cousin.

Rosamond Lehmann1:56

And this is the most beautiful song I think in it and

Rosamond Lehmann2:00

It's sung by Hubert Eisl. The first time I heard it was when I was seven or eight, I think, sung by a musical uncle. But I'm afraid we can't have him. So you'll settle for Hubert Eisel.

Presenter2:11

So you settle for Hubert Eisberg?

Presenter2:20

Lisa Lehmann's Are Moon of My Delight from In a Persian Garden sung by Hubert Eisdel.

Presenter2:28

Miss Lehman you just

Presenter2:30

Escaped being a Victorian.

Rosamond Lehmann2:32

Yes. In fact, I was born the day of Queen Victoria's funeral in nineteen one. One of four children. One of four children. I was the second. Your mother was an American.

Presenter2:42

Memphis

Rosamond Lehmann2:46

Yes, she was a New Englander.

Presenter2:49

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann2:49

and much younger than my father.

Presenter2:52

Your father was a very colourful man, wasn't he?

Rosamond Lehmann2:54

Yes, he was wonderful. He was very handsome and very brilliant and a great athlete as well as a man of letters. And also he was a Member of Parliament for some time, Liberal.

Presenter3:05

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann3:06

Did he edit Punch?

Presenter3:09

And he was a a first rate rowing man.

Rosamond Lehmann3:12

Yes, he was a first he wrote the great classic of those days about rowing called The Complete Oarsman. I think it's still the classic, the classic.

Presenter3:19

I think

Presenter3:21

He coached the Cambridge Boat.

Rosamond Lehmann3:23

Coached the Cambridge boat, coached the Oxford boat.

Rosamond Lehmann3:26

He also was invited to America to coach the Harvard crew.

Rosamond Lehmann3:32

I mean, he was a amateur coach, of course. Of course.

Presenter3:34

Of course.

Rosamond Lehmann3:35

But he was very famous.

Presenter3:37

Was it on that occasion that he met your mother for the first time?

Rosamond Lehmann3:39

Yes, it was. Yes, it was.

Presenter3:41

And you lived on the banks of the Thames. I suppose that was his idea?

Rosamond Lehmann3:45

It was his idea. He built the house, I think, in the late eighties or early nineties, eighteen ninety-ish, to entertain his friends, literary friends and rowing friends.

Rosamond Lehmann3:58

And um housed the Cambridge or Oxford crews during the time of their training. My mother found it a bit difficult when she arrived to know how to deal with these great splendid young men. She wasn't used to that kind of way of life, but she I think she enjoyed it very much and we as young, very young children thought it was wonderful.

Presenter4:19

Of course, they must have been cheerful and noisy.

Rosamond Lehmann4:21

There's cheerful and noisy and we thought they were godlike and

Rosamond Lehmann4:26

We little girls, three little girls, fell in love with them all.

Presenter4:31

That you weren't sent away to school.

Rosamond Lehmann4:33

No, my parents disapproved of girls' schools.

Rosamond Lehmann4:38

There weren't very many in those days, I think, anyway.

Rosamond Lehmann4:42

So we were all educated at home. I mean, the girls were. Not my brother.

Presenter4:47

Now, a literary family, were there plenty of books about?

Rosamond Lehmann4:51

Oh yes. I had the run of my father's library. I was all allowed to read anything I liked, and I read voraciously, non non stop.

Presenter5:00

And of course y your brother John became a distinguished poet and editor.

Rosamond Lehmann5:04

Yes, he did. He was the last of the family.

Rosamond Lehmann5:07

and my younger sister Beatrix.

Rosamond Lehmann5:10

who died three years ago is a very distinguished actress.

Presenter5:14

Yes, indeed. And your other sister Helen became one of the stalwarts of the Society of Authors doing Tremembers' Work.

Rosamond Lehmann5:19

Two horses.

Rosamond Lehmann5:21

She remembers you with great affection.

Presenter5:23

of the Radio Writers' Association.

Rosamond Lehmann5:25

That's right. Is

Presenter5:26

Yeah.

Presenter5:27

Was it a happy childhood?

Rosamond Lehmann5:29

Yes, I think it w was very very sheltered.

