Bishop Trevor Huddleston

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 30:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty eight, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My castaway this week is a monk. Forty seven years ago he took the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience but humility has not prevented him from becoming a public figure, fighting for that in which he believes. Working as a missionary in South Africa, he developed a fierce hatred of apartheid, and his campaign for its destruction has been his life's work.

Presenter0:53

But not only Africa has been touched by his passionate dislike of injustice. Here in Britain he served the cause of the poor and the unemployed. He is the former Bishop of Stepney and the President of the anti apartheid movement, Trevor

Presenter1:08

Bishop, a desert island presumably holds few threats for a man who has little need of creature comforts and has always lived alone.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston1:16

I don't know that it's true to say I have little need of creature comforts. I always enjoy them when they're there. But uh-

Bishop Trevor Huddleston1:22

Also, I suppose it's not quite true to say I've lived alone because I belong to a community and a lot of my life has been within community. But I think it's very important to understand the difference between being lonely and being alone, and I'm not at all afraid of being alone. In fact, today I only thank God when I can get back to my little airy of a flat at its neighbour's Piccadilly and be alone after all the hustle and

Bishop Trevor Huddleston1:46

So for the next one.

Presenter1:47

But you'd presumably miss good conversation.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston1:50

Yes, I would miss that very much indeed. Uh no doubt. I mean, I love people and I love being with people, and I certainly enjoy listening as well as talking.

Presenter1:58

But would you miss, I wonder, a cause to fight, a campaign to wage?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston2:03

Well, I've been doing it rather a long time, you know, and there are moments when I think I wish to God I could have just uh a bit of freedom from it. I don't know that I would enjoy it all the same if I had it.

Presenter2:14

But perfect peace might be difficult to come to terms with after a while.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston2:16

It certainly would be, yes. There there's no such thing as perfect peace anyhow. You've always got to live with yourself after all.

Presenter2:17

Yes, there's

Presenter2:22

You will, of course, have your music, and we know that you you like that because you were so very much in evidence at the Nelson Mandela concert earlier this this year.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston2:30

Yes, that's quite true. I do. I love music, although I'm in no sort of way um a musicologist or even a musician of any sort.

Presenter2:38

But somebody tells me they saw some earplugs wedged firmly into

Bishop Trevor Huddleston2:41

Well, it was a new experience, I would say, to have nearly twelve hours of rock in Wembley, and a marvellous experience too, but there are limits.

Presenter2:50

Alright, let's hear your first record then.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston2:52

Well, I've chosen something which I do love very much, Devorjac's New World Symphony, because somehow it speaks to me of hope and springtime, a young refugee really, I thought he was, arriving in America and immediately getting the glimpse of something that was exciting and marvellous. I love that.

Presenter4:11

The opening of Dvorak's New World Symphony played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Schulte.

Presenter4:19

Bishop, I said you were a monk. You took the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience forty seven years ago.

Presenter4:25

Which of them has been the most difficult to observe?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston4:28

Oh, I think without any question obedience is the most difficult. The others have got their difficulties, because they spring surprises on you.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston4:36

Not so much poverty, I think, because our concept of poverty in my community, which is not in fact a monastic community, it's a mission community, but the three vows are the same. And our concept of poverty is really sharing things, having all things in common, according to the Acts of the Apostles, in fact. So it's a relative thing, as poverty always is. The real.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston4:59

Test of the vow of poverty is not being free to go in for what you particularly want or like at any moment, because it's not your money. I mean, the money that you have within a community is the community's money. And in fact, in our case, we have pocket money and an allowance for holidays. And everything else is in common, you see.

Presenter5:19

And what's the same?

Presenter5:21

What have you wanted that you haven't been able to have?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston5:24

Oh, well, I think, of course, I'm rather unusual, because I was made a bishop very early on. And when you become a bishop, you've got to be able to have your own bank account. You couldn't go running back to the community if every time you wanted to buy a toothbrush or something. And so you have to have a lot of freedom in that respect. And that makes it difficult too, because you've got to try to sustain simplicity of life. And that's a good thing.

