Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Author and foreign correspondent, known for his worldwide travels and reporting.
On the island
Eight records
Interviewer says 'Song of the Forest' and 'Yoloff'
Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 97 (Archduke)Favourite
Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals, Alfred Cortot
Slow movement; described as 'the Archduke Trio'
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:12From your experience [of living on a desert island], what would be the worst thing in a situation like that, apart from the loneliness?
I don't think the loneliness is the worst thing in many ways. Certainly it wasn't with this man that I went to meet, Tom Neal, who had lived there for eight years. You know, I think really the worst thing of all are insects. In the tropics, in any warm country, and it's it's hell, absolutely.
Presenter asks
5:08What was your very first ambition as a schoolboy?
Well, my first was to be a successful novelist, and a successful writer, and then it gradually became a writer, whether it was a journalist, whether it was writing books.
Presenter asks
7:32How long [did the journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway take]?
Took twenty one days. One day it stopped for absolutely no reason. It didn't start for forty eight hours. But there were some fine Russian singers on there, and I learnt a marvellous song there.
The keepsakes
The luxury
the Americans actually parachuted a piano down. And I think that's what I'd like.
Presenter asks
16:29Can I ask you about another paradise you went looking for — a Shangri-La in the Hunza area, in the Himalayas?
It's a remarkable place. The Hunza people have been in the news. They're reputed to live on apricots and because of that live longer than any other people. Apricots is staple diet. They don't live on it entirely. They use it for everything, but they do. I was taken round, of course, and I wanted to do a story with photographs, and I met a man who was 105, and he apologised for being late, but he'd just been out for a four-mile walk. So I said, 'Well, are you sure you're you know is it all right going for a walk in this really rugged country up there?' And he said, 'I was a father last year,' and he produced a son at the age of 104. So there must be something to be said for apricots.
Presenter asks
19:22You've also written a number of books based on research — slabs of modern history. Do you have a new book on the way?
Yes, I do. I've got a book coming out in June, The Week France Fell. And this is really a book about the fall of France, of course, in June 1940, but basically it's a book about France and the tragic events of those seven days by someone who loves France and adores it and has lived there for ten or twelve years.
Presenter asks
22:01What skills do you possess which would be useful on a desert island? Could you look after yourself?
I can make very good bread from breadfruit. I can make a very good well, of course coconut milk is one of the great drinks of the world. And if by any chance, just a little advice for anybody who happens to be on a desert island, if by any chance you've got a bottle of gin with you, you pour that into a coconut and you've got the finest cocktail in the world. I did this when I went to Tomil. I took a bottle of gin and poured it in. You can make very good scones from Uto, the unformed coconut and breadfruit, and you get a sort of coconut scones. The fish is no problem. I speared about, oh, I must have speared 20 fish in four days on earth. They're big ones too. I think I might be able to manage.
“I think really the worst thing of all are insects. In the tropics, in any warm country, and it's it's hell, absolutely.”
“I learnt a marvellous song there. … It's called Kalitka. It's a beautiful old Russian folk song.”
“British Honduras is a colony forgotten by everyone except the exporters of gin.”
“I met a man who was 105, and he apologised for being late, but he'd just been out for a four-mile walk. … And he said, 'I was a father last year,' and he produced a son at the age of 104.”
“I can make very good bread from breadfruit. … The fish is no problem. I speared about, oh, I must have speared 20 fish in four days on earth. They're big ones too. I think I might be able to manage.”
“If man can conquer the moon … I think that somebody would send a parachute down for me.”