Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A novelist who published her first book at 70 and went on to write six bestsellers, often featuring strong-minded, unconventional women.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92Favourite
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York conducted by Arturo Toscanini
First record is the first thing that made me aware of classical music, which was Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. And I used to play that over and over again. And during the war I had I used to go to bed, because I was in a very, very cold house in the second half of the war, and I was pregnant, and I used to go to bed with my gramophone and my records and my books, and also try and write. And I used to play the Seventh Symphony and one or two other things, but that rarely stuck in my mind. And I had that illusion that if I played enough good music to the baby inside me, he might appreciate music sooner than I had in my life.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051
English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard
My second record is the Brandenburg concerto, number six, which is extremely joyous and which reminds me of my husband, who used to whistle it in his bath.
Christmas Hymn from the Christmas Day Mass
Monks of St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes
This is the monks of St Peter's Abbey at Soleim singing the Christmas Day Mass. When Erik and I became Catholics thirty years ago, more than thirty years ago, we both adored the the Latin and you could no longer only get it at places like Coe Abbey and in Solem. And it's very beautiful and moving, I think.
Dirge from Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31
After an operation before penicillin. … I was alone in a nursing home and the door opened and my children's beloved rosy cheeked nanny came in to see me. And she suddenly went white as a sheet. And I thought, uh oh, I'm off I'm dying and I can't die and so I had the most appalling reaction. … So I managed to hiss at my doctor that I wanted a second opinion, and I had an instant operation and recovered. But that was quite a near miss, and I was young and didn't realize about death. It was about that time, a little later perhaps, that I heard Benjamin Britton's the Dietrich Dirge, which makes you think about death, and the hairs on the back of your neck go up and you're afraid, as you are afraid of death when you're young.
Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, K. 495
Dennis Brain with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan
I should like to take Dennis Brain playing Mozart Horn concerto number four, which is really glorious and joyous, and it reminds me of when I first lived on Dartmoor with my husband second husband with Eric.
Oh, the Beatles, just just for the hell of it, and for fun. And my husband and I thought it was funny. And it's just lovely and sentimental. … My husband was sixty-four and we enjoyed that.
This is my idea of heaven, which is waking up to hear the dawn chorus of birds, which is, I think, almost the most important music in my life and the most lasting.
Double Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043
Yehudi Menuhin and Georges Enescu with the Paris Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux
My last record is If You Can't Hear It Dawn Chorus and have reached … you know, manager of Evade Hell, in which I don't believe because I think we make our own here is Johnuin and Georginesco playing Bach double wadin concerto in D minor, and that to me is absolutely wonderful. … It's like two really wonderful people talking to each other. One of those unearthly brilliant conversations which one seldom hears.
The keepsakes
The book
Gabriel García Márquez
it's got everything in it. It's the most wonderful book that I've read in years. I thought about this a lot. It's got every form of love and every weakness and strength in humanity in it, and a great deal of humour.
The luxury
A large double bed with lots of pillows
couldn't I have a large double bed with lots of pillows and I could sit in bed and work?
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:05Has eight years been long enough to come to terms with fame and fortune, or do you still have to pinch yourself to believe it?
No, it's all a very big surprise and goes on being an enormous surprise. Same old me inside. People say, Oh, you must be feeling so wonderful, you know, so successful and so on and I even occasionally trip over a sort of note of awe in people and I say, For God's sake, shut up, it's the same old me in the size, no difference.
Presenter asks
4:05You sold your first book just before you were seventy. Why had you left it so late?
I hadn't left it so late. I'd written the book and it had been refused by quite a number of publishers. … I didn't think I had any education, which is true. I hadn't any proper education, and I thought you had to go to Oxford or studied English literature or whatever, to be able to write.
Presenter asks
6:44Were you really so poor that you didn't have the choice [to come up to London for the meeting]?
I was. I was literally calculating I was living on a widow's pension and about fifty or sixty pounds a month else, and doing everything on that. And I had the kind of mentality then that I'd say I won't post this letter till Monday when I've drawn my pension, then I can buy more stamps, which was as tight as that. Good heavens. I owned my house and I owned my furniture and that was about it. But nobody was more surprised than me when Macmillan took it.
Presenter asks
11:35Is suicide something that you could do if you so chose?
Well, if I was so ill and tiresome and a nuisance to other people and had nothing left in me to contribute to life, yes, I think it's a sensible opt. I think I would push off to Holland, where it's nicely arranged, and you can euthanase yourself out.
Presenter asks
19:51Did your parents like you?
I don't think my mother wanted me. She once told me she didn't want another child, and if she had to have another, she wanted a son. … My mother was a very good mother, according to her likes. We always had messies to eat and were beautifully looked after and our teeth straightened and all that kind of thing. But I think she preferred my brother and sister. And I didn't fit into what she would have liked me to be, or my father would have liked me to be, which was a nice, good, conservative girl who would marry a nice, good conservative and live that sort of life.
Presenter asks
32:26Do you like the Mary Wesley that you've created – this strong and very successful 77-year-old?
No, not very much. I don't know. I've never met myself, who see. I catch glimpses of myself in the looking glass sometimes. I think who's that old woman? I don't think about myself very much. I don't like my voice. I particularly hate my voice. And I'm not very keen on my appearance.
“No, it's all a very big surprise and goes on being an enormous surprise. Same old me inside. People say, Oh, you must be feeling so wonderful, you know, so successful and so on and I even occasionally trip over a sort of note of awe in people and I say, For God's sake, shut up, it's the same old me in the size, no difference.”
“No, I don't think I'm any more confident than I ever was. I'm an absolute snail. I'm terrified inside.”
“Yes, well, I think rules are made to be broken if they're silly that one should break them.”
“I love my children deeply. Yes, I do like them.”
“No, not very much. I don't I don't know. I've never met myself, who see. I catch glimpses of myself in the looking glass sometimes. I think who's that old woman? I don't think about myself very much. I don't like my voice. I particularly hate my voice. And I'm not very keen on my appearance.”