Rosamond Lehmann5:32

And um

Rosamond Lehmann5:34

We had very devoted parents.

Rosamond Lehmann5:37

There was an unkind period when we had a Belgian governess who he thought was very unkind, but she taught us wonderful French.

Rosamond Lehmann5:45

So by the time I was four and a half I was bilingual, which stood me in good stead.

Presenter5:51

Well, let's have your second record. What's that be?

Rosamond Lehmann5:54

Well, I want Joan Cross singing from La Boheme.

Rosamond Lehmann5:58

They call me Mimi. I've heard that

Rosamond Lehmann6:01

A number of wonderful singers singing, but there's something about Joan Cross's voice which to me is particularly moving.

Presenter6:13

Joan Cross as Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme.

Presenter6:17

You won a scholarship to Cambridge.

Rosamond Lehmann6:20

Yes, I did, to my great surprise.

Rosamond Lehmann6:23

when I was sixteen, I think, and I went to Cambridge to Girton.

Rosamond Lehmann6:28

Things were rather restrictive in those

Presenter6:30

It is simply for female undergraduate.

Rosamond Lehmann6:33

Well, extraordinarily so.

Rosamond Lehmann6:36

There was tremendous chaperonage. One wasn't allowed to dream of going to a young men's.

Rosamond Lehmann6:42

Rooms without a chaperone.

Rosamond Lehmann6:44

I think my last year we were allowed to have coffee in a coffee shop, what we call Elevens's, with a young man alone.

Presenter6:52

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann6:52

But that was until my last year.

Presenter6:54

Good heavens.

Rosamond Lehmann6:55

But you must remember that at Girton in my day it was not considered comile faux at all to to want to meet young men and on the whole

Rosamond Lehmann7:06

the sort of glamorous young men.

Rosamond Lehmann7:09

Didn't think much of Girton girls. We didn't

Presenter7:11

They

Rosamond Lehmann7:11

No. You know, it was extraordinary how different things were in those days. It was very unusual for girls to go to Girton or Newnham. Just because of my mother being an American, she thought girls should be as highly educated as boys. But it was quite an innovation, and I remember thinking, It's not a thing one ought to tell one's dance partners.

Speaker 17:23

Yeah.

Presenter7:37

Ha ha ha.

Presenter7:38

What about extracurricular activities? What what was open to you? I mean, uh, politics, drama, sport?

Rosamond Lehmann7:47

Well, I I don't know what was open to me.

Rosamond Lehmann7:50

Because the only thing I ever

Rosamond Lehmann7:52

wanted to do as far back as I can remember, really from childhood. Early childhood was

Rosamond Lehmann7:58

To be a writer.

Rosamond Lehmann8:00

I thought that was I was born to be.

Rosamond Lehmann8:03

and I started writing so called poetry when I was about six, and then I went on pouring out stories and verses and sort of plays which my sisters and my poor little brother had to play parts in.

Presenter8:17

Now, apart from your father, uh there was a a literary tradition in your family. There were many literary guests in the house.

Rosamond Lehmann8:24

Yes, there were, yes.

Rosamond Lehmann8:27

editors and poets like Alfred Noyes and John Drinkwater, they were sort of proteges of my father and um the editor of Punch, Owen Seaman, was often there and the editor of The Spectator, Charlie Graves, Charles Graves, all these were

Rosamond Lehmann8:45

People were very kind to me when I was a little girl. And when I grew up

Rosamond Lehmann8:50

Well, supposed to have grown up and wrote began to write myself.

Rosamond Lehmann8:55

They all rule up.

Rosamond Lehmann8:56

encouraged me and wrote to me about my first book.

Presenter9:00

Now you married a man who was in shipping, and went to live in the north east

Presenter9:04

That marriage didn't work out. No, it didn't. And it's at that time you wrote your first novel?

Rosamond Lehmann9:09

Yes, it was.

Rosamond Lehmann9:11

I suppose it was really to escape, perhaps, from the feeling of having made a great mistake.

Rosamond Lehmann9:20

try to find a way out for myself.

Presenter9:24

That was Dusty Answer, a very successful novel, an extraordinarily successful first novel, and for its time a little outrageous.

