Mollie Harris

Speaker 10:00

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

Speaker 10:05

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1983.

Speaker 10:12

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week our castaway is the writer, actress and countrywoman, Molly Harris. Molly, which part of the country are you from? I've got a note here that says Valley of the Windrush, but I'm not quite sure where the Windrush flows.

Mollie Harris0:40

But I'm not.

Mollie Harris0:42

The Windrush flows through Oxfordshire and joins the Thames also in Oxfordshire.

Presenter0:48

Mm-hmm.

Mollie Harris0:49

But I was born in Duckington, a little village which is near Whitney.

Presenter0:52

Dear Whitney. Oh yes, everybody in Duckington, I've read was either in farming or helping to make blankets in Whitney.

Mollie Harris0:53

Bring me.

Mollie Harris0:59

Well, mostly, yes. There wasn't really much other work there, really, except the very genteel girls worked in shops and the other people went away to a domestic service. There really wasn't much choice.

Presenter1:11

Well, we'll talk about Ducklington in more detail presently. Let's get on to this question of desert islands. Could you endure isolation, complete loneliness?

Mollie Harris1:21

Yes, yes, I think I could for quite a long while.

Presenter1:25

You have a very small ration of music. Is music important to you?

Mollie Harris1:29

Uh well, i i it would be then very important. And I like to hear some music, but it isn't, you know no, not my life, really.

Presenter1:38

Can you make any music? Can you play the piano?

Mollie Harris1:41

Good gracious, no, and I can't sing either. Definitely behind the door when voices were given that.

Presenter1:44

Definitely behind it.

Presenter1:46

So those records are going to be very valuable. What's the first one going to be?

Mollie Harris1:51

Well, I'd like scarlet ribbons.

Mollie Harris1:54

And the reason I want that is because when we were quite young and and at home, members of our family were nearly always chosen for the school concerts. Now we were pretty hard up. I think my stepfather owned about uh two pounds, and there were seven of us, and my mother and stepfather.

Mollie Harris2:12

So there wasn't a lot of money about, and I was chosen to be a princess.

Mollie Harris2:19

in this school concert and I believe my elder sister was the queen and my one of my brothers the king in the same play.

Mollie Harris2:27

And all the girls in the school nearly all the girls in the school from somewhere or other had ribbons in their hair, but I didn't.

Mollie Harris2:36

Anyhow, the day of the concert arrived and we were just leaving home, all us children, and my mum said to me, Come here a minute.

Mollie Harris2:45

and from somewhere, and I don't know how she afforded it.

Mollie Harris2:49

But she'd got this piece of ribbon, and she tied it on my hair.

Mollie Harris2:53

And it was the most wonderful thing.

Mollie Harris2:56

for me and and I had a little crown to wear, a little sort of cardboard crown to wear, but I insisted that I went on stage with my ribbon sticking up above this. And so when the tune Scarlet Ribbons came out, which was of course was very much later,

Mollie Harris3:12

Every time I hear it, I'm back there in that little cottage at Ducklington, and my mum has got me on her knee tying that riven on.

Mollie Harris3:20

And that's why I'd like it played.

Speaker 43:22

I peeked in to say goodnight.

Speaker 43:29

And then I heard my child in prayer.

Speaker 43:37

And for me some scarlet ribbon

Speaker 43:43

Scarlet ribbon for my hair.

Presenter3:51

Gracie Fields.

Presenter3:53

Tell me about Ducklington Molly. Was it a big village?

Mollie Harris3:57

No, very small about three hundred souls, I think, when we lived there.

Presenter4:02

Seven of you. And I've seen a picture of of the cottage in in one of your books. Quite a small cottage.

Mollie Harris4:08

Yes, two up and two down.

Presenter4:09

Uh Combat

Mollie Harris4:10

To a scrap Yes, it was, but it didn't ever seem crowded somehow.

Presenter4:14

Where were you in the family? What kind of family?

Mollie Harris4:15

I I wish I was the middle one. I have two brothers and a sister older than me.

Mollie Harris4:21

And then exactly two months before I was born, my father died of peritonitis, because, you know, people died with that sort of thing then.

