Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Writer of thrillers, best known for his suspense novels.
On the island
Eight records
When the Saints Go Marching In
was the absolute cornerstone of of the jazz we couldn't call it revival, but birth, as it were, in the late nineteen forties
one of the songs I think he sang then, certainly has always been one of my favorites, is uh the Old Negro Work Song, a guy who's working on railroad.
Original Broadway Cast of Guys and Dolls
this was one of the first shows I saw, which must have opened just a few months before, in nineteen fifty three.
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World"): II. Largo
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Kubelik
an early attempt by Catherine to convert me to classical music.
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
It's about as far as I actually got with appreciating classical music, despite Catherine's influence.
going back to the sort of noises we tried to make in those last years at school.
Things Ain't What They Used to Be
Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra
to my mind, the only man that can make an alto sax really worth listening to
March of the BobcatsFavourite
What I particularly enjoy about it is the is the drummer, Ray Baduk. Always one of my great heroes
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:34Have you ever daydreamed about being a Robinson Crusoe?
I don't think so as as such. … I wouldn't do too badly. I don't mind my own company. I like to sneak off into corners. The idea of spending the rest of one's life in the open air doesn't appeal, though, at all.
Presenter asks
0:43What would you be happiest to have got away from?
Uh apart from my children. … I think publishers. They're always ringing you up and asking if you've finished a book.
Presenter asks
1:16Have you any musical skill yourself?
No, I proved that the hard way. … We formed a small group, or started to form a small group, and uh having totally no ability uh I was the bloke who had to play the drums.
Presenter asks
14:41To what extent do you have the plot worked out in detail before you start?
It varies very much from book to book. In Midnight Plus One I had the the story. Pretty well all the incidents worked out and we deliberately drove the route across Europe that the mechanic does take. … The last book, Judah's Country … came out of a trip I did down to that end of the world for journalistic purposes. I had no intention of writing a book at all. But uh something about the old city of Jerusalem sparked me and I thought I must have some scenes here and it started from there.
The keepsakes
The luxury
A pack of cards, I think. ... solves the problem of loneliness as well, you see.
Presenter asks
18:32What do you think would be your prospects of survival?
Not terribly good. We went through a fair bit of survival training in the Air Force, but all I can remember from that is that one doesn't mess about with native women, and I presume I'm not allowed those on the island. … And the other thing I can remember is one shouldn't eat a polar bear's liver.
“Not coming of a musical family at all, suddenly at the age of fourteen uh jazz hit me straight between the eyes, and overnight I was turned into an addict.”
“I spent the first year sitting in a pub with two equally dissident ex-servicemen uh and then I started cartooning for a university newspaper and from that started writing for them, started editing for them, phot photographed for them. The whole works, uh completely threw myself into journalism and got my degree on Sundays.”
“I find that having a the background right, having taken a lot of notes, a lot of pictures, maybe even recordings. Uh it it gives me a feeling of confidence that the that the romantic invention that I'm going to pile on this is still going to have a firm base.”