Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An author of books for both children and adults, best known for writing "Bally Shoes".
On the island
Eight records
The Jewels of the Madonna: Intermezzo No. 2
And when they put it on two or three times in the children's hour on the old Radio ... The Jewels of the Madonna. And it was enormously popular. People wrote from all over the country to know what the music was, and I should like to hear that again.
As soon as I was old enough to go to any kind of opera, I was taken to the Immortal Ayre. What the very early operas are for me to see. And I'd love the fairy song out of that.
I had a big job in choosing this one, because of so much of nostalgia to that date. In the end I've chosen Noel Cards, Bittersweet, Sung by Peggy Wood.
All People That on Earth Do DwellFavourite
Record number four is the hymn All People That on Earth Do Dwell from the Coronation music. I've chosen the very end because I love all the fanfares and the trumpets and the rousing sound.
Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64: II. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza
USSR State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov
As you know, all my life I've been crazy on the belly. But the most brutal one to me was danced by Veronova. You know, a ballet now out of date and certainly wouldn't suit to day's dancers called Pressage to the music of Tchaikovsky.
Glory to Thee, My God, This Night
Every Sunday night when I was small. We gathered round the piano to sing hymns for bed. I was the best thing of the family in those days. And one of the hymns we always sang as a finish, really, was Glory to Thee, my God this night, sung in cannon...
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Louis Frémaux
And she danced The Dying Swan. I learnt afterwards, I didn't know it then, that that was that was the founder of our national ballet, Innette de Balwa. and a great impression she left on me.
The Bells of St Paul's Cathedral
I don't know Why, but I've a passion for bells. And I thought bells would be lovely ringing all over the island. They would raise the spirits. Or, maybe, like Joan of Arc, they'd be voices for me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:02Did [being a daughter of the vicarage] mean, in Edwardian times, it was a case of always being on your best behaviour?
Well, certainly the parish expected it they didn't always get it, I must tell you. ... But what we were mostly used for was not parish work, but for entertaining the parishioners. We would just be given the notice of a there would be an entertainment on such and such a day, and then we were expected to produce the entertainment and make the clothes.
Presenter asks
5:42What was your very first professional job [after studying at RADA]?
Wasn't I lucky? It was so suitable for the vicar's daughter. I went into Shakespearean repertory. ... It was Charles Dauden, and it was full of distinguished students, starting Ray Fritzon and Donald Wolford, goodness knows who else.
Presenter asks
7:02What made you decide to give up acting and become a writer?
Now with no home behind you, so to speak. ... you really better do something safe. It's silly to go on being an actress. And I was just uh travelling home back at that moment, just passing the Barrier Reef, I remember, from Australia, this is, you see. And I looked at the Barrier Reef and I thought What shall I do? I can't go on being an actress. And suddenly it came to me like a flash that I'd be a novelist.
The keepsakes
The book
John Galsworthy
Well, I shall be very happy with the Bible [, really]. I mean, I've never read it through from beginning to end, and that'll be a good opportunity to do it. But for light reading, I thought I'd have the [Forsyte Saga].
The luxury
Gardening stool and garden with tools and fancy plants
I must have a little garden, and I would like something to sit on, being a bit lame. ... one of those things that they make so that you can dig and sit at the same time. ... I would like fancy plants.
Presenter asks
10:04Why with your theatre background were you writing novels rather than plays?
I just think I couldn't write plays. ... I had two two on, I think it was. But I wrote them with other people. And my gifts did not lie in that direction.
Presenter asks
15:09Why have you told your own story in the third person [in your autobiography]?
It's much you feel much less self-conscious. I couldn't do it at all to start with, and then I decided if I did it in a third person I'd feel less embarrassed about it. I mean, who on earth, I thought to myself, wants to read my life story? You know, you do feel like that.
“And suddenly it came to me like a flash that I'd be a novelist.”
“Writing for children's extremely difficult. You n they not only tell you, but they uh Oh, write firmly and correct you. So the result is that you've got to know a great deal of the subject, but not of course bore the children to death with telling it to them.”
“Children's taste does not change.”
“I suddenly took all my clothes off and got back into bed and I thought, Well, now I can't go out on the street and that's the end of it. And I've been in bed ever since.”