Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Judge who announced the Supreme Court ruling that prorogation of Parliament was unlawful; first woman law lord and Supreme Court president.
On the island
Eight records
O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
Kathleen Ferrier, London Philharmonic Orchestra
It's a recording by Kathleen Ferrier, who was one of my parents' favourite performers, with a beautiful, beautiful contralto voice. And she came from the north of England, which of course we did too. So they had a lot of her recordings. And I've chosen, O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, from Handel's Messiah.
After school, of course, I went to Cambridge. And this was in nineteen sixty three. The Beatles had just brought out their first album. And the first tracks I listened to with school friends, and of course spent most of my Cambridge career dancing to the Beatles and sometimes the Rolling Stones. So it's Love Me Do.
Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, London Symphony Orchestra
I was lucky enough to go to two live performances which stuck particularly in my mind. One was Jacqueline Dupré playing Elgar's Cello Concerto. But the other was one of the first three performances of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. I already liked Benjamin Britten's music because we had sung it and studied it at school. But the War Requiem blew my mind away.
Gloria in excelsis Deo (from Mass in B minor)Favourite
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Well, this is getting on to my adult life in Manchester, where my first husband introduced me to Bach's Mass in B minor. The piece that I particularly love from it is the Gloria, because it is such an uplifting piece of music I can imagine marching round the desert island. Conducting the choir and the orchestra as they bring out these magnificent sounds.
Sull'aria... che soave zeffiretto (from The Marriage of Figaro)
Charlotte Margiono, Barbara Bonney, Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Duet from the Marriage of Figaro between Susanna and the Countess when they are plotting against the Count. It's a very feminist opera, which must be one of the reasons why I like it so much.
GLORIA – Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir
Well, this is to remind me of my daughter. My daughter is gay and she is in a civil partnership with the mother of her children, and her partner is a member of Dublin's Lesbian and Gay Choir. … It's very uplifting and it will remind me of my daughter and her family.
Choir of Westminster Abbey, Simon Preston, William McKie
This is the magnificent anthem 'I Was Glad'. I chose this because it was played at the memorial service in Westminster Abbey for Lord Bingham. Tom Bingham, who to my mind was the greatest judge of the twenty first century, at least so far.
Dies irae (from Messa da Requiem)
Swedish Radio Choir, Erik Eriksen Chamber Choir, Berlin Philharmonic
This is the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem. Because we played it at Julian's funeral. It is the day of wrath, of course. The day of God's wrath, but it also represented, for us, the very real anger that we felt at having him taken from us so suddenly.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:12If you had to pitch the idea of pursuing a life in law to a young person listening, what would your opening arguments be?
They would be that the law affects us all in everything that we do. It's got everything in terms of stories, arguments, justice, injustice, what's not to like.
Presenter asks
2:37How did you weigh up what was worth sticking your neck out for during your career?
Most of the things that I have stuck my neck out for are issues to do with the less advantaged people in society, and for a lot of my lifetime that has included women … and people with disabilities, people with mental health problems, and of course, people … without enough to live on. So, in various ways, I have felt it necessary to speak up for them.
Presenter asks
5:36You've described the [prorogation] judgment as a source of satisfaction rather than pride. Tell me a little bit about that distinction.
Well, the satisfaction is that we managed to reach a reasoned conclusion with which all the justices agreed. … It doesn't give us any satisfaction at all to tell the Prime Minister or a public authority that what they have done is unlawful. But it is satisfying to reach a judgment.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Puzzles for me to do, and also can provide me with a program which will enable me to write.
Presenter asks
7:19How did you come to wear the spider brooch that day [of the prorogation judgment]?
I have a large collection of brooches. It was begun by my husband when I was in the family division of the High Court and had to wear dark suits. He thought they needed a little bit of livening up. And the dress which I chose to wear that day has always had a spider on it. In fact, when I got the dress out of the wardrobe, the spider which usually sits on it was nowhere to be seen. So I went quickly to my jewellery drawer, and took out another spider. It never crossed my mind that anybody would draw any conclusions from the fact that I was wearing a spider, rather than a dragonfly or a frog or anything else that I might have been wearing.
Presenter asks
10:06How would you describe your parents' approach to life together?
Oh, well, they were very, very deeply in love, which is one of the things that we were always clear about as children. We were loved, but theirs was the greatest love affair of all time.
Presenter asks
15:06After your mother's death, you found something she had written not long after your father died. What was it, and what did it say?
Well, I did. I found a piece which she had written in an exercise book which was labelled Commonplace Book, and it purported to be a story. A story about a woman who was dozing in the afternoon and thinking about her life and the fact that she had to put on a show for the children, but the emptiness of having lost the one person in her life that she wanted to be with, the other half of her who was no longer there.
“We were not debating whether or not Brexit should happen. That had been decided in the referendum, and we are a democracy. What we were deciding was what the Government could and could not lawfully do against the context of the Brexit process. As judges, of course, we do not want to do things that are out of step with public opinion. But we are not governed by public opinion. We are governed by the law. And that's what we have to stick to.”
“My younger sister and I were devastated at the loss, but also it was the loss of our sense of security, and we did wonder what was going to become of us.”
“In hindsight, I do wonder whether that [losing my father] was one of the reasons why I have always been determined to go to university, determined to have a career of my own. Because if our mother had not had a career of her own and the ability to become independent once more, our lives would have been very different.”
“I have made no secret of my belief that women are the equals of men in dignity and in rights, and that their experience of life is just as valid and important in shaping the law as is the experience of men. I do not think that was always popular amongst certain sections of the media, and possibly not always popular amongst some of my colleagues.”
“Well, one of my colleagues, I subsequently learnt, because he published diaries, that I was seen as having an agenda. Well, I probably do have an agenda, which is an agenda to promote equality and diversity. It's an agenda which lots of people have, but it is sometimes stigmatised as being an agenda, whereas the agenda which other people have, which is to preserve the status quo, is never seen as an agenda, although of course it equally is.”