Mollie Harris4:29

And so my mum was left with with all of us. And for a little while she took in gloving and people used to do work at home's hand stitching gloves and she used to get fortunes halfpenny a dozen pairs. And you had to put all those little bits in as well. Eye straining sort of work. Yes, and uh it took ages to do of course and she, like me, was no sewer, so she didn't stick that very long.

Presenter4:46

And you had to put a

Mollie Harris4:56

And then she had a job showing people in and also taking the money in the local cinema at Whitney. But after a little while, anyhow, she married again, and there were one step sister and two step brothers after that, so it meant seven of us in all.

Presenter5:11

So everybody had to help.

Mollie Harris5:12

Yes, oh yes, we all had our little jobs to do, work to do.

Presenter5:16

There's wa a story you tell in one of your books at the time you nearly lost your little brother down the loo.

Mollie Harris5:20

Oh yes, oh yes, that could have been quite tragic, you know, really.

Presenter5:22

Yeah.

Mollie Harris5:23

As I said, the cottage was small with only oil lamps for lighting in the main room, and there were candles for bedrooms in the back room, you see, and the water all drawn from a well out in the garden that was shared between three cottages. And the lavatories were right down the bottom of the garden, well out of the way by the pigsty, for the same reason, you see. Well, this little horror, Ben, uh, he was a bit spoiled. He was of the other family, and they'd had it a bit easier than us older ones, you see. And he was very spoiled and very cheeky.

Mollie Harris5:55

And my mum used to get these boys ready for bed.

Mollie Harris5:59

Every night, as soon as she'd gotten ready, he used to say,'Mamma, he wants to go to the laboratory. Molly, take him down there' and I used to have to piggyback this little horror all the way down the dirt path on my back. And you know how kids jog about on the back. Well, he used to jog about on my back and say,'I want to go on the big hole'. Well, he couldn't.

Presenter6:18

On the big hole.

Mollie Harris6:18

Boy.

Mollie Harris6:19

But

Mollie Harris6:20

Well, it was a yes, it was a two-holer, you see, this lavatory. So it had a big hole for big bottoms, and then a little step down, and nearer the ground was this little hole, you see. So it was a lovely arrangement, really. Mother and child could sit there at the same time, and the mother could show the child how to go on, you see. Well, he was so spoiled, you see, and only about four, and he wanted to sit on this big seat, which was absolutely ridiculous, really. And this went on all the winter. Nobody else was asked to take him down there at all, you know, except me.

Mollie Harris6:52

And it was pouring rain one night, and the candle in the jam jar blew out on the way down, and I thought, right, I'm not having this much longer. So I got as far as the lavoratory and opened the door and backed on to the big hole and let him down. And he went straight down, he shut up just like a pocket lamp.

Speaker 47:08

Yeah.

Mollie Harris7:08

Yeah.

Mollie Harris7:09

And all that was left was his hands and his head and his hands that were grabbing on to this big hole, you see. Because if he'd ever let go we should never got him out alive. No, we shouldn't, because it wanted emptying anyhow. And he let out this terrible, terrible scream, and so did I, because I was very frightened. They all came running down the dirt path then, you see.

Mollie Harris7:31

They hauled Ben out. He had a damn good bath. I had a damn good idea. But that larned him he never wanted to go at seven o'clock at night ever any more in his life.

Presenter7:35

Yeah.

Presenter7:40

No more trouble with you.

Mollie Harris7:41

No.

Presenter7:43

Record number two.

Mollie Harris7:45

Well, when I was quite small, and I was the only one to go, I used to go to my mother's.

Mollie Harris7:52

parents at Sherburne in the Cotzells for for little holidays. And uh this Grampy of mine I was very fond of, and he of me, and we used to sit on this

Mollie Harris8:02

Cotswold Wall then, near the cottage, and he used to sing all sorts of things to me since I was only about eight or nine and one of the ones that I remember is Pretty Polly Perkins from Paddington Green.

Presenter8:15

And down in the area, her pretty face she'd shine with a smile on her countenance and a laugh in her eye. If I thought that she loved me, I'd have laid down to die. She was as beautiful as a butterfly and as proud as a queen, was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington.