Presenter5:46

And now you said earlier on that these vows spring surprises on you. We've dealt with poverty. What about chastity?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston5:52

Well, that's the one that I think

Bishop Trevor Huddleston5:55

For me, anyhow.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston5:57

brought a great surprise. I can remember when I was a novice, when I was learning, before I became uh took my vows, the then superior of our community, a very marvellous person called Father Talbot, who influenced vast generations of people.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston6:09

He took me for a walk, and he suddenly stopped, and said, You know, the thing you're going to miss most.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston6:15

Is children.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston6:17

I didn't believe him then. I was in my early twenties. I thought, that doesn't I don't believe that.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston6:22

But uh certainly that has been the biggest loss in terms of not being able to have a family of my own. On the other hand, it's brought me in contact with thousands and thousands of children, so that uh it's been gain as well. It was a surprise, though, that that was a testing thing for me.

Presenter6:39

Has that been painful?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston6:40

Oh, it's sometimes very. Yeah. I think it has, because uh I mean, it's something built into our nature, I suppose. I I just can't understand people who have children and don't want them. That, to me, is something quite incredible.

Presenter6:54

But can you understand people who are capable of having children, and yet take a vow not to?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston7:00

Well, I think the whole principle or the purpose of the religious life I'm using that in the technical sense, the monastic life, you think is to make you totally free for God, totally free, so that you're not tied. And certainly I couldn't have done any of the jobs that I've done perhaps the last one I might have done in Mauritius, but uh I couldn't have done any of the jobs I've had a family. Uh no way. Uh you just have to be free. And certainly in the South African scene, but also in Tanzania.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston7:29

I felt that very strongly.

Presenter7:30

Why? Because it just takes so much of yourself.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston7:32

That's right. Uh I don't think it's it's not a kind of negative, uh, you know, being uh chased. It's very, very positive. And of course that's a battle for all of us. I mean, the flesh is quite strong. It doesn't suddenly disappear because you take a vow. It uh fairly leaps at you and uh you've got to learn how to handle that all through your life. It's a great mistake to think that uh

Bishop Trevor Huddleston7:55

The flesh ceases to be a bore or a bother when you get older.

Presenter8:00

Your second record, please.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston8:01

Well, I've chosen what I really love and it's um Janet Baker singing Samala, the song of the earth, and I love it particularly because I once heard her saying something about the reason for her perfection as a singer, which was that she was able to forget herself and just enjoy the music.

Speaker 48:31

Praise you.

Speaker 48:34

Me

Speaker 48:36

Be glad to

Speaker 48:59

Self-see, suffer, somewhere in the jaws, and oversee.

Presenter9:24

Von der Schoenheit from Mahler's der Sliet von der Ede, sung by Janet Baker with the Konzertgebau Orchestra Amsterdam, conducted by Bernard Heitink.

Presenter9:35

Bishop Huddlestone, when did you decide you wanted to be a man of God?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston9:40

I think I decided that I ought to be a priest when I was very, very young, perhaps four or five. I mean, I can remember perhaps this was very precocious, but I can remember preaching with my friends, putting on a I don't know what served as a surplus, something or other, but anyhow we did. And yet I don't honestly think I was particularly prickish or anything. I think what people have got to remember is that in my childhood

Bishop Trevor Huddleston10:04

If you were in a Christian family, it was taken for granted that you went to church every Sunday in our case a very high church. My mother was what we used to call an Anglo Catholic, and I was born and bred in that tradition. I was a boat boy. I carried the incense round for the Theodopha, and I very much enjoyed myself.

Presenter10:24

What sort of household was it you were brought up in?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston10:26

Well, my father was a naval officer and was in the Royal Indian Navy, and when the First World War broke out, he was stuck in India.

Presenter10:26

Uh

Bishop Trevor Huddleston10:34

And my mother was with him for a lot of that time. I never saw my father till I was seven, in fact, and an aunt.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston10:40

A very marvellous person brought me and my sister up.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston10:43

People find it difficult to realise that in those days there were so many hundreds of thousands of kids whose fathers were in the Empire in some form or another, in the Raj or in the Colonial Service or whatever. So of course I had to go to school boarding school when I was seven and uh I stayed in the boarding school all those years. So I didn't see all that much of my parents when they did retire. My father retired early from India because he got fed up with uh being separated from the family.

