Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A pioneering Scottish lawyer who became the first woman Lord Advocate and Solicitor General, now Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford.
On the island
Eight records
in the 70s I was a great fan of Donna Summers and all disco music. I had great fun dancing with my two friends, and we would dance to Donna Summer, and this is on the radio.
I think if I was on a desert island and I had this playing, it would be like having a large, warm hug.
This song was my mother and father's song, and when the Sunday lunch was being cooked, this would be being played. And sometimes they'd have the occasional little dance together with it.
reminds me of my sister Mary and my sister Anne and my brother Kevin all sitting around the dancette record player.
I was introduced to this at the time of the train disaster because my father-in-law Amadeo Angelini looked after me... he would play opera for me... the idea of the furtive tear is one which I've had over a number of circumstances.
Mr. Tambourine ManFavourite
my husband loves Bob Dylan. I've come to love him over the years as well, but he sings Tambourine Man to them, or did sing when he used to carry them on his shoulders when they were little. And he would call being carried on the shoulder a jingle jangle.
Dom and I have been at many Van Morrison concerts and longed for this song to be played because it's just such an archetypal, wonderful love song. Also, I think Twins as a Prayer, I think it originally was written as a prayer, and I think on a Daisy Island in the moments of gloom, which undoubtedly I would have when I was there, then this would be wonderful.
Byron described this poem as the essence of a thousand love songs... It's sung by Eddie Reader, and I just love this song, and it reminds me very much of my home and Scotland.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:32Coming into contact with the legal establishment, what did that teach you at a young age?
It wasn't a very positive impression. I was probably about 16. I attended at this very grand marble-clad building. When you walked into the building, the atmosphere was very intimidating immediately, but also it was full of these very important people swooshing about in gowns. A friendly but gruff man asked you to go into this witness box, which was about two feet above everyone else, and asked to raise your hand. Your knees are knocking, you have to lift your hand, and your hand's shaking. The whole thing was just awful. It was a dreadful experience. And my overwhelming sensation.
Presenter asks
12:04What was wrong? [about miserable time at school]
I didn't settle at school at all. I was very tearful. I was conscious that everyone else was progressing at a level, particularly with reading and also with jigsaws, which I couldn't do. And I remember being slightly chided about it and feeling very troubled. I was sent to a child guidance clinic because I wasn't learning. I was a dreamer, basically, was how I would say disconnected. Right. So there was a sort of underlying anxiety. I think it was, but also, I think what I subsequently discovered is that we have dyslexia in the family. And I suspect, because my spelling is still pretty ropey at times, that I had mild dyslexia and that may have been, I overcame it so that it wasn't discernible at a later stage, but not until my confidence had been addressed. My mother was very anxious about this situation that I was feeling so unsettled in school.
The keepsakes
The book
The Oxford Anthology of Poetry
because one particular novel would be extremely difficult, you know, if that was it. Whereas poetry is wonderful. You know, there's so many different types and would keep me entertained endlessly.
The luxury
photograph collage of all the people I love
A photograph, I think, which would be a collage of all the people I love.
Presenter asks
16:05Why on earth did you do that? [set up an advice clinic]
I was dancing away to record as well. So but but being there, I was acutely aware of the problems that people were, particularly my own parents. So, they had a roof which was leaking dry rot, there were all sorts of problems, and no resources to try and resolve that. So, I found out that you could get grants, and then the neighbours found out that we got a hundred percent grant, and so I filled them out for my neighbours. This got round just about the whole of Governor, so the parish priest asked me to come in and could I help people who were having problems. And through that, I met an elderly, who was in her 80s, I visited her. This lady had linoleum, which was all turned up, and she was completely blind. I made an application for her to have replacement carpeting because of her blindness. But the rules were that you could not have carpeting, you could only have linoleum. In any event, we went along to the Supplementary Benefits Appeals Tribunal with this lady, and we won. We won, and we got that rule changed. So, it was probably still to this day my best forensic triumph, and it's one which still gives me greatest warmth because we went home and we had a carpet party with fish suppers that evening, the two of us, and it transformed our life. I think that's where I learned the fact that I discovered I was resourceful, I could find out and solve problems, which is what law is about.
Presenter asks
18:45What do you remember about the accident itself? [the Pullmont Rail tragedy]
Thirteen. In fact, I was about to miss that train, but someone helpfully gave me a lift and I managed to get it. So it's the sort of fickle finger of fate. And it was travelling past at very high speed. I was in the front coach of this train, which hit a heifer that had come onto the line when it was at full speed, and it took off into the air like a roller coaster. And many in my coach were killed and very seriously injured, including the two gentlemen who were sitting opposite me and one beside me was very seriously injured as well. So there were 20 people in your coach, as I understand it. Nine of those people lost their lives.
Presenter asks
19:39Have there been times when it's been tangible the impact that going through something as awful as that has had upon you and decisions you might have made or not?
It had a profound psychological impact at the time. I was a young girl. I had just started my career in law and. The sense of guilt that I also had about surviving, and I don't think that's what I expected, but also I think the overwhelming sense that I came out with it was one of survival. And it has to be a great instinct, which was seize the day. You've no idea how long you're going to be here.
Presenter asks
21:53I wonder why you felt the need to focus on the victim.
When I had started off in the prosecution service in Scotland, one of the primary and still critical aspects of that is that it's independent, the independence of the prosecution, so that it acts in the public interest and not on behalf of victims of crime. And that is important because it ensures that there is a balance and fairness in the activity. However, I think my take on how that was manifest was that in order to secure that independence, you had to be isolated, and therefore you didn't really communicate in the same way and you didn't take responsibility for the way in which they're dealt with. And I think that that was wrong. The idea that you can be compassionate doesn't mean that you're compromising your independence. Now not all people agree with that. When I rolled out this scheme in Scotland, there was a certain view that this was again sentimental and that could compromise the role of the prosecutor. But it was about just human decency.
“Possibly, or also naivety and stupidity, which happened in abundance, certainly, in the early years. But I think that we call it in Scotland the daft lassie question or laddie question.”
“In fact, I was about to miss that train, but someone helpfully gave me a lift and I managed to get it. So it's the sort of fickle finger of fate.”
“The sense of guilt that I also had about surviving, and I don't think that's what I expected, but also I think the overwhelming sense that I came out with it was one of survival.”
“The idea that you can be compassionate doesn't mean that you're compromising your independence.”
“I suspect I wouldn't thrive.”