Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Textile designer best known as the Queen of the Tea Towel, having designed hundreds for the National Trust.
On the island
Eight records
Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra and the Pied Pipers
I think I discovered Ranks and Autre... I swear that I swooned when I first heard him sing.
When designing isn't going quite so well or just beginning to come very well, I listen to this perhaps three times over.
A very simple piece, and I think it's very moving… when I was seventy-five, I took up piano lessons again.
Lensky's Aria (from Eugene Onegin)
The one opera that makes me weep is Eugene Onyegin… Lenski's Farewell Aria.
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (soundtrack)Favourite
Danielle Licari and José Bartel
A film that still makes me weep. It's a very, very sad story.
Isabel Makes Love Upon National Monuments
Not as sad as all the other records I've got… I sometimes play Jake Thackray to make me laugh.
Lil, who's the eldest [grandchild], has made a record… this is her Singing Lions.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:34Where do you find your inspiration?
Well, I find my inspiration mostly from flowers and gardens. But I find it all over. But it's easy to take a flower and put it in a vase and look at it in detail and really find out what it's all about.
Presenter asks
2:36How did you survive the monochrome years when everything was beige?
Well, there was a time when I used to use a lot of browns. And a design I did for the John Lewis company called Daisy Chain had to come out in a brown colourway that year. I've never really cared for the beige brown look, but one goes with the fashion but does one's own thing within it, I think.
Presenter asks
5:09Tell me about the very first time that you saw one of your fabrics made up into a beautiful dress.
Well, I felt that I was changing the world. It was a very, very simple, ordinary summer dress. When I worked for Horrocks's they used to make a sundress and a bolaro, and they had in Fenwick's window three colourways of this dress. And I stood there and I looked at the people passing by to see if they were fainting with joy, but they they weren't taking very much notice, but I was very, very pleased to see it.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
15:05When [your father] said that even the Royal College of Art makes mistakes, didn't you want to say, 'well, it wasn't a mistake'?
No, no.
Presenter asks
18:15How did you meet [your husband, Peter]?
Well, when I went to the Royal College, all the people that ran societies like the Music Society, the Christian Friends, or The Theatre Group – well, Peter ran the Theatre Group and he was putting on the production of The Tempest, and put up a form to fill if you'd like to be in it. Well, I am no actress, but I wanted to get a bit nearer to this head of the theatre group, and so I put myself down for a nymph. But I was rejected because I was too fat. He said I couldn't be a nymph, but would I be more or less prepared to work my fingers to the bone for the rest of my life then?
Presenter asks
31:20What do you think has been the secret to your professional longevity?
I think sticking at the desk really, really working all the time… I know lots of people who've been to art school, were very talented, stopped and had children, and so I'd love to get back to it. And the thing is that unless there is clean paint water and nice new brushes and a lot of paper and some paints and some crayons or whatever there is there waiting for you to use, it's very difficult to actually start again… So I think that everybody should try and keep a little space in their house where they can go and create.
“I like in my work to show people what it is that I find really wonderful about something. I like details, the little things, the small decorations of life.”
“I thought I discovered Ranks and Autre. When I was about ten or eleven, in the morning at eleven o'clock, there was a programme called American Forces Network. and I used to listen to records all by myself, almost hugging the wireless. And there was the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and on it it said With vocal refrain. And that vocal refrain was Frank Sinatra, and I swear that I swooned when I first heard him sing.”
“I would rather be at my desk than anything except at the table eating or in the garden.”
“The principal, who didn't think much of my work, was quite surprised. He said even the Royal College makes mistakes occasionally.”
“Never do anything just because you think it'll sell. Do what you like and what you would buy. That is actually my words of wisdom.”