Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Children's author and former children's laureate, known for over ninety books that engage young readers with real and exciting worlds.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral': V. Shepherd's Song
Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf
I love story in music. I love to be able to feel that I'm in some kind of movement, whether it is a movement of narrative, but it has to move along for me, and I have to be able to follow it.
Margaret Marshall and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
My mother was a huge influence early on in my life, both with reading and with music, and Mozart was a great favorite of her family.
I suspect I heard this when I was about 19.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622: II. Adagio
Andrew Marriner, with the London Mozart Players, conducted by Jane Glover
It's really Claire's choice, my wife's choice... I had to let this one in, and in fact I wanted to, because it's very much her favourite piece of music in the world.
I sort of did all my adult growing up with the Beatles. They they remind me of my family, really of my children... and the good times we had together.
I love the pipes, and I wouldn't want to be on my island without the sound of pipes, and I'm not Scottish at all, though I wear truse, because I would like to be Scottish.
Spem in aliumFavourite
The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips
I first heard [it] at Ted Hughes's memorial service in Westminster Abbey, and when it died away at the end it was one of the one of the great moments of my life.
I want to remember that, because I want to go out and dance on the sand like that, and feel exhilarated by music.
The keepsakes
The book
Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
I want A book called The Rattle Bag, which is an anthology of poetry edited by Shamassini and Ted Hughes. ... I would learn them whilst I was on the island, so that I could recite them, and I think it would stop me going mad.
The luxury
I have six wonderful grandchildren. And the second one, Eloise, I put this question to her, and she said. Really what you should have is a water slide. So when I do my dancing along the beach, my Irish dancing, I'm then going to climb up on the water side and whiz down into the water. I'll have my happy days.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30How do you define the difference between the storyteller and the storyteller writer?
Style and I think I began orally... telling is different from writing... the more practised you become at it, you find your voice as a writer rather than your voice as a storyteller.
Presenter asks
5:58What were the books that engaged you as a child that you voluntarily picked up?
The first was my mother engaging me. She engaged me with the just-so stories and poetry... it was she, I think, who made me feel that there was music in words.
Presenter asks
11:17How did it happen that your father disappeared from your life when you were small?
It was because of the war, really. It was my father was away at war in Baghdad, and my mother met another man, Jack Morpurgo, and they fell in love. And so when my father, Tony Bridge, came back from the war, basically his place had been taken at the hearth.
Presenter asks
27:06How did your friendship with Ted Hughes begin?
He used to fish our stretch of the river Torridge, and I was just walking down there one one dusk late dusk and he sort of loomed up. Darkly, from the river, gripped me by the hand and said hello, and went on with his fishing.
Presenter asks
31:36What did your stepfather think of your becoming a writer?
I think he approved when I started writing quite well, to start with he I think he thought I was. It was a little hobby.
“The poetry in the prose is very important and children respond to that... It's the first thing I ever recognised in story was the music in the words, the way the story flowed.”
“The first time I ever saw my father he was a convict in great expectations. So I just sort of stared at this man and thought my... My God, is that my father?”
“I don't know war first hand, what I do know is the suffering of the survivors, how they had to deal with loss.”
“I want to try if I can to bring the literature back into literacy, because what I feel has happened is that we're getting into this... target-led [system]... rather than simply to listen to the story and love the story first.”