Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Australian-born writer, author of one of the biggest-selling books in the world.
On the island
Eight records
Fear No More the Heat of the SunFavourite
Eighth disc chosen. Favourite disc.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:35Did you have a purpose in using just your initials, to shelter behind a unisex cover?
Yes, you're right to say shelter, because at the time when I first started writing. The particular kind of book we're talking about now. It it so often they were sentimentally written by women. And I didn't want to be just another woman thrown into the trash heap, as it were. No criticism or anything. Anyway, I'm a private sort of person. I thought I'd like to be as anonymous as possible. And that's not humility.
Presenter asks
1:38Could you face the solitude of a desert island?
Hm, it would be difficult. I like solitude, but I don't like loneliness. I think I would find that hard to bear.
Presenter asks
1:54Is music important to you?
Yes, music is important to me, but if you put me on a desert island I would want, I think, above all things to hear the human voice. I would want to hear the voices of my friends and if I can't, then the nearest thing I could come to would be poetry.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
10:55When you started writing Mary Poppins, were you picking up something from the stories you told as a child? And did you have any intention of expanding it?
It came out of a well of something in me. It's very hard. You know, the great characteristic of Mary Poppins is that she never explains. And I find myself, and I think this is true of all writers, if they're honest, they don't know how to explain what happens. And I, in a way, don't want to. I don't want to bring it into the front of my mind and saying, oh, this is the mechanism of it. This is how it was. I'd rather leave it in the unknown. … Oh, none at all. It never occurred to me that anybody would want to publish it. I was writing it really for myself. And then a friend saw it half written and said, Well, I'll take this to a publisher, and I had no agent or anything like that, and I thought, Well, a publisher won't want this. But apparently he did.
Presenter asks
14:27Did you approve of the cast of the Disney film Mary Poppins?
Oh yes, I well, I approved awfully of uh the chief character Julie Anders. … Well, it's still being shown all over the world. Yes, so they tell me. I've seen it once or twice, and I've learned to live with it. It's glamorous, and it's a good film on its own level, but I don't think it's very like my book.
Presenter asks
21:09Are you a practical person? Could you look after yourself on this island?
The first thing I would do would be to look along the sand for footprints. And my instinct tells me that eventually those footprints would lead me to a Man Friday. And yes, I'm practical, but he could be more practical.
“I didn't want to be just another woman thrown into the trash heap, as it were.”
“I like solitude, but I don't like loneliness. I think I would find that hard to bear.”
“The great characteristic of Mary Poppins is that she never explains. And I find myself, and I think this is true of all writers, if they're honest, they don't know how to explain what happens. And I, in a way, don't want to. I don't want to bring it into the front of my mind and saying, oh, this is the mechanism of it. This is how it was. I'd rather leave it in the unknown.”
“It never occurred to me that anybody would want to publish it. I was writing it really for myself.”
“I've learned to live with it. It's glamorous, and it's a good film on its own level, but I don't think it's very like my book.”