Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer of books on food and how to cook it, best known for her influential cookbooks on European cuisine.
On the island
Eight records
I've chosen the Shepherd on the Rocks, because I heard that again at Cambridge.
Sanctus (from Mass in B minor, BWV 232)
New Philharmonia Chorus and New Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer
To take the first impact of this extraordinary sound.
Hollowed StoneFavourite
The one about the Hollow Stone is the one I shall have to choose. It's so sad. And it moves me very much.
I like the rhythm of it very much and I like the way she uses her voice, the way she presses on the notes or comes down very lightly.
I love this poem because although it was written in the sixteenth century. It's very much of today.
Träumerei (from Kinderszenen, Op. 15)
I should like to. sit every day and think about all the children in the family and the children I've known and my own daughter.
Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen (from Die Zauberflöte)
Gundula Janowitz and Walter Berry
Magic flute, as much as I can get from one record. But it would have to include the overture and the Duet about love.
Nocturne (from Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31)
Peter Pears, Dennis Brain and the New Symphony Orchestra of London, conducted by Benjamin Britten
Very difficult to choose any section of it, 'cause I love it all. I think perhaps the tennison for the horn playing.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:01How did you feel when you first sang in the Cambridge University Musical Society?
I was middle in the middle of this incredible sound which um was really one of the greatest experiences of my life, I think, to be suddenly in the middle of the Bach mess in B mine and with it all going on all round you, and I just sat in total silence for the first three meetings and then suddenly took courage.
Presenter asks
4:43What did you want to do when you came down from Cambridge?
Well, I really wanted to work in art galleries and to work with paintings, as my mother had been an art student and had taught me quite a lot about painting when I was a child.
Presenter asks
6:02What particular job did you want at the Victoria and Albert Museum?
Well, I wanted to go into either the textile department or the silver department. I'd been very interested in silver since I was about sixteen... And I thought really that silver, or Peps textiles, would be my life's work. But um the Victorian Albert Museum didn't agree. And um I didn't have any luck at all trying to get in. I think it was the worst period of my life. I don't never remember feeling so depressed.
The keepsakes
The luxury
I should rush and write down all the things I could remember, I think. in case I was going to be there for a very long time, then I would have something to read.
Presenter asks
10:15How did you end up buying a house in France?
We went there, and we went for a month, and we stayed for two months. and one very merry afternoon, after a very good lunch and a lot of wine, Somebody said, Well, there's a little house for sale. Why don't you um think about buying it? And so we're feeling very Happy in the sun, and very happy with the wine, we went and saw it, and we decided to buy it.
Presenter asks
11:53Was it then that you decided to write your first book [on charcuterie]?
No, I decided somebody else should write it to tell me about the food that I didn't know about... And so we found Michael Joseph who were willing to publish it. And then his life became a bit patchy and difficult, and I thought this book is not going to get off the ground and told the publishers... And they said, What nonsense It's an interesting subject. You go and write it. And so I said, Well, I don't know anything about it.
“I was middle in the middle of this incredible sound which um was really one of the greatest experiences of my life, I think, to be suddenly in the middle of the Bach mess in B mine and with it all going on all round you”
“I think cookery is bound to be continual plagiarism.”
“I have a great respect for the sea. I grew up too near it to play about with the sea.”