Rosamond Lehmann9:27

Yes.

Rosamond Lehmann9:33

Yes, it was considered um scandalous by some people, but it seems so extraordinary now to look back on it, because it's a very romantic, idealistic kind of novel.

Presenter9:44

To what extent was it, as most first novels are said to be, autobiographical?

Rosamond Lehmann9:51

Well, the settings were autobiographical. I mean, the places.

Rosamond Lehmann9:57

The river, the garden, and the next door garden and house. But the people

Rosamond Lehmann10:02

The characters

Rosamond Lehmann10:05

Well, of course one always has a kind of points of reference about all the characters that one invents or describes. But they were invented, all of them.

Speaker 110:16

Uh

Rosamond Lehmann10:16

I suppose the girl Judith suppose had something of me in her, but uh I don't really like her at all now. She seems a bit sort of mawkish and soppy.

Presenter10:28

Well, it was a a phenomenal success. Yes, it was. What effect did that success have on you? Did it give you a feeling of independence?

Rosamond Lehmann10:30

There's a ball.

Rosamond Lehmann10:36

Yes, it did, because it came at a very a very good time because

Rosamond Lehmann10:41

I had separated from my husband and

Rosamond Lehmann10:44

Reddit had no money at all.

Rosamond Lehmann10:47

and suddenly found that I could earn my own living.

Presenter10:50

Did you enjoy the the notoriety being fated and invited everyone?

Rosamond Lehmann10:54

Do you know?

Rosamond Lehmann10:56

I know people won't believe me if I say this, but it's quite the opposite. I really was appalled. I couldn't think what I'd done. Do you see what I mean?

Rosamond Lehmann11:06

As if I'd exposed myself.

Rosamond Lehmann11:09

Bloodney clothes on on the Albert Hall platform. It s it seems extraordinary looking back on it, but it was so unexpected.

Presenter11:17

Well, let's break at that point for another record. Number three, watch that.

Rosamond Lehmann11:21

Well, I'd I'd love to have a song called A voire des fleur and the singer is Vanny Marcoux.

Rosamond Lehmann11:30

It's a most beautiful romantic song, and he's a marvellous singer.

Presenter11:35

Has it any particular association for you?

Rosamond Lehmann11:37

No, it hasn't, except that it's been played to me by my dear friend Desmond Shaw Taylor, who first introduced me to it, and uh it's one he loves.

Rosamond Lehmann11:48

And I think of its kind it's one of the most enchanting, nostalgic, romantic songs I know.

Presenter11:58

A song by Gounot, en voi des fleur sung by Vanni Marcoux.

Presenter12:04

Now you married again, and had two children.

Presenter12:07

And you wrote your second book, A Note in Music, which had a less enthusiastic reception. Was that very worrying?

Rosamond Lehmann12:14

Oh no, I don't think I've worried.

Rosamond Lehmann12:17

I expected it. It was spite of having very little common sense about

Rosamond Lehmann12:22

writing and literature. I think I'd been well trained and educated by my father mostly.

Rosamond Lehmann12:29

And I expected it. I think I wanted

Rosamond Lehmann12:32

To show the critics that I wasn't a one person, no, because they all said, Oh, Miss Lehman.

Rosamond Lehmann12:39

She'll never write anything else. This is her autobiography. And of course this annoyed me a bit.

Presenter12:44

The second novel is always the most difficult of the matter.

Rosamond Lehmann12:47

And at the time

Rosamond Lehmann12:50

What's so extraordinary to look back on, it's supposed to be.

Rosamond Lehmann12:53

extremely emancipated because I s spoke more or less openly about homosexuality, which wasn't

Rosamond Lehmann13:02

I didn't use the word, but it was a strand in the novel.

Rosamond Lehmann13:06

I remember EM Forster writing to me about it and saying how much he liked it and how courageous I was. I hadn't thought of myself as courageous. I just I thought it was quite natural.

Presenter13:18

Well, then you went on to write Invitation to the Waltz, The Weather in the Streets. You wrote one play.

Rosamond Lehmann13:21

Mm-hmm.

Rosamond Lehmann13:25

Yes, I thought of it good at the time, but I don't think I want to talk about it really.

Presenter13:30

It it wasn't important to you.