Presenter8:45

Pretty Polly Perkins excellently sung by Roy Hudd.

Presenter8:49

Molly Ducklington. So few years ago, but a very different life from now. A big family, but you could live on very little. To some extent you could live on the countryside.

Mollie Harris9:00

Well, we certainly could, because my stepfather had this big allotment, and we also had a big garden, so all the vegetables were supplied from there.

Mollie Harris9:10

So there's no buying anything at all.

Mollie Harris9:12

And then there are the wild things like um when it was blackberry in time, we used to have to go out after school, day after day after day, and get as many blackberries as possible. Because you see, you could have apples almost thrown at you in the village, you know, there's plenty of apples. I don't think we had an apple tree, but we always had plenty. And my mum used to make

Mollie Harris9:34

Pounds and pounds and pounds of blackberry and apple jam, and it was thick, solid, and we had it on everything. We had it on bread and toast and porridge and and on rice pudding. We absolutely had it every way. Suet puddings

Presenter9:50

Well

Mollie Harris9:52

Well, it lasted until Blackberries came again, yes, it certainly did.

Presenter9:57

and rabbit.

Mollie Harris9:58

Oh yes, rabbits, you know, really, really, we almost lived on rabbits. That was really your your meat.

Presenter10:04

And even so few years ago,

Presenter10:06

You didn't always have to go to the shops. The Pacman still called.

Mollie Harris10:09

Oh, yes, called with all sorts of things shoes and flannelette sheets, and and this was very handy, really, because a pacman, rather than a shop, you see her, a pacman would trust you, and you had this this little book, and he booked down how much you could afford to pay each week.

Mollie Harris10:26

Well, say my mum bought a pair of flannel et sheets. Well, by the time she'd paint em they'd

Mollie Harris10:32

Well, w we wanted another pair for one of the other beds, or somebody wanted a pair of boots or shoes. But it was a very handy way of going on. The pack men were honest, and the villagers were honest about it all. And it was one way of getting things, because you just couldn't afford to buy them outright, not on two pounds a week.

Presenter10:49

Let's have your third record.

Mollie Harris10:51

Well, now, I really should have started work by now, for this next record, because that's what it reminds me of. And I had started work at ten shillings a week in a laundry. That's all I got, working from eight until six.

Mollie Harris11:07

An' I was going with this young man.

Mollie Harris11:10

supposed to be going with him, and then a new fellow came on the scene, and he was from the town, and the first week that he was about he said to me, Would you like to come to the Oxford Theatre?

Mollie Harris11:23

And for the first time in my life I went to the Oxford Theatre, and I heard a girl sing La Vienne Rose, and she sang it both in French and in English, and I can see her now coming on to the stage with this beautiful white dress.

Presenter11:38

And we don't know who she was.

Mollie Harris11:39

No, I don't.

Presenter11:40

But we have the recording of it by Edith Piaf.

Mollie Harris11:43

Oh, lovely.

Speaker 411:50

Des you quiet for deserving, rir quiet sabuche, voila le portrays a tour.

Speaker 411:59

Dol Moque, la Palapia.

Speaker 112:01

Uh all the pew

Speaker 412:15

Uh

Presenter12:16

The voice of Edith Kiev. Amalia, I'm so fascinated by your childhood.

Presenter12:21

Home Medicines. You were sewed up for the winter. Now that's a lovely story.

Mollie Harris12:26

Yes well, you see, when we were all small, if you had a doctor you had to pay, or if you had any medicines or anything, you would have had to pay it. So self heal was very much inevitable.

Mollie Harris12:39

And at the beginning of the winter time then, my mum used to line us all up. She'd previously gone up to Whitney and bought some real flannel. Now that real flannel must have been quite dear, but it was going to save us having colds all the winter.

Mollie Harris12:55

And she used to get this real flannel and then she used to rub our chests and back with goose grease. Now the grease from a goose is too fat for eating purposes really, but it was lovely to keep the cold off your chest, you see. So she would rub us vigorously, quite thick, with this goose grease, and then actually sew us up in this sort of more like a waistcoat. It it went from just underneath your arms, almost down to your bottom.

