Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Novelist and playwright celebrated for light-hearted works about the law; formerly a county court judge.
On the island
Eight records
String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130: V. Cavatina (Adagio molto espressivo)Favourite
It's the only one that affects me emotionally. It would remind me of my wife.
I want to have somebody talking there. I'm very fond indeed of the English language, and in particular, the way Dylan Thomas wrote it.
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57: III. Scherzo
I should want to have something into which I could get my teeth.
It sends the audience away from the theatre dancing. I've seen them do it.
I'd like to have had much more Mozart. But it will also come to Elizabeth Schumann, one of the loveliest singers.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:25How well could you endure loneliness?
Well, I like my own company, I must admit. But I think I would probably have too much of it on a desert island.
Presenter asks
4:31Are you a Londoner?
Yes, really. I was born in Norwood Green Rectory, which used to be in the country in Middlesex, but it's really part of Southall now, which is also part of London. Yes. But I've lived in London most of my life.
Presenter asks
4:54Why the law?
A legal family? Not a legal family, no, it's quite simple. I lived at a time when it was comparatively easy to choose a job or a profession. And my eldest brother was killed in the war in nineteen sixteen. And he was going to the bar, and my parents said to me, 'Well, would you like to go instead?' and I said yes. I was very pleased that I did. I had no idea what it entailed. We have not none of my forebears, as far as I know, were in the law.
Presenter asks
5:57Did your own experiences reflect the struggles of barristers in your books?
The keepsakes
The book
Henry Watson Fowler
Fowler's English usage, because you could never read that through. It's a marvellous book. You would learn a lot from it. It's extremely amusing. You could never stop pouring into it.
The luxury
Then I'm afraid I will take a bottle of aspirin, because aspirin, although a very old drug, is one of the best drugs. for pain and so on. And, of course, if necessary, it would be my means of escape.
They reflect my own experiences with every now and then a two percent exaggeration, a lot more than that.
Presenter asks
8:43What was your own specialty at the bar?
The most interesting, but in some ways the most difficult, because you specialize really in nothing. It's a very general bar where you do almost everything. You go into every court, you go into the criminal courts, you go to the chancery court, you go to the company's court, you may do every kind of litigation, and naturally you can't know it all, and you have to look it up.
Presenter asks
15:59You have strong views on prison reform. What would you like to see done?
Oh, indeed, yes, and I'm glad to see that the present government ... are going to get rid of Section thirty eight of the Prison Act nineteen fifty two, which means that they will be able to sell old out of date prisons and keep the money for the purpose of building decent prisons. I think, if you'll allow me to say so, I think the dangerous men should be imprisoned if necessary for ever, until at least it's certified that it's reasonably safe to let them out, as takes place in the case of Broadmoor patients. But if you're going to shut up people for the rest of their lives, it must be done in decent circumstances, not like the circumstances of most of our present prisons. And with this money which the government can get when they change Section thirty eight, the Prison Act 1952, they will be able to build decent prisons where there will be plenty of rewarding employment, plenty of recreation and entertainment, and certainly, if possible, conjugal visits. There, these men could live in comparative dignity, treated like human beings, as they are at the moment in Grinden prison, which is an experimental prison, but where, I must say, the atmosphere is very different from the other prisons and this is another matter of legal reform upon which you can see, but I'm extremely keen.
“this particular movement of this particular quartet is one of the loveliest things in all music. It's the only one that affects me emotionally. It would remind me of my wife.”
“It is quite ridiculous, in my view, that whether a man should get damages for the loss of a leg ... should depend upon all these imponderables.”
“I think the dangerous men should be imprisoned if necessary for ever, until at least it's certified that it's reasonably safe to let them out, as takes place in the case of Broadmoor patients.”
“Then I'm afraid I will take a bottle of aspirin, because aspirin, although a very old drug, is one of the best drugs for pain and so on. And, of course, if necessary, it would be my means of escape.”