Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer who was a foreign correspondent and now writes books about distant places.
On the island
Eight records
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
I think harking back to that beginning I was lucky enough to be in a rather good church choir, which instantly introduced me to the world of Orlando Gibbons and Charles Villiers Stanford. And I've always had a great feeling for liturgical music, so I'd like please the Allegri Miserare, with that boy hitting the fantastic note two octaves above Middle C.
Commentary on Don Bradman's last Test innings at the Oval in 1948
Well, a real abiding passion of mine, though again I I've never been anything of a performer, has been cricket, which I think is the the subtlest of games, as well as one of the most dramatic. And it's a game full of character, which is one of its great appeals, human character. I'd like, please, to hear the commentary by Rex Holston and John Arlott on Dom Braddon's last test innings at the Oval in nineteen forty eight.
Don Giovanni: Leporello's Aria and Trio (Act I)Favourite
When I went back to Prague a couple of years ago, I fulfilled a long-standing ambition by managing to hear Don Giovanni, which is one of my favourite operas anyway, managing to hear Don Giovanni at the Tyl Theatre there, where of course it had its very first performance. So please may I have Leperolo's Aria and the trio from Act One.
Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 'Little'
Well, I don't think I would like to be anywhere without Bach, who I think is probably the one composer that I can listen to in any sort of mood. And although I've never played an instrument, I think the instrument I would most have liked to have played is the organ. So may I please have um Helmut Volke playing the little fugue in G minor.
Well, as I say, I have been knocked sideways by India. I I I wish to go there again and again and again. And so I'd like some Indian music, please. Ravi Shankar playing a piece called Kafi Holy, which is associated, of course, with the Spring Festival, when everyone goes absolutely potty and chucks coloured water over each other.
This quite coincidentally is is an American thing. I was of that daft generation that was brought up to believe that the only good music was classical music, and consequently I knew not a thing about pop until I think the Beatles arrived. And I then discovered Simon and Garfunkel, whom I've liked ever since. And so, please, I would like Sounds of Silence.
Choir of the Russian Cathedral in Paris
One of my great pleasures has always been Slav choral music, with those marvellous rumbling basses and curling sopranoes. And whenever I've been in Paris and indeed it was it was the very last thing I did before I flew off to the desert from Europe I've tried to go to the Russian Orthodox Church there to hear Mass. I'd like to hear that choir sing the Kyria Laison, please.
The Old 93rd Farewell to Gibraltar
Pipes and Drums of the 1st Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Well, one of the big hazards of living in conditions like this, I suspect, is that one starts to feel sorry for oneself and one becomes pretty jolly slummicky. And I think there's absolutely nothing for making you pick yourself up off the deck in such conditions as that as a good bagpipe and drum band. So could I have the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders playing the old ninety third Cabafe?
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44You have endured loneliness at some time, isolation?
Yes. I deliberately exposed myself to it once when I took some camels across the Sahara. Uh whether I'd cope with it on a desert island or not remains to be seen, let us say.
Presenter asks
3:33What did you want to be [when you were at school]?
Oh, I always wanted to be a writer, but coming from that sort of background. One never aspired to anything as grand as books, because the first thing you had to think about was was earning your bread and butter. And so it was uh clearly to be journalism, and this is what I began with.
Presenter asks
4:48Do you remember the very first story of yours, however small, that appeared in print?
I can't remember the very first that appeared in print. I can remember the first that made any sort of impression on my colleagues. There had been an almighty storm one day, and there was a rumour that a chimney pot had come off some house or other, and I was sent as the Sprog reporter to find out precisely what had happened... and discovered that in fact the chimney had gone straight through five floors of a house. A baby had been in its cot in the attic and had followed the chimney all the way down to the basement and was still in its cot in the basement with only a slightly grazed nose. And that made the newspaper's lead story that day.
The keepsakes
The book
The luxury
a little box full of Indian spices
Then I should like a little box full of Indian spices so that I can cook myself tasty meals and not just have broiled fish.
Presenter asks
15:11Was [giving up journalism to write books] a difficult decision to make?
Oh, yes, it was. Oh yes. Because I was not at all unhappy doing the job I was doing as far as I was concerned, being chief features writer for The Guardian, was the best job in Fleet Street. And I didn't want to leave the paper, but I had decided that I wanted to concentrate on writing books, trying to get to the bottom of things.
Presenter asks
32:40Can you find a connecting link between [all your books]? Is there any one thing they have in common?
I think the only claim I could make is that they're all about what make people tick. I mean, that's a a ridiculously inflated claim maybe, but it's the only thread I can think of.
“I discovered that I could string words together when I was at school.”
“I think everybody who goes to India for the first time is knocked sideways by that country.”
“This has always been the reason for travelling ever since I was a kid, to find out, even when you were just on your own two feet walking the Pennines, what lies over the other side of the hill, and what manner of man awaits you over the other side of the hill.”