Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Designer and businesswoman behind a beloved range of homeware made in Stoke-on-Trent.
On the island
Eight records
This really reminds me of being in the car with my brother and sister, with mum and Rick, driving all the way from Oxford to Northumberland maybe.
I must have first heard it when I was a very little girl. I can picture the record player, Greek big sort of mahogany chest in the sitting room of the house in Hertfordshire where my parents lived before they split up, and putting this on and dancing around and loving it.
English Folk Song Suite (First March)
Central Band of the Royal Air Force
it's a lovely piece of Vaughan Williams. And this Vaughan Williams is just my favourite. So perfect.
Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson
It reminds me hugely of My Oldest Daughter has an amazing voice and she sings this very beautifully.
This song is one of a repertoire that there's an informal choir, and this is one of the songs they sing.
Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending
Church has always been part of my life and I find the Advent hymns all very, very moving.
The Lakes of PontchartrainFavourite
This is Matthews and My Kitchen and Our Kids. It particularly makes me think of cooking on a Saturday morning in the kitchen in Norfolk, probably macaroni cheese.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:05What do you think good design is?
I think that good design speaks from one person to another. It conveys something very important and quite emotional. And I think in terms of housewares, we've become something of an anomaly. There used to be lots of studios in Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent, for example, where people sat down and they thought about their holiday in Spain, or they went to the library and got some books out about Mexico. And they did designs very carefully with quite a knowledge of their audience. And all too often now, I think it's a buying team. There's much more sort of pragmatism and commerce than heart and soul going into the making.
Presenter asks
7:46No sleepless nights then? You don't wake up sweating?
Don't like it. No, I d I don't really have sleepless nights.
Presenter asks
20:17He'd known you for about 10 weeks when he proposed? What was your initial response?
I had an uncharacteristic moment, perhaps, of complete indecision. And when I said to some of my best friends, I think, we might be going to get married, and they went, yeah, he's fantastic. I just knew when I met him I was never going to have so much fun with anyone else.
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Aubrey-Maturin Series
Patrick O'Brian
I don't think I'll be very good at being on my own, and I know I'll be homesick, but I think Patrick O'Brien, please.
The luxury
Could I have as big a bottle as you're prepared to give me of Stephanotis bath oil.
Presenter asks
24:36How did you accommodate that jagged hole?
Well, you don't know what you're in to begin with. You're very hopeful. Crazily optimistic that it's all going to be all right, and you're moving towards recovery. You really believe this, and it only dawns on you very gradually. Your mind can't really take it in. So, for two years, we looked after her at home. That's when she was in a coma for three months. And she recovered, and she was quickly sent home, which was very, very testing. And my little sisters, young teenagers, were looking after her most of the time. And then my stepfather very sensibly said, Whatever good might come of this for her, we're all going to pay too high a price. She's got to go, we've got to find somewhere nice for her to be looked after and move on. And I suppose then you start the process of darning that jagged hole.
Presenter asks
25:51How much has it made an impact on the big questions, of God and why would He let this happen, of end of life care?
I have no truck with the idea that God can't exist because He lets bad things happen. Bad things happen, and we have to deal with them, and that's the test. And I did imagine myself sort of having to hitch up my skirts and wade through difficult stuff. What I got was a much more difficult challenge. You don't get the challenge you choose, do you? But you've got to deal with it, haven't you? And mum's faith was huge. Her father was a clergyman. Church was always part of our childhood life. And her view was it's childish to look for explanations, leave room for the miraculous, believe the impossible. And don't always search for proper answers to things. Just accept.
Presenter asks
29:51You took something of a step back from your business in 2006, was it? For what reason?
I just got completely exhausted and I have rheumatoid arthritis. It was time for me to stop doing the huge mileage and carrying the sort of management of the company. I had a marvellous solution. Matthew could do it.
“I think that good design speaks from one person to another. It conveys something very important and quite emotional.”
“She was way beyond her budget. Big house. We just lived on the ground floor. And the rest of this Big Edwardian house was full of lodgers. And there was Erica, who kept a parrot, which would mimic everyone's voices in the house.”
“Well, you don't know what you're in to begin with. You're very hopeful. Crazily optimistic that it's all going to be all right, and you're moving towards recovery. You really believe this, and it only dawns on you very gradually.”
“I have no truck with the idea that God can't exist because He lets bad things happen. Bad things happen, and we have to deal with them, and that's the test.”
“they'd opened the windows and there was a blackbird singing in the apple tree outside, and I just thought she's free now.”