Mollie Harris13:23

Almost down to there, and she actually sewed us up in it, and you kept that on all the winter.

Mollie Harris13:29

And that kept you warm, you see, all the cold winds, you didn't have all the lovely warm clothes that you had now, but that kept us really warm.

Mollie Harris13:37

And uh of course it had to come off when the spring came, but you see, what happened to it when you you didn't have a bath all the winter, you washed up as far as possible and down as far as possible. And possible was that smelly bit in the middle. And then, you see, at the when the spring came and the better weather came, she used to just cut it off, cut it up this flannel, didn't keep it or anything, because by then it had got very discoloured and very, very smelly.

Mollie Harris14:04

So she just used to cut it all off and throw it on the back of the fire. My golly, didn't that burn too? And didn't it smell

Presenter14:11

But never a cone.

Mollie Harris14:11

Never the cold, no.

Presenter14:13

Let's have another record.

Mollie Harris14:13

Yeah.

Mollie Harris14:15

Now I'd like

Mollie Harris14:16

You are my sunshine.

Mollie Harris14:18

But we are now getting on a little bit now, because by now I had married and and we had one son.

Mollie Harris14:24

And then the war broke out and and away went the husband to the war. And so I packed up my little cottage that I was living in, went to live with my mother during the war. Well, she looked after my son and I went to work. And I drove um a three-ton lorry all through the war. Now a three-ton lorry at that time was quite a big one. I mean there's nothing now, but it was quite a big lorry, or van you would call it, because it belonged to a wholesale grocer's. And I used to deliver great big cheeses and two hundred weights of sugar on my back into these bakers and these uh shops that I had to take it to. And it was very hard work, but but I quite enjoyed it. Well then my son was born just before the war.

Mollie Harris15:06

And during the war this song was very popular, You Are My Sunshine.

Mollie Harris15:11

And he was about

Mollie Harris15:12

three or four, and and I taught him it, or he picked it up and learned it, and he used to sing it to me.

Mollie Harris15:19

And uh and always I can see him sat there with his little short trousers on, singing his song, You'll never know, dear, how much I loves you, he used to say.

Presenter15:30

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

Presenter15:36

You make me happy when skies are grey.

Presenter15:44

You'll never know, dear.

Presenter15:47

How much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away

Presenter15:57

Binkrosby singing You Are My Sunshine.

Presenter16:00

When did you start to write down all this country knowledge, all these country memories of yours?

Mollie Harris16:06

Well, not until about the early sixties, I think.

Mollie Harris16:12

I used to think about it a lot, but never sort of got it down on paper. But after then, after the war, and and when the men came back, you see, this lorry driving job that I had done, the soldiers came back and they took the jobs over, and I was at home then.

Mollie Harris16:27

In Encham. In Ensham, where I live now, in the cottage that I live now.

Presenter16:29

And Encham was a very good idea.

Presenter16:34

How far is that?

Mollie Harris16:35

Full five miles within spitting distance of Ducklington.

Presenter16:38

Right.

Mollie Harris16:39

And I wasn't at work at all, you see, except doing my my own work at home. And one of the village uh women said to me, Ain't you going potato picking when this starts? She said, You want to get your name put down, because it's ever such a job to get in. You see, there wasn't much work for women then. And so I and another girl go off to see this farmer and say, We would like to go potato picking for you when you start. And he said, Oh, well, I only want about twenty. I've got about twenty-five now. And he said, I'll see.

Mollie Harris17:08

Anyhow, he he must have thought better of it, because he did come knocking at the door, and he said, You can start on Monday if you like, two shillings an hour. And that went on for quite a while. Well, during that period all these old men that used to work on the farm, they used to come up and chatter and tell me the most lovely stories, you see.

Mollie Harris17:26

And um

Mollie Harris17:27

We have a little local paper that comes out on Fridays, and at that time there was a man writing in this little paper about his youth and about country things, and I thought I'll have a little go at that. So in Longhand I got one of these stories together that one of these old fellows had told me.