Rosamond Lehmann13:31

Well, it was important, but it was played by some um company uh for three Sundays, just before the war broke out.

Presenter13:40

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann13:40

And then the theatre's closed for a bit, as you know.

Presenter13:43

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann13:43

And later on they wanted me to revise it and put it on again, especially in Paris they wanted to, but I

Rosamond Lehmann13:51

I wanted to forget it. And I really don't know if it was good or not now. I don't remember it.

Presenter13:57

You have always had great success in in France. The the French love your novels then.

Rosamond Lehmann14:00

This I have.

Rosamond Lehmann14:02

Especially the one they call pussiere, which is not the good translation of dusty answer.

Rosamond Lehmann14:07

But there isn't really a translation. You can't say reponst poussierise or anything of that sort. I think they might have done better, because poussier just means dust, which is exactly the opposite of what this book was meant to be. However, it was a great success.

Presenter14:17

Just a

Presenter14:21

It was

Presenter14:22

What about your writing discipline? When you're writing a book, do you work regular hours? Do you write in the early morning, late at night?

Rosamond Lehmann14:29

No, I I'm not very disciplined.

Rosamond Lehmann14:32

I've never been able to shut myself away and and write regularly. I've always had so many other things to do. And when I really began a writing career in the thirties, after I married, I had children to look after and a house to run and a lot of entertaining to do.

Rosamond Lehmann14:50

and the children always came first.

Rosamond Lehmann14:54

And I always found it very difficult to start a book.

Rosamond Lehmann14:57

Once I had started, I simply went on

Rosamond Lehmann15:02

Sometimes I wrote for a couple of hours and sometimes I wrote for five or six hours. I started at word one, line one, page one, and went on till it stopped.

Presenter15:12

It's time we had another record. What shall we have now?

Rosamond Lehmann15:15

Well, can I have a song which i is very haunting and nostalgic?

Rosamond Lehmann15:20

It's nostalgia itself for me and I think for many other people.

Rosamond Lehmann15:25

It's called These Foolish Things and I think

Rosamond Lehmann15:29

was a song of the middle thirties.

Rosamond Lehmann15:33

The words are by Eric Maschwitz, and it was sung by Hutch.

Presenter15:43

These Foolish Things sung by Hatch.

Presenter15:47

Now, Miss Lehman, your second marriage ended, and you became

Presenter15:51

Oddly discouraged with your writing, you thought of studying medicine, taking that up instead.

Rosamond Lehmann15:56

Yes, I wonder where

Rosamond Lehmann15:58

I wonder where you've read that.

Rosamond Lehmann16:00

One of my books, I suppose. The autobiography was it?

Presenter16:03

I can't reveal my sources.

Rosamond Lehmann16:04

My sauces

Rosamond Lehmann16:05

You can't do video sources.

Speaker 116:06

Video

Rosamond Lehmann16:07

Yes, it was a general discouragement because my second marriage ended very sadly for me and I thought that uh I really must change my life altogether and

Rosamond Lehmann16:20

start again. Though why I thought I should ever be able to become a doctor I can't imagine now, but I went so far as to go and

Rosamond Lehmann16:28

See the head of the medical faculty in Oxford.

Rosamond Lehmann16:32

He was very nice to me, delightful, charming man, but said he didn't think I was at all suited.

Presenter16:37

Do you think he was right?

Rosamond Lehmann16:38

Well, yes, I do.

Rosamond Lehmann16:40

Anyway.

Rosamond Lehmann16:41

I did start again to write

Presenter16:43

Well you didn't really stop because you wrote some short stories for New Writing which your brother John was editing.

Rosamond Lehmann16:48

Yes, I did.

Presenter16:50

What was your next novel?

Rosamond Lehmann16:51

Well, my next novel was The Ballad Nassau's.

Rosamond Lehmann16:55

which I wrote during the war.

Presenter16:57

Do you think it was something of a handicap to you that you didn't have to write professionally?

Presenter17:03

And you you you could more or less write when you felt like it.

Rosamond Lehmann17:06

Yes, I suppose I might have written more, and I think I was very lucky not to ha by that time to have to write for my living.

