Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A journalist who covered lifeboat rescues, industrial strikes and show business in Great Yarmouth for the Eastern Daily Press.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:03What part of the country do you come from?
I was born in North.
Presenter asks
2:14Was journalism your first job?
No, I I first worked with a well-known Norwich insurance company. How did that go? Well, I wasted two years of my teens there before going into the Air Force.
Presenter asks
2:32When did you start writing?
While I was in the Air Force, I um It occurred to me that perhaps I was a short story writer, and I tried my hand at this. And wrote one or two stories and sent them to various magazines, and they sent them back again with rejection slips, and eventually. The one I thought was rather good got lost in the post, so I gave that idea up. I thought well perhaps the safest and surest way of getting into print was to um Become a newspaper man. Mm. So? So I managed to get a part-time job when I was still in the Air Force on a The Glasgow weekly paper, the Bears Den and Mulgai Chronicle.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
I found that my dictionary in Peking was of great use to me, both when I was reading and also for compiling crosswords. It gave me a lot of fun in punning, which is one of my faults.
The luxury
I want to take with me the bookstall on Victoria Station with all its newspapers and magazines.
Do you think this was officially inspired, or was it a bit of mob hysteria on the part of the guards?
No, I think it had uh official approval. There were interpreters and photographers present and the public security bureau men or policemen as we would call them were also present during the Action against me.
Presenter asks
12:38What are the principal problems of readjustment to ordinary life?
It's difficult to pick out any one aspect. The real problem is adjustment to everything. After being alone for two years doing nothing every day, the problem is adjusting to. A full, busy, varied, and happy life again. Yes.
Presenter asks
13:03Do you look back with much bitterness on your experiences?
It was a wretched experience, but uh I'm an optimistic person and I feel there's no point in containing and nursing a bitterness. recrimination about about my experiences.
“I was a prisoner in a one man prison and paying expenses.”
“I felt resentful against everybody in the world being so alone.”
“I renamed the program Donatitis Discs because I felt that here was a selection of discs I wouldn't touch with a bar detrol.”
“It was a wretched experience, but I'm an optimistic person and I feel there's no point in containing and nursing a bitterness.”
“I thought to myself, I didn't like this house very much when I came here, but since then I have become rather attached to it.”