Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer who has always written stories, from fairy tales to more sophisticated ones.
On the island
Eight records
The Snow Queen
Finished
The Playroom
Balkan Trilogy
The keepsakes
The luxury
Not recorded.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:15When did you decide that you wanted to write?
I can't say that I ever decided I wanted to write. I've always written. I before I could write I used to tell stories. And then as soon as I learnt to write, I wrote stories. Um beginning with fairy stories and things like that and going on to more sophisticated sort of stories.
Presenter asks
0:38Such as who were the authors that interested you most as a youngster?
Oh, I think all the usual children's books. I I I particularly loved Hans Anderson. And I think the fa the fairy the the one about the Snow Queen and uh the one about the swan, you'll know I I they've always … been enormously … wonderful stories for me.
Presenter asks
1:46What did you do when you left school?
Um well, I had to earn my own living somehow, and I'd been taught to type, very much against my will. But um I wasn't a typist for very long. I found it too boring. And um I went to London and I got a job … in the Feniter studios where I used to paint Fenitor.
Presenter asks
2:26Now, you were married shortly before the war, Olivia, to a man who's now a distinguished BBC drama producer, R. D. Smith, and you went off to Bucharest. What was he doing then?
He was lecturing. uh in English, uh for the British Council.
Presenter asks
2:50In fact, the war got you out of Bucharest quite soon.
No, we were there for a whole year. And then uh we had to leave because the German army was coming in. I went first to Greece, but my husband actually saw the Germans marching in.
Presenter asks
3:52Where did you go?
We went to Alexandra. and uh then to Cairo and uh My husband worked in Alexandra, but I went back to Cairo and um worked for as a public information officer at the American Embassy.
“I can't say that I ever decided I wanted to write. I've always written. I before I could write I used to tell stories.”
“It was a revelation to me, you know, of what reading could be, and I became enormously excited about him.”
“The most important thing is the characters, and they usually take over. I mean I I begin the book out of characters, or often one character.”
“As a writer I spend a great deal of my time in isolation. It's essential to me. Um but at the same time I really need the stimulus of company.”