Presenter11:11

But did you feel for that unloved or neglected?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston11:15

Not a bit. I mean, the love, of course, no doubt, was mediated through my aunt. And my mother used to come home she had the torturing business of either being with my father or being with us, like so many others. And he retired from India when I was twelve. So all my early childhood

Bishop Trevor Huddleston11:34

I had one eye on India and one eye on the boat bringing them home, and you know, the arrivals and the farewells, a part of it all. But no, I honestly can't say I felt at any point unloved, not in the least.

Presenter11:46

So you went, as you said, to prep school and then to public school and then to Oxford. You read history.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston11:52

Yes. I was inspired to read history at Lansing. I was at school there, which is a great church school. Of course it's dominated by the chapel. And in those days, again, it was taken for granted you went to chapel twice a day at Lansing three times on Sundays. And I don't remember people objecting to that all that much at all.

Presenter12:09

And then you went on to theological college, and eventually you were ordained. How long?

Presenter12:15

Before then you decided to become a monk?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston12:18

Well, it was when I was up at Oxford, and there was a very remarkable priest at Oxford, a man called Miles Sargent.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston12:26

He organized or helped to organize a mission for some reason to Bournemouth. I can't think what Bournemouth had done to deserve this, but still, there was an undergraduate mission to Bournemouth of Anglo-Catholic and evangelical young undergraduates, and two of the members of the Community of the Resurrection came on that mission, and I was immediately attracted. And so I went up to Murphy to make a retreat when I was about 18 or 19, and that stuck.

Presenter12:56

Shall we pause for another record?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston12:58

Well, I love Fidelia, Beethoven's opera, and the prisoner's chorus seems to me to be very appropriate in these days when there are so many political prisoners seeking freedom.

Speaker 413:34

Uh

Presenter14:07

Prisoner's chorus from Fidelio by Beethoven with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Sir George Schulte.

Presenter14:16

So, Bishop, nineteen forty one you became a monk, and then two years later, fatefully, your superiors in the Community of the Resurrection at Murfield in Yorkshire sent you to South Africa.

Presenter14:28

What kind of South Africa greeted you then?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston14:31

Well, remember it was in the war. Remember that General Smuts was then Prime Minister, and he was a member of the War Cabinet in Britain. And of course, the first thing one noticed I travelled out in convoy like everybody else. We were bombed off Portugal. I can remember that very well. It took seven weeks to get to Cape Town. And so arriving at Cape Town, I arrived in a land bathed in sunlight and full of good things which we'd not seen in England since the war started in'thirty nine. So in that sense, it was you know a tremendous sense of liberation.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston15:04

But it was very soon followed by the exact opposite of this because I was appointed.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston15:10

to be parish priest of Sophiartown and Orlando, and Orlando was then what is to day Soweto, the largest black township.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston15:20

In South Africa, and certainly the most politically minded. And so that was the beginning of my contact with apartheid. But I didn't see it that way when I first arrived. All I saw was thousands of marvellous black kids pouring out of church and wondering how on earth I'd ever get to know any of them because there were so many of them.

Presenter15:40

And and one of them was called Desmond Tutor.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston15:42

And one of them was called Desmond Tutor. Well, that isn't quite true, because he came into my life a little later than my arrival. His father was a schoolteacher in a place called Krugersdorp, outside Johannesburg. And Desmond got very ill and had TB very badly when he was a little boy. And he was in hospital just down the hill from Safartown, and I used to go and see him every week if I could. I used to take books. So I got to know him pretty well.

Presenter16:07

And another man you got to know quite well later on was Nelson Mandela.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston16:11

Yes. Well, Nelson Mandela came into my life directly when the Government decided

Bishop Trevor Huddleston16:18

that all black spots, as they call them, that is to say, areas occupied by blacks too close to the white areas must be removed. And my parish was the first. So Nelson came to join in the protest against what was known as the Western Areas Removal Scheme. And of course I never had the chance to follow up a deep friendship with Nelson, because he was restricted and banned. But it's marvellous to have known him and to have seen him in action, because he was not a demagogue. He was never a man of violence. He was the first black lawyer to practise in Johannesburg. And he had a very he has, I should say, I don't know why one should talk in the past. He has a very fine mind.