Mollie Harris17:44

and um sent it off to this paper, and lo and behold, the next week, without a word to me, there it was, but in a much shorter version than I'd written it, of course. And for about two years then I I contributed to that paper all sorts of stories about these old fellows.

Presenter17:59

I hope they started to pay you.

Mollie Harris18:00

They didn't for two years they no, they didn't pay me anything but. I have to be very grateful to the editor of the paper at that time, because it was he who taught me how to prune my writing. And anybody who knows anything about writing knows that like roses, it has to be pruned drastically.

Speaker 418:12

Yeah.

Speaker 118:12

Uh

Mollie Harris18:18

So I was grateful to him. Well then, during this period I was still doing some farm work, and I had the radio on and I heard this programme called In the Country and it was a Birmingham based programme apparently, and I heard this woman telling a a story about a humorous neighbour of hers, and I thought, well, those I've been sending off for nothing were as funny as this.

Mollie Harris18:39

Well, at least I thought they were. Listened to the end of the programme and got the name of the producer and wrote off to him that night and said how I'd enjoyed the programme, and that I too wrote humorous stories about the countryside and were the interested.

Mollie Harris18:51

And he wrote straight back, and he said they were always looking for new material, and would I send them some of my scripts?

Mollie Harris18:57

So I sent off a couple that had been in the paper, and I said I wasn't quite sure whether this is what he wanted, but I had two rather earthy scripts that I thought he might be interested in.

Mollie Harris19:07

So he wrote back straight away, and he said he liked the two I'd sent, but he was very interested in the earthy ones, and would I send'em? Well, the thing was I hadn't written'em. I'd only got em in my head, you see. That was the beginning of it all.

Presenter19:20

It's time we had another record.

Mollie Harris19:22

Well, now I'm a a great WI member, that's a member of the Women's Institute, and our Women's Institute used to have a a rather a good drama group.

Mollie Harris19:32

and we used to put on some rather good shows.

Mollie Harris19:36

And at one time and I can't really sing, I can put a song over, but I can't sing. And and then another girl and I were going to sing a song that was very popular at that moment called

Mollie Harris19:47

Well, I I always called it never ending love for you, and my grandsons were sitting in the front row, and I sang it for them, and and they uh by the expression on their faces, they knew I was singing it for them.

Speaker 420:01

I've got a never-ending love for you.

Speaker 120:01

God and never-ending love.

Speaker 420:07

From now on.

Mollie Harris20:08

From now on

Speaker 420:09

That's all I wanna do.

Speaker 420:12

From the first time we met, I knew

Speaker 420:17

I have a never-ending love for you.

Speaker 420:22

I've got a never-ending love for you.

Speaker 420:28

No.

Speaker 420:29

That's all I want.

Presenter20:32

Never ending Song of Love by The New Seekers

Presenter20:36

Now, Molly, you were writing pieces about the countryside for the radio. How did you come to start writing books?

Mollie Harris20:42

Well, you see, this programme that I finally got into, all in the country, Phil Drabble used to introduce it, you know, Phil Well, Phil, like me, wasn't very well known then.

Presenter20:49

Well, Phil

Mollie Harris20:52

And he said to me one night, he said to me, Molly, have you ever thought of writing a book? Because some of these things you broadcast are little gems. And I said yes, but how'd you go about writing a book? I had no idea. I mean, having left school at fourteen, they certainly didn't teach you how to write books. Write, yes, but not books.

Mollie Harris21:10

And he put me in touch with his literary agent, and I went to see this fellow, only taking up these bits that had been in the paper.

Mollie Harris21:19

And these first uh few scripts and things, you see.

Mollie Harris21:22

And

Mollie Harris21:23

He was very patient, the man, and listened to what I had to say, and first of all he said,'I think you ought to go back and write a chapter of five thousand words on your mother. She sounds an interesting person'. So I did, and I sent it back to him, and he said,'I want to see you again,' so I come cutting up to London again, you see.

Mollie Harris21:39

And he said it won't do at all. It's far too much about your mother and her mother. He said, I want to see Molly Harris's personality come through. He said, I think you ought to go back and start writing about the village that you were born in, all about the school and the characters and your family, and send some to me.