Rosamond Lehmann17:15

But looking back, I can't think that I would have written many more novels, but I certainly would have written more critical work.

Rosamond Lehmann17:25

And perhaps tried a a biography if I'd been given the chance.

Presenter17:29

Uh

Rosamond Lehmann17:29

Yeah.

Presenter17:29

Uh

Rosamond Lehmann17:29

Yeah.

Presenter17:29

Uh

Rosamond Lehmann17:30

But I did do quite a lot of reviewing in those days.

Presenter17:32

The Ballad and the Source was published, I think, in 1944 in the next novel, The Echoing Grove.

Rosamond Lehmann17:36

No.

Presenter17:39

It didn't appear until nine years after that. It was it was quite a long gap.

Rosamond Lehmann17:43

Yes, it is.

Rosamond Lehmann17:46

Well, I suppose that was partly because my life became dislocated again.

Presenter17:50

Mm-hmm.

Rosamond Lehmann17:52

and very turbulent and uh again I left the country and came to live in London.

Presenter17:58

You said that when you got an idea, once you had got started, then you worked at all sorts of odd hours until you got going. How how long did the actual writing process take you, usually?

Rosamond Lehmann18:04

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann18:08

I think I'm a slow writer, except uh Invitation to the Waltz was written rather quickly for me, in about six months. But otherwise it takes me a year and a half to two years, and I do a a first draft, which is a sort of working draught.

Presenter18:17

Mm-hmm.

Rosamond Lehmann18:26

And that takes a long time.

Rosamond Lehmann18:28

And then I do a second.

Rosamond Lehmann18:31

sort of polish it up and pare it down and make it sound right in the kind of rhythm I want it to have and also to get its organic shape clear.

Presenter18:41

Do you find it hard to give up a novel when you've at last got it reasonably satisfactory? Do you find it hard to send it off to the publisher? Do you want to hang on and work and revise and reshape?

Presenter18:54

No one I've ever

Rosamond Lehmann18:55

No, when I've actually finished one, I d it's a feeling m much more of well, I can do no more. It's it's as good as I can make it, and I'm thankful to be delivered of it.

Presenter19:09

Let's have another record.

Rosamond Lehmann19:11

This is Tifford Curzon, who last died so recently.

Rosamond Lehmann19:16

Playing a Schubert impromptu, the impromptu in A-flat.

Rosamond Lehmann19:21

And it's beautifully played, and I'd love to hear it as a

Rosamond Lehmann19:26

In itself its beauty is a kind of memorial to him.

Presenter19:35

Schubert's Impromptu in A Flat opens ninety number four, played by Clifford Curzon.

Presenter19:42

mister Lehman, you had the extreme misfortune to lose your daughter, Sally, in nineteen fifty eight.

Presenter19:49

which was a shattering

Presenter19:51

Blow for you.

Presenter19:52

You abandoned writing fiction for a long, long time, about twenty years. You you devoted yourself to spiritual studies.

Rosamond Lehmann19:59

Spiritual and psychic studies, yes.

Rosamond Lehmann20:02

Because after her

Rosamond Lehmann20:05

She died in Java.

Rosamond Lehmann20:08

She was only twenty three.

Rosamond Lehmann20:10

And uh it was

Rosamond Lehmann20:13

the most shattering blow well, there are no words for it really. I thought I couldn't possibly live without her. But I began to have these extraordinary psychic and m spiritual, mystical, you might call them, experiences.

Rosamond Lehmann20:29

of being with her and seeing her and hearing her directly. So I began to know that death wasn't what we thought death was quite the opposite of extinction or annihilation.

Rosamond Lehmann20:42

I don't think I'd ever really thought that, but the climate of those times and the people I lived with I mean my friends and

Rosamond Lehmann20:49

so called intellectuals were

Rosamond Lehmann20:53

very sceptical and mostly agnostic, if not totally atheistic. So this was the most extraordinary breakthrough.

Rosamond Lehmann21:04

and an experience of total

Rosamond Lehmann21:07

Reality

Rosamond Lehmann21:09

which of course has never left me.

Presenter21:10

You found tremendous comfort from that work.