Presenter17:00

Of course, we're talking now about the mid forties and the early 50s. Part 8, as you say, was very much in operation.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston17:03

Yeah.

Presenter17:07

But how much, to your knowledge, did the rest of the world know about it?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston17:11

Nothing. I can say that. I mean, uh when I came back from South Africa in nineteen fifty six and came to this country, all the people knew about South Africa was that it was part of the Commonwealth, as it then was, and it had very good cricket and rugby football teams. They thought of South Africa as they thought of Canada and Australia and New Zealand. But apartheid was simply not known.

Presenter17:34

Another record.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston17:35

Well, I thought this time, appropriately, we ought to have a record called Free Nelson Mandela, and I've chosen it for a personal reason, because the trombonist in this film was a member of the Huddleston Jazz Band, along with Hugh Masakela, the trumpeter.

Speaker 417:59

Twenty-one years in captivity. She's too small to fit his feet. His body abused, but his mind is still free. Are you so blind that you cannot see? That's certainly

Presenter18:21

Free Nelson Mandela sung by Ndonda Cooza with Jonas Guangwa on the trombone. What is this Huddleston jazz band?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston18:28

Well, when I was in South Africa I was responsible for our biggest secondary schools, St Peters-Rosettonville, which attracted some of the brightest and best African boys and girls. And for some reason, one kid who was sick he had a flu or something, this was Hugh Masakella, and I went up to the dormitory and said, What would make you well quickly? And he immediately said, a trumpet.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston18:56

As I hadn't got any money of my own, being under a vow of poverty, I had to go and beg fifteen quid for this trumpet. And he learnt it very quickly. And then, of course, all the kids wanted an instrument, including Jonas Guang, who got a trombone. And I built up a massive orchestra, begging all the instruments, in fact. And luckily, when I left South Africa, I went straight to the United States, because my book had just been published. And I think it was Time or Life wanted a story. I told him the story of the jazz band, and they said immediately, you know, Satchmo, Louis Armstrong, is playing seventy miles away. He might be interested. So I got a car, went down, and there was old Satchmo, and he said, Come behind after the show. And I told him the story about Hugh Masaquela the trumpeter.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston19:40

And he said, I'll give him one of my horns, and he handed over a trumpet, and of course that uh started Hugh well away.

Presenter19:47

You mentioned your book there, which was Naught for Your Comfort, which was published in nineteen fifty six, telling the world about conditions about apartheid in South Africa.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston19:58

I wrote that book really in my last few months, and I knew before I ended it that I was going to be recalled by my community because I was very heavily involved politically. I mean I was I would certainly have been in the treason trial because I was part of the great Congress of the People at Cliptown in Johannesburg which framed the Freedom Charter and that of course is the basic document for the struggle now.

Presenter20:21

So if you hadn't been recalled you would in any case have been deported.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston20:25

Well, I think that was the affair I

Bishop Trevor Huddleston20:28

I tried to pray, you know, thy will be done, but I didn't really want it to be done in any other way than to get back to Africa, but I never thought I would, so I'm banned from South Africa. I've never been able to enter that country since.

Presenter20:43

So you've never been back into South Africa since nineteen fifty six?

Presenter20:47

But I think you wrote in that book, and I think you believed at the time that apartheid would not last. You believed then that it had about a ten year life.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston20:54

Did it have

Bishop Trevor Huddleston20:56

Yes, I th I would never now uh dare to prophesy about the time factor, although it's become much, much more urgent. I think one of the things that makes me more angry than anything else about the attitude of Western governments is the complacency with which they say, Oh, we can't tell, we can't say when apartheid is going to end, as though it didn't matter. I mean, every single day, every hour, every second matters because departed is basically evil and it's destructive of people.

Presenter21:26

We shall pause, and we shall have another record.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston21:29

Well, now we're going to hear one of the most beautiful bits of music that I know, although I've got no reason for choosing it particularly, except that I think it is the most lovely bit of music, and that's the Sanctus from Foray's Requiem.

Speaker 422:04

This was John.

Speaker 422:15

The glory of the world.

Speaker 422:24

Who's on the ships who's on our end?