Mollie Harris21:57

And that's how the first book came about.

Presenter21:59

Two volumes of reminiscences, personal reminiscences, a kind of magic and another kind of magic.

Mollie Harris22:05

And then, you see, another one followed, called The Green Years, because my brothers and sisters said to me, You didn't tell em about how we pinched Auntie Fanny's plums and all the other terrible things we did. So there was a third book, really.

Presenter22:18

And from Acre End this is a portrait of a village you've collected the reminiscences of the old hands in the village.

Mollie Harris22:25

That's it. Well, you see, I'd been a um well, I'm not now, because I haven't time, and if you can't do a thing properly you uh you might as well drop out. Now I used to be a parish councillor in the village for nine years.

Mollie Harris22:37

And do meals on wheels, and I'm still on several committees, and you meet a lot of people. And I had read a book called

Mollie Harris22:45

Akinfield, and this was about, I believe, a Sussex or Suffolk village and this was about characters in a village. And I thought, well, these in the village that I live in now are just as interesting. So I I went round and gathered up these people. Some were very anxious to give me their stories, others weren't at all. But I did select about twenty two, I think.

Mollie Harris23:08

And it was quite hard work really.

Presenter23:10

And there's an invaluable little book called A Drop of Wine, all about your country wine.

Mollie Harris23:14

That's right, yes. Yes. That was easy to write because I'd always made them for for a long time.

Presenter23:19

You know the recipes by heart. And we've got to record number six.

Mollie Harris23:21

That's right.

Mollie Harris23:24

Ah, well, now one that I'm very fond of is what a wonderful world, because it is a wonderful, wonderful world that we live in. You only got to sort of

Mollie Harris23:35

Open your eyes and have a look, and it's all there.

Speaker 423:44

I see trees of green.

Speaker 423:48

Red Ross J.

Speaker 423:52

I see them blue.

Speaker 423:55

I mean you.

Speaker 423:57

And I think to myself.

Speaker 424:02

What a wonderful world!

Presenter24:07

What a wonderful world, Louis Armstrong. And one thing we haven't talked about, Molly, a very important thing in your career, the Archers. Very important. When did you join the Archers?

Mollie Harris24:17

Um about thirteen years ago. Uh now I'd been writing my own material for all sorts of programmes all sorts of programmes that would take things about the country or countryside or country people down.

Presenter24:30

You are now invited to be an actress.

Mollie Harris24:32

Well well, you have to have a special audition if you want to go into radio plays. Somebody said, Why aren't you in radio plays? and I said, Well, how do you get into radio plays? They said, You have to have a special audition. Well, I applied for an audition and passed it, but I had to wait quite a long while before I was in anything, because the man who took the auditions thought that this was all I could do. You see, I'm I'm as green as grass really, still green. And I didn't know that I shouldn't have done just me.

Mollie Harris25:04

I should have done Scotch and Irish and railed off Shakespeare, and then he would have thought what a clever old girl this is.

Mollie Harris25:10

But I had to wait. I asked him why I hadn't been in anything, and he said, Well, you have a very regional voice, so we had to wait until this play came along, about and I was an ordinary village character in it.

Mollie Harris25:23

And and and I always imagined that this why I was asked for the Archers, because at that time they were looking for a person with an ordinary village voice. Because soon after the play had been on, I was asked if I would like to be in an episode of The Arches, and I really thought it was going to be a one off thing.

Mollie Harris25:43

But that was um

Mollie Harris25:45

thirteen years ago. But since then you I went into it as as a rather gay widow woman, you know.

Mollie Harris25:51

Chasing all the available men with homemade wine and apple pies in the front of me bicycle basket.

Mollie Harris25:56

Dreadful job with Zebedee and Walter Gabriel and ended up with Joby.

Mollie Harris26:01

And then um in time took the village shop and last year uh you see Joby in real life had died before, but they don't write characters out straight away. You see, you talk about them and I was talking about my Joby for quite a while, but now he has been written out, has died of a heart attack. So I'm a widow woman again, but still keeping the village shop and I it's a wonderful programme to be in.

