Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Children's author who created the Horrid Henry series, selling 17 million books.
On the island
Eight records
I grew up on the beach in Malibu. Then when I was fourteen, we moved to Pacific Palisades. So The Beach Boys were almost a local band. Of course, I was probably too serious to be interested in them, but I was certainly aware of them. But they also mentioned my hometown of Pacific Palisades, which still today I always feel quite thrilled about. But just to me, it represents all my summers on the beach.
Jacques Brel for me is all about being in France, being on a balcony overlooking the sea. I have a close friend who's a writer named Stephen Butler and who I kind of encouraged to write, and he also was very helpful to me in kind of encouraging me to take a risk on my new book, The Sleeping Army. We both love this song. Amsterdam's a great song. It reminds me of my friend. It reminds me of writing a new book, being in France, the sea, kind of everything.
I did medieval studies at Yale, and I really love medieval music, Gothic music. And I particularly like this one because I unfortunately had a very long labor with my son, 40 hours at home. And we had Abbess Hildegard on for most of it.
Because of my mother, we went on a lot of political demonstrations, on rallies. My parents were very active against the war in Vietnam. And so I used to see Joan Baez speak at these rallies. And when I was a teenager, we used to, you know, friends would come and pick me up at two in the morning and we'd go down to the beach and bring guitars and sing, and so Jem Baez was also a part of that.
Martin and I shared Looking After Josh, and we would play Why Not Me non-stop with Josh because he absolutely loved it when he was a baby and we would kind of bounce him round the room and he would always join in on the chorus. He was about nine or ten months old. But this is absolutely the song that for me kind of symbolizes that first year of pretty intensive taking care of a baby.
I started taking Josh to the theater when he was three years old. He was mesmerized. It was like he'd entered fairyland. And crazy for you, I took him to see when he was four years old. His first experience of musical theatre. But he totally fell in love with Crazy For You, so we saw it three times and basically listened to this for about three or four years non-stop.
Darren Abrahams, James Lang, Young Vic Chorus and Ensemble
I've chosen Tobias and the Angel because it is conducted by my oldest friend, who is David Charles Bell, and we met in our late teens. It's very special for me to actually have something that he's recorded, that he's conducted. And I do love this piece very, very much.
Finishing the HatFavourite
I love the work of Steven Sondheim and Finishing the Hat from Sunday in the Park with George is my favourite because to me it absolutely encapsulates that kind of dilemma between do you finish the hat or do you go out? Are you with people, are you with your work? I'm always very moved by this song because I always feel I wouldn't finish the hat. And then I think, well, that must mean I would be a better writer if I finished the hat. So I'm always torn between the two.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:51Why did you make the decision [to settle in England]?
Kind of accidentally. I I came here to do a second BA at Oxford. I had no thoughts about staying at all. I was just I was going to come here for a few more years and then possibly go back to the States and do a PhD. But I ended up kind of staying here, but I it was always very temporary.
Presenter asks
6:52Why did you not enjoy Oxford academically?
When I was there in the late seventies, it seemed very anti-intellectual to me. I was used to somewhere where people worked really hard, where people talked about what they were doing. And at Oxford, there was this thing about everyone was bragging about how little they studied. And I just had no time for that.
Presenter asks
14:48Did you dream of being an only child when you were being brought up?
Yes. ... Just wanting peace and quiet? Yes, I think, and just wanting more space, just wanting to have more time to myself, just to not be annoyed by siblings. I think that a lot of the frustration that Horrid Henry feels is is just literally there's someone else with a pulse around.
The keepsakes
The book
Anthony Trollope
I've read it a number of times and I always forget the plot in between reading it. And I think if you're going to only have one book, it has to be a book that you can't remember, so you will greet it anew with fresh eyes.
Presenter asks
19:30How was your mother with feminism?
Not at all. And that was very difficult for me because here was my mother who, you know, in the 50s had actively been involved in desegregating St. Louis lunch counters. ... But not the same when it came to feminism? No, not at all. In fact, my mother told me that I could either have a career or get married. ... I remember exactly where I was when she told me this. I was about eight or nine. I said, Well, then I'll never get married.
Presenter asks
27:16What do you think of the [Horrid Henry] movie?
Well, I never saw it. ... You didn't see it? Nope. I had nothing to do with the film.
“I was just very interested in the kind of comic possibilities of being trapped in a family where you didn't belong.”
“I think having been to Oxford was useful in a way I didn't expect it to be, because I didn't really enjoy Oxford academically.”
“I write at home. I have an office at the top of the house, but I don't ask for special favors. I actually think I'm a much better writer because I'm engaged in the world and with my family and with my friends and with my child.”
“I am quite a positive person and I just thought there's plenty of people out there who've never been able to have a child. And I just I can't let this become my life of struggling to try to have a second child when I have a perfectly good and lovely child right here in front of me.”