Rosamond Lehmann21:13

enormous, as I knew she was as much alive as ever, as it was a question of having gone into another sphere of consciousness, or expanded consciousness.

Presenter21:25

You wrote about your grief and your beliefs in a very moving book.

Presenter21:29

The Swan in the Evening

Rosamond Lehmann21:31

I'm glad you think so. It was a very difficult book to write, but um

Rosamond Lehmann21:38

I felt I must write it.

Rosamond Lehmann21:40

Now I can remember talking to Laurence Vanderpost, who is a dear friend of mine.

Rosamond Lehmann21:45

And he said something which made me see, for some reason, how to do it. He said, Do it in three youth times, your own childhood and Sally's brief life, and then Anna, that's my eldest granddaughter. And for some reason I suddenly saw its shape and I began to write it. And uh it almost wrote itself after that.

Presenter22:10

Some more music.

Rosamond Lehmann22:12

Well, I very much want something of Benjamin Britton, who, apart from being somebody I I knew.

Rosamond Lehmann22:19

I love his music. I always have.

Rosamond Lehmann22:23

And I've chosen a piece of the variations on a theme of Frank Bridge.

Presenter22:33

Benjamin Britton conducting an excerpt from his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. He was conducting the English Chamber Orchestra.

Presenter22:42

Now after twenty-three years you published another novel, A Sea Grape Tree. That was six years ago.

Presenter22:50

Had your work changed very much, consciously to you?

Rosamond Lehmann22:54

Well, I think so. My whole o outlook on life, the windows I looked out of life through, had changed completely. And I wanted, if I could, to bring that element spiritual element, if you like,

Rosamond Lehmann23:09

Into a novel, if I could. I don't know if I succeeded.

Rosamond Lehmann23:14

Some people thought I did and some people thought I didn't.

Rosamond Lehmann23:18

But now it's just been reprinted in paper bag.

Rosamond Lehmann23:22

I find people taking to it much more easily than they did then. The climate has so changed.

Presenter23:28

Are you working on a novel at the moment?

Rosamond Lehmann23:30

Well, I do want to write one more. My age it's rather difficult to look very far ahead.

Rosamond Lehmann23:35

But I do want to write one more. It's a kind of sequel to a sea grape tree.

Rosamond Lehmann23:40

But I don't know if I ever shall. I hope I will.

Presenter23:43

Oh, your readers hope so. Your output as a novelist has been

Presenter23:48

Well, small, only seven so far, but every one of them is in print, which must be very gratifying.

Rosamond Lehmann23:55

It is very gratifying. It's made my grandchildren quite respectful.

Presenter23:59

You've done a great deal of work for other writers. You work for the writers' organization Penn International.

Rosamond Lehmann24:04

Yes. I was um president of the English Centre for some time.

Rosamond Lehmann24:09

And attended many conferences abroad.

Rosamond Lehmann24:15

And I'm now what's called an international vice president.

Rosamond Lehmann24:19

I really don't work very hard at all, but I

Rosamond Lehmann24:22

attend conferences and meet my friends from abroad, the ones that are still

Rosamond Lehmann24:29

With us.

Presenter24:30

We've got to record number seven.

Rosamond Lehmann24:34

Well I

Rosamond Lehmann24:35

Would like

Rosamond Lehmann24:36

A part of Richard Strauss's four last songs, they're all marvellously beautiful.

Rosamond Lehmann24:44

But of course we can't hear them all.

Rosamond Lehmann24:47

This

Rosamond Lehmann24:48

It's fruiling the first song of the four and sung by Elizabeth Schwartzkopf.

Presenter24:59

Elizabeth Schwartzkopf singing Spring, the first of the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs.

Presenter25:07

Miss Lehman, have you any open air interests? You were brought up to a riverside life. Does that mean you can handle small craft?

Rosamond Lehmann25:14

Oh yes.

Rosamond Lehmann25:15

Yes, I haven't tried for some years, but I used to scow and wield a punt pole.

Presenter25:22

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann25:22

Yeah.

Rosamond Lehmann25:23

Done any fishing?

Rosamond Lehmann25:25

No, I'm not a fisherman.

Rosamond Lehmann25:26

My son's a great fishermen, and my grandsons are also.