Presenter26:26

More music, watch number seven.

Mollie Harris26:27

Well, number seven, I'd like something sung by Bob Arnold. Now Bob takes the part of Tom Forrest in the Archers, and he made a record of all lovely, lovely country tunes, old fashioned country tunes, and uh the one particular one I like is Three Maidens a Milk in Wood Girl.

Speaker 426:57

Yeah.

Presenter26:57

Um

Speaker 426:57

Maiden's a milling will go

Speaker 427:02

Be made unto me.

Presenter27:02

Mm-hmm.

Presenter27:04

Ill King would go.

Presenter27:07

And the wind it did blow high, the wind it did blow low, It blew all the milk bales to and fro.

Presenter27:18

Bob Arnold, also known as Tom Foddist of the Archers, singing Three Maidens a Milking Will Go.

Presenter27:25

No, you're on this desert island. Could you look after yourself?

Mollie Harris27:28

Oh, yes, I think so. Yes, I wouldn't starve. I should catch things and and cook em.

Presenter27:34

Would you try to escape?

Mollie Harris27:36

Not for a bit no, not for a while, because there would be a lot of things that I would like to do that I haven't got the time to do now.

Presenter27:44

Such as

Mollie Harris27:46

Well, I would like to read the Life and Times of Anthony Wood.

Mollie Harris27:51

And that goes into five volumes, you know. Do you think I could have those five volumes?

Presenter27:56

That can be your one book that you're allowed apart from the Bible and Shakespeare. And tell me about Anthony Wood.

Mollie Harris27:58

One book that you're allowed

Mollie Harris28:03

He was a um seventeenth century scholar, wasn't he? And he was born in Oxford.

Mollie Harris28:09

In sixteen thirty two, and he also died in Oxford, and he kept these sort of diaries, and some one quite recently lent me a a very slim volume of this, and I hadn't got time to sort of really get into it, but he was such a knowledgeable man.

Presenter28:25

You want to tackle the whole five volumes the whole media.

Mollie Harris28:26

Five volumes the whole moment. So I reckon I'd be there five years,'cause I reckon it'd take me a uh a year to get through each of these great volumes, don't you?

Presenter28:34

All right, your last rig.

Mollie Harris28:36

Well, I think we couldn't help but ending with the the Archer's signature tune.

Mollie Harris28:42

and I would think of them.

Mollie Harris28:43

still plodding on after thirty three years.

Presenter29:31

Barwick Green, the signature tune of the Archers, played by the New Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter29:37

If you could take only one disc of the age you've chosen, Molly, which would it be?

Mollie Harris29:40

Oh what a wonderful world

Presenter29:42

LOUI ARMSTOM.

Mollie Harris29:44

Yeah.

Presenter29:44

And one luxury to take with you.

Mollie Harris29:47

Well, would you call a Union Jack a luxury?

Presenter29:52

I suppose you'd have to.

Mollie Harris29:53

You'd have to when you well, it would be very useful, I think, because I would put it up every day in case there was a ship going by at some time, and they would think Ha ha That's not chartered, that island we must go and see what it is and they might come and rescue me, you see, before I had to make a raft or something.

Mollie Harris30:11

And then I would take it down at night, and then I might be glad to sort of wrap myself in it.

Presenter30:15

Yes, now wait a minute. You're talking yourself out of this luxury fast. It isn't nearly luxurious enough, but don't say any more.

Mollie Harris30:16

Broking

Mollie Harris30:19

Oh.

Mollie Harris30:22

Would be a big flow.

Presenter30:23

Uh

Mollie Harris30:23

Egg

Presenter30:24

I knew it would and I would

Mollie Harris30:25

And I would roll myself in it and I because it gets cold at night on that food.

Presenter30:27

I know but that's very useful, so I shouldn't say any more or we shall take your luxury away.

Mollie Harris30:32

Yeah.

Presenter30:35

Oh. And you've already told us about your book, The Five Volume Works of Anthony Wood, all about Oxfordshire. And thank you very much, Molly Harris, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Mollie Harris30:47

Thank you very much too.

Presenter30:49

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 131:15

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