Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer of over twenty books, mainly novels, and regular journalistic columns, regarded as one of the country's best writers; a devout traditional Catholic opp
On the island
Eight records
And this is just because I think it's so beautiful when her voice is nearly gone, it's so poignant.
Rorate CaeliFavourite
I'm not very good at music, I don't really like music very much, um not what you would call good music, um but the music I think I love most of all is plain song, and I've got some friends at Downside Abbey and so I thought I would like to take their version of Gregorium Plain Chan.
And I saw this, I must have been very young, it was when we were in Wales, and at that time all I wanted to do was grow up and be Paul Robeson.
I found this this song very cheering, and also it now reminds me of Joshua's nurse, Lillian.
It's just it's got this gleeful anarchy about it that I find very, very engaging.
It hits some note and it gets Janet too, and if we chance to hear it on the radio, then we break into a into a little dance, into a little song and dance routine.
It's a song for enticing seals. And I just thought if I was on a desert island and I got lonely, I could put this on and some seals might come and visit.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:28What was the catalyst? What made you suddenly find your voice [and start writing]?
When um of course it was the sixties, so I think everything went a bit mad. And I was just … Well, I felt bereft and angry, and as though I had to do or say something.
Presenter asks
4:54Why did you adopt a pen name?
Well, I thought it would make me invisible. … Well, from everybody really, I thought I could be completely anonymous and sort of stand there, you know. Roaring really, complaining about what was going on, and never have to answer personally for any of my opinions, but it didn't work like that.
Presenter asks
6:19Why did you want to become a nun? What drove you?
It seemed the quickest way home, but its simplest. … Well, I mean, people say this life isn't a rehearsal. I think it is. And I wanted really to get it over quickly and get to where I wanted to be.
Presenter asks
9:57The keepsakes
The book
Walter de la Mare
it was an anthology called Come Hither, Walter de la Mer. which is full of poems, and then at the end it's got these wonderful notes and asides and little observations. I think I'd take that.
The luxury
I thought, well what I really like is a very comfortable sofa. I think that would be perfect.
What was it you fell in love with there [in Wales]?
It was simply so beautiful and so peaceful, and it was the setting for a perfect childhood. … we used to just roam absolutely free.
Presenter asks
15:38Is [the death of a child] something you can ever get over?
No, you don't get over it. You learn to live with it. But you never ever and if you have a limb amputated, it doesn't grow again. You never you're never completely whole again.
Presenter asks
24:27Why did you choose that moment to sound off [against Archbishop Derek Warlock]?
Well, I didn't it was nothing personal. I didn't have a go at um at Derrick Warlock at all. But Liverpool had been without an Archbishop for some time, and a lot of my chums in Liverpool were very worried. They didn't really want another Liberal, for want of a better term. And I had tried and tried and tried to see Derek Warlock, and he just wouldn't talk to me.
“I think we're meant to love ourselves first and then everybody else will love us. Self-esteem, I think, is the order of the message.”
“I sometimes think the death of my son is, in a way, the only thing that ever happened to me, because everything else is [insignificant] in comparison.”
“I think we're not put here to be happy. I think it's absolutely pointless to go looking for it.”