Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Publisher who as editor of Puffin Books revolutionized children's reading, publishing classics such as Watership Down and Stig of the Dump.
On the island
Eight records
Where Corals LieFavourite
I love this song and I go to sleep by it. A friend of mine recorded it for me and I usually play it quite often. But I never knew the words until recently. And they're not quite as good as the music.
He was so enchanting that I thought I'd like to remember him. Also, my children were very fond of the record we had of him. They played it endlessly during the holidays when they were younger. Then I met him properly… at a dinner party… and he said, 'Oh, I'll drive you, don't worry, I'll drive you.' … So we took this drive at hairbreadth speed from Worthing to Brighton. … When we arrived at his house in Brighton, his wife was standing on the doorstep, pale and anxious, and saying, 'You're the bravest woman I've ever met' I said, 'Why?' She said, 'Jack hasn't driven for years. He was stopped for dangerous driving.' So I sort of remember him pleasantly but apprehensively.
I think somebody called this Isn't This a Marvellous Day? because he greeted one with such enthusiasm.
He was another perk, you might say, of my job on Lilliput… One day a new manuscript arrived… an article entitled 'Yes, I Beat My Wife' by James Mason… So James we had a correspondence and I accepted it… He became a really great friend. When he knew I was going to have twins, he said, 'Oh, I'll be a godfather' and his wife said, 'She'd be a godmother.' So they became my children's godparents. He's always been part of our lives and I couldn't really have not included him in this.
We were walking along the Champs Elysees and we saw a crowd of people waiting outside a music hall… we got in, and we sat down, and then the music played, and suddenly the curtains opened, and there was a tiny little figure with a great hoarse voice coming out… That was Piaf, and it was our first experience of her. And we were both absolutely thrilled.
John Warner, Eleanor Drew, Michael Meacham
Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds
It seemed to me to epitomize everything that was nice about the office and the way we worked together.
Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Clemens Krauss
It's just a cheerful, happy, hopeful sort of song. It'll make me think of my family. It'll make me think of all the Puffin stuff and the good times we had and I might not be miserable.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:07Do you still read children's books?
I thought, well, once I'm really out of this, I can start reading adult books again. 'Cause I hadn't read adult books for years before and I find I prefer the children's books. I think it's 'cause I'm a fairly soppy person and I like things to end happily and so on. And there's more chance in a child's book.
Presenter asks
6:51Do you think children should read certain books, or does it not matter what they read as long as they're reading?
I think a certain proportion of books ought to have a great deal of imagination in them, to capture their imagination. But I don't think they're all the same ones. I'm appalled by this list that's come out now for the examinations. … But I think it's a pity. But I'd rather she read that than nothing, you know. And with any luck it depends entirely on teachers and parents to get them excited enough to want to try something new.
Presenter asks
9:17What did you read as a child?
It was odd, really. I got ill. I had rheumatic fever and was kept in bed. … So I didn't read children's books. I went straight into Thackeray … So then I never went back to children's books. … I was allowed to go and choose my first book for a prize of something I'd won, and I chose Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince. And I've still got it, and I loved it more than anything.
The keepsakes
The book
Naomi Lewis
I think it's such a remarkable collection of poems that I shall take it with me and learn them by heart.
The luxury
A large photographic album with a wheeling table
I would like to have a really big photographic album and enough things to I'd spend the rest of my life sticking in all the photographs ... and it will keep me happy for a year or two.
Presenter asks
10:11Tell me about your English teacher, Mr. Gibbs.
He was not very prepossessing. … He had terrible shiny suits, sort of purple coloured, and he'd been a minor, I think, and he had a very Welsh accent. And he had such enthusiasm for everything. You couldn't not share it. … He recommended Walter de la Mare, The Memoirs of a Midget … He'd sent a copy of the school magazine to Walter de la Mare … and he said that Walter de la Mare wrote back and said there was one poem by somebody called Kay Webb which I was very impressed by. And you should see she goes on writing, so of course I had a picture of what I did on my own front of my desk … He was frightfully handsome in those days, and he was my sort of hero.
Presenter asks
20:14How did you feel when you heard [Ronald Searle] had been released?
It was ridiculous. I was so pleased, and I loved his writing. And I remember rushing downstairs to my mother and saying, Ronald Searle's alive. I'd assumed he was dead. … But it was a large reaction, considering you'd never met. … And then he came back and you did meet. Yes. And things went rather fast after that. And we were very happy for a very long time. … Yes, it was a fairy tale.
Presenter asks
28:41Do you miss it all, or are you exhausted at the thought of how much you did?
Yes, I do miss it all. I and it was exhausting. I thought I was going to really rather enjoy not having the responsibility, because I used to have nightmares, especially about the exhibition not being ready and people turning up. But, you know, to find everything un unready and the children disappointed. It seemed to me the most important thing in the world was not to disappoint the children. That did keep me on the go a bit. But now I'm I miss it. A quite a lot.
“I never stop saying you should go on reading to your children no matter what age they are.”
“I think it's 'cause I'm a fairly soppy person and I like things to end happily and so on.”
“He was such a loving man. And he used to write inscriptions into my books. … And he rang me up once after I had tea with him, and he said 'Have you ever thought that kindness also begins with a K?' I treasured that particularly. It was a sort of love affair, really.”
“I've had very good luck in the working sense and not quite such good luck in private sense.”
“It seemed to me the most important thing in the world was not to disappoint the children.”
“I really don't like being alone. All the records I've chosen have been happy ones, with a lot of words, and so that I could hear human voices.”