Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer, artist and guide whose hand-drawn guidebooks to the Lake District and other northern landscapes are known as Wainwrights.
On the island
Eight records
I immediately became fond of the Viennese waltzes of the Strauss family. And my first choice from a a dozen Strauss waltzes that I greatly enjoy would be Tales from the Vienna Woods, sung by Richard...
I would like to select one that became immensely popular, and it was called Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
There's an Empty Cot in the Bunk House Tonight
But there was one in particular that always brought a tear to my eye. … And it's a story of the dedication of a cowboy for the animals in his care.
Another type of song that I always enjoyed were the Italian tenors singing Neapolitan songs. One of my favourites, and I think everybody's favourite, was Come Back to Suriname.
After the war there were several musicals … But the one I've chosen is the first song in Oklahoma, Oh What a Beautiful Morning.
The Happy Wanderer
I've always regretted there was never a good walking song for the Lake District. But I did hear some time ago a record sung by a children's choir that I became very fond of, and it's called The Happy Wanderer.
That's a wonderful story in Scottish history, and it's remembered in a song, the Sky Boat Song, which would now be my next choice.
Lara's ThemeFavourite
the music of Morris Jar simply fitted in absolutely. And there was one tune in it which I think became known as Lara's theme.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:29You've got a reputation for being a bit of a recluse, not liking publicity. Why is that?
I suppose it's true to some extent because with one or two exceptions, I do prefer my own company to that of other people. and during my walking years I always walked alone.
Presenter asks
4:43The problem with writing wonderful guide books is that you attract people to the landscapes you love and hence destroy some of the peace. Does that worry you?
Well I've often been charged with that, but I don't think so, and I certainly don't reproach myself about it. There's been such a change in leisure habits that when I started on the Fells there were very few walkers there. Nowadays they walk in procession, and they would have come anyway, because they've more money to spend, they've more leisure time.
Presenter asks
5:58Can you remember when you were first bitten by the walking bug?
Well, that goes back a very long time, because it was the only pastime we had when we were children in the nineteen twenties. or earlier than that even. Nobody ever had a penny to spend, so we amused ourselves in ways that doesn't seem to appeal at all to children these days. We play hide and seek, we could play marbles along the gutter, kick a rag ball about. Collect cigarette cards. It is a wonderful life, really.
The keepsakes
The book
Not recorded.
The luxury
I wasn't had an ambition to grow a beard... but on a desert island it would be ideal... So I'd like a mirror, small mirror, just to see how it's getting on every day.
Presenter asks
13:30So when did you decide on this project to write all about the Lake District in such detail?
I was trained as an accountant. When I came to the Lake District I had a golden opportunity of getting out walking on the fells. And although there weren't many people walking in those days, I was always coming across people who were lost. There were no guide books to the fells, and it was important that there should be. So more for my amusement than anything else I started to write the guide books. I thought when I'm an old man and I can't walk the hills, these will be memories for me. I finished the first volume after two years working every day night on them, so I really got obsessed by what I was doing.
Presenter asks
16:08You used the word obsessed just now. I mean, it was a kind of obsession, wasn't it? It must have dominated your life. And did you blame her?
It did. Nothing mattered to me except getting these books done. I had a single track mine. And it ended finally with my wife walking out and taking the dog, and I never saw her again. Not at all. Well now she's stuck it for thirty odd years.
Presenter asks
29:09Tell me about you and religion. Do you have your own personal faith? Can't you believe when you stand on top of those hills and see all that beauty, there's something greater, some higher power?
Well, I can soon dispose of that. because I've no time at all for an organized religion. I'm afraid not. No, I can't believe that we go to heaven or hell. Yes, but it's a mystery that nobody's ever solved the beginning of the world. And it really is a wonderful world, a beautiful world. I'm sure somebody's created it. But I don't know who.
“Yes, I am antisocial, and getting worse as I get older. It started a shyness. It isn't shyness now. I can face anybody now. and not feel inferior to them. But I'd much rather be alone.”
“I just couldn't believe that such beauty could exist. It made a whole world of difference to me. That did change my life.”
“Nothing mattered to me except getting these books done. I had a single track mine. And it ended finally with my wife walking out and taking the dog, and I never saw her again.”
“It's like being a king. wandering where you like, this is my throne, and knowing that for four or five hours at any rate you've got the fells to yourself to wander just where you like, and nobody else will appear on the scene.”
“the mountains wept tears for me that day.”
“I'm sure somebody's created it. But I don't know who.”