Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An artist who showed early drawing talent, was self-taught, and faced discouragement from school and the army.
On the island
Eight records
Don't Let's Be Beasty to the Germans
Not explicitly stated in the extract. The guest did not give a reason for this disc in the provided transcript.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08What part of the country do you come from?
I was born at and had on Maisie's side.
Presenter asks
0:14Did you show a talent for drawing when you were very small?
Well, I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't draw. I didn't notice the fact that I could draw so much as was a little astounded to find that other people couldn't.
Presenter asks
0:29Was there any artistic talent in your family?
None that I know of at all.
Presenter asks
0:43Were you well taught in art at school?
I wasn't taught at all. I went to a grammar school where they again regarded art as rather a suspicious kind of thing, and I recall that just before I left they built a new school without an artery.
Presenter asks
1:02What happened to you when you left school? What was your first job?
My first job was as a junior clerk in cattle and poultry food manufacturers in Liverpool. Yes. This was just at the beginning of the war. I left school in nineteen thirty nine and started work in nineteen thirty nine. So that meant fire watching and all that sort of thing. The whole of my first job I think of in terms of standing terrified on the roof while Liverpool was burning.
Presenter asks
2:46What got you out of your rut of being an infantryman with bayonets?
Well, for some strange reason, the Army decided that I was a potential radio mechanic. Did you know anything about radio? Nothing at all. But nevertheless you became a mechanic. I became a mechanic, yeah. I suppose I was about the only radio mechanic who really didn't know how to repair a radio.
“Well, I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't draw. I didn't notice the fact that I could draw so much as was a little astounded to find that other people couldn't.”
“The whole of my first job I think of in terms of standing terrified on the roof while Liverpool was burning.”
“I found that in the army too they didn't really like people who had pencils and brushes. I recall once a corporal in the Welsh Guards, I think. We were having a kit inspection, standing by beds, and he noticed a bundle of brushes and pencils sticking out of my kick bag, and he stepped forward smartly, took them up in his hands and broke them with the air of someone tearing a telephone directory in half.”
“I designed a number of dress uniforms for the Indian Army and in fact also designed the flag for the new Indian Armoured Corps.”
“The pony simply appeared in one as part of the general idea. But it produced an immediate reaction from readers ... the editor rang me one day and said, 'We've had an awful lot of letters about these ponies, do you think you could end up a page spread?'”