Presenter22:44

The sanctus from Foray's Requiem, sung by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Philip Ledger, the boy treble, was Paul Smye.

Presenter22:55

So you prayed to go back and uh certainly in nineteen sixty you got your chance.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston23:00

Yes, this was something I couldn't believe.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston23:04

It was wonderful, really, because I was sent back as a candidate for election to the bishopric of Massasi in the south of Tanzania. I already knew President Julius Nehru. He wasn't even President then, he was chief minister, because he'd been involved in the starting of the antipartic movement. But I knew nothing else, and I found that the first thing I had to do was to learn Swahili, because without that I couldn't even talk to my own clergy. And so it was just marvellous to be back in a totally different part of Africa, and yet so truly Africa. My diocese was right in the south on the Mozambique border, and in fact was a very exciting place to be, because this was at the time when the Mozambicans were fighting for their freedom, and Tanzania, as it has done with many countries, gave them support, and thousands of them came and were in camps on my side of the river. And it was wonderful, of course, to be part, as I was within a year. Tanganyika as then was became independent. So I was able to contrast the old regime with the new regime, and more particularly, to contrast living under an African government instead of under a white minority government, and a racist one at that. And it was marvellous to be able to work with the government, to agree wholeheartedly with what Nehru was doing for his people, and to encourage our Christian community to pull their weight in building a new nation. I mean, I couldn't have had a more wonderful eight years, really.

Presenter24:42

Another record, please.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston24:43

Well, this time I have chosen something from Porgy and Bess, Summer Time, because I love it, and I think there is such a strong connection between Porgy and Bess and Africa that the link is obvious.

Speaker 425:03

Unbeliever is ease.

Speaker 425:10

The Georgia and the Connie.

Speaker 425:25

Your dad is rich and your mouth could not be So harsh little baby, don't show

Presenter25:50

Summer time from the opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin sung by the soprano Leontine Price, with the R. C. A. Victor Orchestra and Chorus, the conductor was Skitch Henderson.

Presenter26:01

And after Tanzania Bishop Huddlestone, to Stepney. What a culture shock.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston26:06

Yes, I've been lucky in that way too, because none of my jobs has been anything like the previous one. And certainly that was true of Stephanie. Of course, it took me about three years to realize what I'd come into, and I think I must have bored the congregation to sobs by talking so much about Africa. They were very patient, I must say.

Presenter26:23

They were

Presenter26:25

But again you became the champion of the people against racism, didn't you?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston26:29

Well, I had to because uh sixty eight that period was the time when what were then called the Pakistanis were coming into Stephen from what is today Bangladesh, and today it's the largest Bangladesh community in England. And of course they had a very rough time.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston26:46

And obviously one had to do something about that.

Presenter26:49

You have I mean, it's patently obvious such a vast breadth of experience. I wonder why it is that the that the Anglican hierarchy never offered you a bigger job in Britain?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston27:00

Well, I think it was a very big job, but I'm not you know, I'm not an establishment man. I mean, those ten years are the only years I've spent in the Church of England as by law established, except for a short period when I was a curate in Swindon before I joined the community. I hate the establishment of the Church of England. It's a great hindrance to the Church, because the Church ought to be free to be the Church, and it's totally monstrous, in my view, that bishops should be chosen by Prime Ministers, and that the Parliament of this country should have the final say in the way the Church of England worships. We've got to get rid of the establishment, and I think probably I was fairly outspoken on that subject.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston27:40

I certainly am now now, because I'm not in the establishment now either.

Presenter27:43

So you never expected or got any favours?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston27:46

No, I didn't, that's right.

Presenter27:47

You were, however, ten years ago made Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, which is a marvellous title.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston27:52

Yes, it's more than a title, really. It was a very exciting job. It came totally unexpectedly. I'd announced my resignation from Stepney because I'd done ten years and I thought that was long enough, both for them and for me. And suddenly out of the blue, a little delegation from Mauritius, the island of Mauritius, came and said, Would you come and help us? I said, Well, I'll come for five years. And so I went out to Mauritius, and then within a couple of weeks, I was elected archbishop, which included the archbishopric, included the Anglican Church in Madagascar, three dioceses, in the Seychelles, one diocese, and Mauritius, my own diocese. So I had a wonderful five years. And I don't hesitate to tell people that I am an archbishop. You know, in the Church of England, again, you've got this absurdity that the Archbishop of Canterbury, when he retires, is regarded he's always a peer, of course, peer of the realm. So he's sometimes called Lord Ramsey or Lord Coggan or whatever. But he's not often called Archbishop. Now the Roman Catholic Church is much more sensible. You remain an Archbishop, and I remind people like Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries that that's the way they can address me if they want to see me.