Presenter25:30

As you can probably guess, what I'm getting at now is to find out what sort of castaway you'd be. Do you think you could live off the land?

Rosamond Lehmann25:38

Well, it's very difficult to imagine. For one thing, I've never been sure whether this desert island is in the tropics or whether it's uh in the sort of Falkland Island regions.

Rosamond Lehmann25:52

Well, most people have it in the tropics, but I didn't know if it was de rigueur or whether I could choose. Yes, I I will have it in in the tropics. I should be quite happy, I think.

Presenter25:59

Yes, I

Rosamond Lehmann26:04

If you're gonna ask me, did I want to escape?

Rosamond Lehmann26:07

My answer would be no, I can't imagine wanting to or being able to.

Rosamond Lehmann26:12

No good at building craft or rafts.

Presenter26:14

Yes.

Rosamond Lehmann26:15

And I wouldn't be able to swim very far.

Presenter26:17

Oh dear. Well, we'll have help standing by if you should need it.

Rosamond Lehmann26:21

Thank you.

Presenter26:22

Let's have your last record.

Rosamond Lehmann26:24

Uh

Rosamond Lehmann26:25

I want to have Nanctimitis, Now Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, which is the marvellous boy's voice singing at the end of each of the Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy series. I think it's one of the most beautiful boys' voices I ever heard, and it's the most lovely setting of the Nanctimitis. That's what I would like.

Presenter26:54

The setting of Nonc Demetus which was used in the television series Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, the voice of young Paul Phoenix. If you could take only one disc out of the eight you've played, which would it be?

Rosamond Lehmann27:08

It's very difficult to choose, but I think the last one, the Nanctymidis.

Rosamond Lehmann27:13

Because it did keep me s serene, I think.

Presenter27:17

And you're allowed one luxury, one object of no practical use that it would give you pleasure to have.

Rosamond Lehmann27:23

Well, am I allowed a peak knees?

Presenter27:26

No, I'm afraid it has to be inanimate.

Rosamond Lehmann27:28

Oh, it has to be an animal.

Presenter27:30

I'm sorry, I don't know how that rule crept in, but I think too many people were choosing dogs and horses.

Rosamond Lehmann27:33

I think too many.

Rosamond Lehmann27:35

A pair of Peuthnese puppets would have been lovely. But a luxury. Well, I think I would like a mass of big note books and masses of burrows.

Rosamond Lehmann27:46

Am I allowed that? Then I would try and write and write and write.

Presenter27:51

And it's business as usual.

Presenter27:53

And one book

Presenter27:55

apart from the Bible and the works of Shakespeare which are already provided.

Rosamond Lehmann27:59

Yes, that's been very difficult too.

Rosamond Lehmann28:02

Torn my hair trying to think.

Rosamond Lehmann28:04

But I finally decided on the letters of Madame de Sevignier

Presenter28:08

Uh

Rosamond Lehmann28:08

Yeah.

Presenter28:08

Okay.

Rosamond Lehmann28:09

They are translated, but I read them in French. I'm lucky enough to be able to read French as easily as English. And there are volumes and volumes of them.

Rosamond Lehmann28:20

And I think they're the most wonderful letters that have ever been written. And I think Madame de Sevigny herself is sort of my ideal person. She was beautiful and witty and worldly wise and had a great spiritual life as well. And her letters never ceased to come to life. She was at the court of Louis XIV and she also spent a lot a lot of time in the country alone.

Rosamond Lehmann28:47

She loved La Nature, nature, which people was rather rare in those days and she was a contemplative. And all these letters were written to her adored daughter, who she never ceased to miss. And the warmth and love that comes through these letters, not only to her daughter but to her friends, makes them incredibly moving.

Rosamond Lehmann29:09

and I don't think I should ever get tired of them.

Rosamond Lehmann29:12

I could go on reading them forever, I think.

Presenter29:15

Right, we shall supply the finest edition we can find of the letters of Madame de Sevigny.

Rosamond Lehmann29:20

Thank you.

Presenter29:21

And thank you, Rosamund Lehman, for letting us hear your Desert Island Dip.

Rosamond Lehmann29:25

Thank you. I've enjoyed it very much.

Presenter29:28

Goodbye everyone.