Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Novelist who wrote over sixty romantic and historical novels and insisted her work was realistic, not romantic.
On the island
Eight records
Joyce Grenfell & Norman Wisdom
Well, it's about laughter, and I've always liked to laugh. I I look back and it's only a sense of humour and laughter that's got me over the tough stretches of life.
It was there last night and they were dancing an encore, the third encore I think it was, to I Won't Send Roses. And to me it was simply magic.
I switched on the wireless and there came on to my ears notes like oh drops of crystal water, this woman playing a flute. Anyway, by the time that record had finished, I was on the top of the barrel.
Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
Because I like Chopin and uh I find him very soothing. After uh a day's uh hard work and don't let us forget uh, you know, even after my sixty first book being out, writing is still hard work.
I've chosen Arve Miria by Marian Anderson. It isn't in Latin, it's in German. But nevertheless, it's a beautiful piece in praise of the Virgin and uh it affects me.
ThoraFavourite
This is very a very poignant memory with me. It happened one afternoon in winter and Kate and I were sitting each side of a mat... and suddenly she began to sing... It sticks in my mind. It it becomes alive again, and I can hear her again. Singing Thora every time I hear this record.
Sei nicht bös (Don't Be Cross)
It's a beautiful tune, but it's the title, Don't Be Cross, because I can never say to anyone, Don't be cross, I can't say I'm sorry. I find it very difficult to say I'm sorry.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:18Is music important in your life?
It has a place, let us say that.
Presenter asks
4:13In your childhood you knew poverty, and you never knew your father?
Very much so, yes... No, I didn't.
Presenter asks
8:09How old were you when you left school?
thirteen, uh because I fell in the schoolyard and something happened to my hip, and uh the next thing was I had to lie on boards for about three months... passing along the back lane was two girls... And I remember clearly saying to myself, I'll never play with them again. And I knew in that moment I'd grown up. And it was in that moment too I recall this thing came into my chest here, this feeling of resentment and anguish and bitterness and ambition and a lot.
Presenter asks
9:11You had an early urge to write, didn't you?
Oh, from I was eleven. I was scribbling, you see. But, you know, I couldn't spell. I knew nothing about grammar. But I had a story to tell. I was a natural storyteller.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
22:39Was your first novel a success?
Oh yes, yes and it was the very first novel that I'd ever written. I'd written short stories and poetry and plays... in forty eight... I sent the first three chapters, and he sent them back and said, Get this finished as soon as possible.
Presenter asks
25:04How do you work? Do you work regular hours?
No, I don't. It all depends upon my health. I do a lot of my work from bed because of this blood trouble... I dictate. Yes, I wrote by long hand for the first sixteen books, and then I got uh Writer's Cramp and Frozen Shoulders.
“I do not like that word romantic... As I see a romance, anything goes. Everything's got to be larger than life. But in a novel you've got to be realistic, and I am very realistic.”
“I'm still beneath this skin and beneath this facade, I'm still Katie MacMullen from East Jarrow... and I've determined to remain myself, you know. Uh my feet are still on the ground and I still wear the same size hats.”
“I'm a a loner inside, and I know a loneliness inside, but I couldn't put up with a loneliness, I'm sure I couldn't.”