Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An author and archaeologist.
On the island
Eight records
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622Favourite
Gervase de Peyer with the London Symphony Orchestra
I thought, because I'm always particularly loved Mozart with Wood Wind, that we would start with the clarinet concerto in A major.
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 "Kreutzer"
Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy
When I was about ten, my parents got their first really quite good grammar phone ... the other that I remember was Beethoven's Kreutze Sonata, so I thought I'd like to have that to be taken back to that time.
I did feel that there would be a need for some, you know, good, strong, rough humour coming from outside. I I believe I would continue to be amused by that, if I used it not too often.
String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516
Amadeus Quartet with Cecil Aronowitz
I thought I would like to go back to my favourite Mozart in a more one of his more profound forms, so I chose the string quintet in G minor.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by George Weldon
I was very fond of it, and I have one particular association with it that I shall never forget. Jack and I were at one of those admirable bath music festivals, and they were going to play the water music on a barge on the river.
Smoking in a Hot Bath (from Delight)
I thought I would like to hear a thing I haven't heard for a very long time, and I'm sure it would cheer me immensely to hear his voice on this island.
The Original Broadway Cast of Guys and Dolls
I would still want something rather obstreperous and modern for when one was in that mood ... almost the first time I was there I w went to Guys and Dolls, which I think remains one of the best musicals
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Jacqueline du Pré with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim
It occurs rather beautifully in a play of my husband's called The Linden Tree. But my particular memory of it was when it was played especially for us. At a concert by Jacqueline Dupray.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:37Does music mean a great deal to you?
I think it would be dishonest to say yes quite boldly, because there have been long times when I really have hardly listened to it at all. And yet music is really rather an embarrassing subject to me. because I have some faculty completely missing, so that I have no memory, I could never reproduce a tune, I don't understand the construction of great musical works at all, really.
Presenter asks
3:40What was your father's [Sir Frederick Hopkins] subject?
Biochemistry. He he he really was one of the founders of biochemistry. and in particular he discovered vitamins.
Presenter asks
5:19Did you have, as a child, a strong sense of the past?
I did. I really have never known why. It was extraordinarily strong. When I was a small child I used to have a cave under some kind of shrub where I drew bison and mammoth on the wall.
Presenter asks
9:12The keepsakes
The book
The Works of Goethe (in translation)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I find it a great thing to have something that you ought to do and you don't. ... I've always meant to read Goethe all my life. ... it would add a great deal of zest to the fact that I was not reading Goethe. I'd be able to feel wicked and lazy.
The luxury
I want it to be a real luxury, and so I will make it wine. I would like as much as you can allow me of Burgundy and carrot. And of Hock and I think Alsatian for the white wines.
Do you remember any particular triumphant moment in unearthing something yourself?
I suppose really it w it was one of these Neanderthaloid skeletons on Mount Carmel, because I was in charge, as it happens, very ignorant student, but I was in charge of that part of the deep. when one of them turned up and this sort of rough skull was suddenly brought before me by a charming Arab girl who had really identified it.
Presenter asks
12:10Will you describe the book [A Land]?
It's difficult to do so because the idea of it is to present the whole of British history, its culture, its art and its geology at the bottom, as much as possible in one piece, a kind of tremendous exercise in continuity.
Presenter asks
20:23Do you and Mr. Priestley work together to the extent of showing each other your work in progress?
Not in progress, no neither of us have ever done that, but always immediately at the end.
“I did. I really have never known why. It was extraordinarily strong. When I was a small child I used to have a cave under some kind of shrub where I drew bison and mammoth on the wall.”
“I seem to write books that fall between all the shelves.”
“I find it a great thing to have something that you ought to do and you don't.”