Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Travel writer best known for cycling to India, recounted in her bestselling book Full Tilt.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96: II. Adagio espressivo
Yehudi Menuhin and Hephzibah Menuhin
I associated very much with with my parents. With our listening together as a family to music, even when things weren't easy, with relationships within the family between myself and my parents. We could always listen together.
Variations on 'Schöne Minka', Op. 78
Paula Hatcher, Charles Forbes and Glenn Jacobson
reminds me very much of my father. ... And it's it's very frivolous. I think if I did get a bit depressed on the desert island, this would cheer me up at once.
String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 'Fifths': II. Andante o più tosto allegretto
that reminds me of falling in love for the first time. I used to play it over and over again. It's quite a complicated piece of music, but very happy too.
Babulala (Pashto Wedding Song)
brings me back to part of that journey, my favorite country on that route, Afghanistan. ... And what I like about this recording is the the coughing and the spitting in the background. It really brings me back to sitting with them and listening to it.
Ethiopian Church Music
would take me back to trekking through Ethiopia and its Ethiopian church music, which is the oldest known church music. ... And you can hear the, you know, the tinkle of the sistrum in the background. It's it's wonderfully moving.
L'incoronazione di Poppea: Pur ti miro, pur ti godo
Richard Lewis and Magda László with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Pritchard
which I think is extraordinarily powerful piece of music and you have to feel strong yourself emotionally to listen to it, in my view.
Dance Tune for a Possession Seance
this is in case, you know, it's not likely, but I might get lonely on the island. So this is a dance tune to summon a spirit. And it's played in southwest Madagascar and then I could have the spirit to keep me company.
Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56Favourite
my, absolutely my favourite piece of music in the world ... And if I'm conscious when I'm dying, I'd like that to be played, because I'd like that to be my last experience of being, listening to that.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:04Can you remember the moment when you thought, I know what my life is going to be about?
Well, I suppose it wasn't quite knowing what my life would be about, but it was knowing very definitely that there was one thing I wanted to do in the course of my life, and that was cycle to India. And I was ten and I'd just been given um second hand bicycle for my tenth birthday and an atlas by my grandfather.
Presenter asks
3:04You put yourself through endurance tests. You taught yourself to bear pain. What did you do?
Well, let's say putting your feet in very hot water, you know, and sort of training yourself not to feel pain. Tying a string around your finger and pulling it tighter and tighter. and um learning in a funny sort of way how to repel that kind of pain.
Presenter asks
11:33When did you begin to feel trapped by [looking after your mother]?
Because I had to leave boarding school when I was thirteen, well, nearly fourteen. and come home to look after my mother because her condition was all the time gradually worsening. ... things got more and more difficult as my mother's health became worse. She became more and more demanding.
The keepsakes
The book
Samuel Pepys
I think Pepys's diary. I mean, we can have it bound in one, you know, the ten volumes bound in so that it's just one book. ... when I got a little bit bored of the island. That would be a completely separate world to move into.
The luxury
I must have a stale. Because there'll be lots of lovely fruits and berries and what not, and roots, perhaps, on the island, so then I can have something warming in the evening when I've distilled it.
Presenter asks
14:23Did you ever think of putting an end to it either by putting an end to yourself or indeed to your mother?
I thought of putting an end to her. But not to myself, really. ... I don't know. I mean, if it had gone on for another three, four, five years, I might well have done it.
Presenter asks
29:55Why did you rule [marriage] out?
these things aren't sort of just in you. They're just things that you decide for yourself, really, aren't they? ... No, I I don't think so. I d I think um it's part of one's destiny and you you just recognize it.
Presenter asks
32:44Do you hate being interviewed?
tested That's when I'm afraid.
“I think fearless is true, but that's a totally different thing. ... I mean, if you don't feel fear, you don't have to be brave. You're brave when you're overcoming fear.”
“I must have had a complete breakdown then, because I actually can recall very, very little of that eighteen month period. I went on the whisky in a serious way.”
“I always want to go back to Westwaterford. I mean, I'm very deeply rooted there. I think it must be something very primitive. I mean, that's my little bit of territory. It's nothing nationalistic or patriotic, you know. It's not going home to Ireland, it's going home to my patch of territory.”