Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Children's author and illustrator best known for her Katie Morag series of books and TV adaptation set on a fictional Scottish island.
On the island
Eight records
It’s actually Grandma Mainland’s theme. And I like this one because this is Grandma Mainland the first time you see her arriving. And she’s a rather britzy character. … And she arrives with all her pink suitcases. And it just has this kind of Wild West feel like to it. Here she’s coming. She’s going to sort everybody out.
I remember distinctly as a child being brought up in Gurock, and we were high on the hill. And over the other side it was Dunoon and Blair Moor and the hills of Cowell. And when I heard that phrase ‘over the hills and far away,’ I knew I wanted to go there, across the water, and over the hills and far away.
This is my dad, you see, my blue heaven. I have very few memories actually of him, but I do remember this. He would sing this song and whistle it too. And it's that lovely bit in it, ‘Molly and Me and the Baby Makes Three.’ From an early, early age I knew this was something terribly important to him, coming back from his pressurized work, coming back on the bus. … And this was his heaven.
Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043 (Double Violin Concerto)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, John Tunnell and Jaime Laredo
That's Bach's double violin concerto. So I've chosen that one because it is part of the time in my life where I was very involved with music at school. And when I left school, I used to go to concerts a lot and got to know several people in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
It's Telegraph Road and it's starting off saying, you know, somebody's going out into the wilds and they've got their little cabin and they've chosen their simple life. And I like the idea of that, especially on this desert island, because it will remind me, I'm quite happy on this desert island.
This is Kirsty McCall and it's Mamba de la Luna, but when you listen to the music, you just know how happy she was at that time in her life.
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 – III. Adagio
Berlin Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel
Now this is where I will burst into tears … But it's actually a very dear friend. Very ill, and I was on one of my projects away. And in the car deck, you know, I had the days of tapes, I had this playing, and I just got this strong, strong feeling and phoned up the family. I was told that the person was dying. I just always remember that feeling when I was listening to that, and I'll howl tears.
Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61Favourite
Rotterdam Philharmonic, Robin Ticciati
Well, the final piece, it is Finnish, a Finnish composer, Rautavara, and it's called Cantus Articus because he recorded birds in the Arctic Circle. So it was a lovely meshing together of his music and the sound of the Arctic birds.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:16When you went on set to watch the TV adaptation, what was that like when [Katie Morag] was alive and kicking and in 3D, running across the beach?
I was very emotional. … there was one which was actually on the beach, Grandma Mainland's wedding, and it's this lovely beach in Lewis. And watching it, I actually started crying. I got so emotional.
Presenter asks
6:50Why, in a children's book, is it important to incorporate [subtly] all the complexities of family life — the absent gallivanting grandfather, the love rivalry between the two grandmas, the mother looking close to a nervous collapse?
The essence of all the Katie Morag books are to do with a time in my life, in our family's life, which was the magic time on the island of Coll, bringing small children up. I mean, where better? But also I always have a moral — there's got to be something resolved in a Katie Morag story.
Presenter asks
11:47What are your memories of your father as a dad?
Well, somebody very caring, a lot of humour. I sensed he was somebody that didn't have good health, because in those days twice I was farmed out to other relatives, and it was called a nervous breakdown. He was a very talented watercolourist.
The keepsakes
The book
a book made from all the Ordnance Survey maps of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
because then I will go through all the walks I've done all my life in all that part of the world, and then all the other ones I'm going to do when I come back.
Presenter asks
16:31You were comforting your mother after your father died. Who was comforting you?
Well, Rap, the dog. … Rob and I used to go for long walks, so I could talk to him.
Presenter asks
16:42Why did you want to go to Edinburgh Art School — was it a deliberate ploy to get away [from home]?
I convinced my mother that Edinburgh was a better art school because I would just get home at the weekends. It was sudden freedom, it really was. It was totally classless. For the first time in my life, you had room to actually develop your personality without any pressures.
Presenter asks
26:46You've said the best things in your life have happened on Coll, but so have the worst. Is there a sort of rolling pattern — you move about every ten years?
Yeah. Well, there's also I mean, I just love doing up houses. … Leaving the island, going back to it. I think this is the third time being back and forth.
“I didn't have all the other kind of things that you're learning if you've got siblings that take up time, take you away from the adult world.”
“The essence of all the Katie Morag books are to do with a time in my life, in our family's life, which was the magic time on the island of Coll, bringing small children up. I mean, where better?”
“I knew I was different. … It was not a good memory I have of that time, because it actually caused a lot of confusion and tension when I came back home. … Oh, it was a class thing.”
“I look back and I can see it visually. … I was taking the role of being the comforter of her. And we had a pretty rocky journey from then on because it was almost as though this Molly baby and me, that little lovely triangle, had been shattered.”
“I like when nature and the elements can dictate. I feel very much part of it. I love storms. … It's the kind of edge to life.”
“I think there's been a lot of therapy in the Katie Morag. She's me as an adult exploring morality.”