Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Novelist.
On the island
Eight records
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, conducted by Eugen Jochum
Well, I think I'd like something really invigorating and uh the sort of thing that would make me feel happy and cheerful and I think that would.
Variations on 'Là ci darem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni
Claudio Arrau with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
This again is rather brilliant, invigorating sort of music, and the piano part is so marvellous, I would have liked to be able to play the piano, but I never could, and I like to hear it really brilliantly played as it is here.
And I think on the island I'd like to take a record from Tosca. Careless singing Vici Darte would be my choice.
I think I'd like to have the voice of somebody I know on this desert island. And the poem I have chosen is An Arundel Tomb, which is one of my favourites.
La Nativité du Seigneur: Les Enfants de Dieu
Um now I should think I should like a splendid piece of organ music. A celebratory sort of thing. Um well, partly that, and also if there was a storm on the island, perhaps it might drown the thunder.
The next record is a song by Theodor Arkis, which reminds me of the first time I ever went to Greece in nineteen sixty four.
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Willi Boskovsky
I would like to have a splendid chardash. The one from um Fledermaus I think would be nice to have. It would remind me of Old Vienna, I say, although I never went to Old Vienna, but it's a romantic period that I Like to be reminded of.
In the Bleak MidwinterFavourite
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, conducted by David Willcocks
My last record I feel that if I were on the island over Christmas, as I might very well be, I should like to have a carol I should like to have in the bleak mid winter in the Harold Dark setting, sung, I think, by the choir of King's College, Cambridge.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:53Were you a bookish girl?
I suppose I was. I did read a lot. Um when I was A schoolgirl? ... I was very fond of thrillers. Edgar Wallace was a favorite author. But it it wasn't until I was in my sort of middle teens that I used to read poetry
Presenter asks
5:16Which writers apart from Edgar Wallace made an early impression?
I suppose the first really. Good writer, perhaps, that made an impression was Aldous Huxley. I read Chrome Yellow when I was about sixteen. I thought that was marvellous.
Presenter asks
5:34Did [reading Aldous Huxley] inspire you to write yourself?
Well, it inspired me with the idea. Certainly, I thought I'd like to write something like that.
Presenter asks
10:55Were you tempted to drop your job and become a full-time professional writer?
Not seriously, because I haven't got the temperament that can write. If I haven't got any income coming in, I would I would be too anxious to create anything at all, I think.
The keepsakes
The luxury
because I don't think I should be able to make wine out of whatever is on the island.
Presenter asks
12:58What reason did [your publisher] give [for rejecting your seventh novel]?
Well, I think this was the time when the so called swinging sixties were starting, and I think quite a lot of publishers had the idea that the kind of thing I was writing was neither salable nor liked by readers.
Presenter asks
14:24How long did this period of discouragement last?
Well, it's a long time. It must have lasted, um, about uh sixteen, fifteen, sixteen years.
“I think I had the idea that I would be a writer, but of course at that age you can't really say I am going to be a writer. It's a hopeless sort of thing to say.”
“Writing gets hold of you in a curious way, and I couldn't really leave it alone.”
“I really began to feel that I had written novels. I was lucky to have been published at all, and that was that.”