Presenter29:04

Your seventh record, please.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston29:06

Yes, well the seventh record uh is again got it's got sentimental attractions for me because it's sung by Peter Peirce, one of Schubert's lovely leader. And when I was quite a small boy at Lansing, Peter Peirce was in the choir there, and so I loved the music anyhow, and I think he sings it with perfection.

Speaker 429:26

Friend minisch ein ner, fretzis vieros.

Speaker 429:46

Thus may judge Brachfon Lee.

Speaker 429:55

Das Meitjünsprach von Le Beri Bo

Speaker 430:10

Woody Steve Beltz or Tre

Speaker 430:25

Very good.

Presenter30:29

Guttenacht, from Winterreiser by Schubert, sung by Sir Peter Peirce, accompanied by Benjamin Britton.

Presenter30:36

Bishop Huddlestone, you've always said that apartheid will die before you. You're seventy five now, and as we've observed, it would seem to be as strong as ever. Do you still believe you will see its end?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston30:47

I do hope to see the end of apartheid before I am dead, and I know that I could.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston30:52

If those in power in the Western democracies did what they ought to do, it could end it could end within a year.

Presenter31:01

And what about you personally? Um you're officially retired?

Presenter31:06

Um you've always been a man of action, a man who stands up to be counted, which is quite apparent. Have you now done your share of standing up, or will that real day of retirement never arrive?

Bishop Trevor Huddleston31:17

Well, I think the only effective way of preparing for death is to enjoy life, and to live life to the full. And I can't conceive I mean, it may well be I'll be struck down by some fatal illness to morrow, or even as I go home to day. But let's live life to the full. That's the best preparation for death, after all.

Presenter31:35

And, as you once said, when you get there God can iron out the mistakes.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston31:39

That's absolutely right. Yes. Certainly nobody else can and have.

Presenter31:40

Yeah.

Presenter31:43

Let's have your last record.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston31:44

Well, the last one is

Bishop Trevor Huddleston31:47

I think suitably a love duet, because love is at the heart of all faith, and human love is part of God's plan and purpose. And it's the marvellous love duet from Verdi's Ortello. I love the music, I love the opera.

Speaker 432:00

Go faith of

Speaker 432:08

Faith, Fifi Rookito.

Speaker 432:26

Oh, when we small.

Presenter33:04

The love duet from Verdi's Otello, sung by Placido Domingo and Cattia Ricciarelli, with the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, conducted by Gian Andrea Gavazzini.

Presenter33:17

Now, Bishop, you have to choose one of those records, one which you would need for your comfort more than any of the others.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston33:23

Terribly difficult, but I think I would, in fact, choose the Fore Requiem, because there's so much of it that one can hear over and over again. I'd never be bored with that, I'm sure.

Presenter33:33

It would bring you great peace with me.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston33:34

It certainly would.

Presenter33:36

And your book. Now you have the complete works of Shakespeare, and you have indeed the Bible.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston33:41

Yes. So I think the only sensible book for me would be a book of poetry, but I would, I think, get rather tired of one particular poet, and so I would like the Oxford Book of English Verse, or its equivalent, the modern edition of it, because then I could choose the kind of poem that I really love

Bishop Trevor Huddleston34:01

I could go on uh with a good deal of variety.

Presenter34:04

And your luxury.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston34:05

Well, I thought a lot about that, and I think, really, a pair of very excellent binoculars, because my desert island would certainly have birds around, and also I think I'd need binoculars to see that little puff of smoke signalling the arrival of the ship to take me home again.

Presenter34:21

Always the optimist.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston34:22

Yes, that's right.

Presenter34:24

Well, Bishop, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, many thanks indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Bishop Trevor Huddleston34:30

Thank you.

Speaker 334:39

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