Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Agony aunt who wrote Woman magazine's problem page for 38 years as Evelyn Holme, answering readers' problems from acne to abusive husbands.
On the island
Eight records
I was a great fan of Eileen Fowler. And I did exercises to her records for years.
Won't You Buy My Sweet Blooming Lavender?
a memory of my old gran, who was born in eighteen sixty five. And I remember her singing this to me in her cracked old cockney voice
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, first movement
English Chamber Orchestra, directed by Raymond Leppard
this is a serious one. And actually, of course, I could have quite easily chosen Bach, Mozart and Beethoven for the whole lot
Renata Tebaldi, with Richard Bonynge
My husband during the war was stationed in a little Italian village for almost a year, a village called Yaci, and it was the birthplace of an Italian composer called Pergolese. And we became awfully fond of the things that Piergolese had written, among them some lovely little Italian love songs
The Shepherd on the Rock (Der Hirt auf dem Felsen)
Elly Ameling, with Guy Deplus (clarinet) and Irwin Gage (piano)
this is a testimony of friendship. My husband and a great friend of his used to sit and listen to records, and when I became a friend of both of them, I was allowed to listen to the records too. And this is one that is a celebration of friendship.
Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass
I must have a a good hearty male voice. And in my first job, next door to the house in Buckingham Street where I lived, lived Paul Robeson. And I actually saw him walking up and down like an ordinary human being. And he was a splendid looking person. And his voice is magnificent.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:58How has all that emotion and anxiety, albeit second hand, affected you and your life over the years?
I think very largely to Although I'm I am emotional to distrust emotion, because what you do In an emotion what you do in anger, or indeed what you do in grief, or what you do when overwhelmed with fright, are very unreliable actions. I think what I've learnt about emotion is that you were given a brain in order to think about your feelings. And it's quite a difficult process. But that's what I've learned about emotion, and that's the things that people have done emotionally have very often been things that they've bitterly regretted afterwards.
Presenter asks
2:25How are you going to cope on this desert island? Has all of this vicarious living taught you to find peace with yourself? Will you be all right alone?
Oh yes, I'm all right alone. Largely because I don't feel particularly alone. I mean, I notice that scientists have just realized what most of us have all known forever, and that is that the world is a living entity. And I mean, even if I didn't have any sort of religious faith, I would feel I was a part of a living world. Which doesn't make me alone.
Presenter asks
10:35Why did you want to be a journalist?
The keepsakes
The book
The biggest atlas in the world
unspecified
because I can read maps like a book, and I want it to be an atlas with all the routes and the roads marked on it, of every country and continent in the world.
The luxury
a little rose bush (Ina Harkness)
my greatest pleasure has been planting a few things, and they actually flowered for me... Roses, you can't beat a rose, so something like an Ina Harkness with a nice smell, I'll take that.
Well, because I'd written ever since I could hold a pen or pencil. I had written in exercise books, I'd written stories, and I'd written Articles.
Presenter asks
19:07What were the most common problems that you listened to during the war years?
Well, I think they were problems arising a very you see, sixty percent of the problems were always marital problems. In the war years they were problems of separation. But very often still in the war years there were problems of finance, of what to do about children, of homes, not having them and Perhaps not being able to cope with the home you've got. But hasty marriages, illegitimacy? Yes, oh lots of hasty marriages, lots of illegitimacy.
Presenter asks
24:31What do you think of the developments like abortion on demand, easy birth control, acceptance of cohabitation and children outside marriage? Do you approve?
Well, it's not really a question of approving. These are things that have happened because of various discoveries. I mean, they discovered a a birth control pill instead of using equipment. They've Made divorce easier because the old methods of getting a divorce were plainly ridiculous. I mean, when you had to sort of fake, you know, a night in Brighton to sort of prove that you really disliked each other intensely. What I think I've learned as I've grown older is that people do find marriage very difficult. It's something that that demands a tremendous effort, and today people aren't prepared. To make quite that much effort because there isn't quite as much at stake.
Presenter asks
27:36But do you feel you've done everything you've got to do here?
No, no, probably not. I mean, that's why I'm probably still here. There is some other thing that I've got to do. I'm I'm annoyed about it, because it would have suited me very well indeed. To die much earlier. I always wanted to die young. It always struck me that to die before you got old and decrepit. Was a gift. And it it I know it sounds a a gruesome sort of thing to say, but I don't mean it, so I am not sorry for anyone who dies. I'm awfully sorry for the people who mourn them, who miss them. That I know about. I know about grief. But I feel that to die is a culmination of of living. It's it's the next thing.
“I think what I've learnt about emotion is that you were given a brain in order to think about your feelings.”
“I felt being a girl was a nasty slur.”
“I've always adored men really. I don't understand them at all. I think they're the most fascinating, peculiar luxury, you know, to have about the place. They're so decorative.”
“I always wanted to die young. It always struck me that to die before you got old and decrepit was a gift.”
“I'm much too interested in food and drink. Yes, I like Oscar Wilde, when in despair I take nothing but food and drink. And as I'm constantly in despair, I mean, I eat and drink far too well.”