Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Cartoonist, writer and illustrator; known for The Guardian's Wendy and George Webber strip and acclaimed children's books and graphic novels.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Sonata No. 32 in G minor, Hob. XVI:44: II. Allegretto
And it's a piece of music I've played for a long time and I love it.
My next piece of music is really to remind me of where I grew up, around Cookhum, and it's a carol, Dolce Ubilo, sung by the Cookhum Church Choir.
Well this is to remind me of Paris and s Georges Brasson's singing Marionette.
it's hot and steamy and noisy, and over it all there's Elvis.
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248: Part I: Chorus: Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage
Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
Bach is one of my favourite composers and I particularly like choral music. And this chorus is a sort of airy, wonderful, light construction with layers of voices. But underneath there's a lovely sort of turbo engine pulsing it along.
Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492: Act III: E Susanna non vien! ... Dove sono i bei momenti
Um well, from chickens to something completely sublime. This is from the Marriage of Figaro. It's the Contessa hoping to regain the love of her husband.
My next piece of music is to remind me of Cornwall, which I've known ever since I was a child, but also over twenty years when when we had a house there where we used to spend an awful lot of time.
Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: I. PréludeFavourite
I simply love it. I can listen to it over and over again.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44What did you mean by [describing yourself as] a visual engineer?
We thought that in future when the census forms were looked at people would know what that was, that we engineered the visual. And it seems a very precise phrase.
Presenter asks
1:40Why are [the aspiring metropolitan middle classes] particularly your interest?
I know my quarry. I would say they were not entirely metropolitan. I think it's anywhere where there's a university, there's a a shopping centre, there are big off-road prams around.
Presenter asks
4:31What sort of man was [your father]?
He was quite a short man. partly because he had uh quite bad curvature of the spine. But that didn't stop him being an immensely good rider. He liked outdoor things. He loved going racing. He loved his cows. He also at one time had an an auction room. And he had a very good eye for things, whether it was a car or a piece of furniture or a painting.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The London Telephone Directory (old four-volume edition)
because it's for people, and I can sit there inventing stories about them and uh cross-referencing.
What about your mother?
My mother my father was quite small. My mother was quite tall and willowy, and she was very pretty. And she had the sort of mind that Bletchley Park would have probably found very useful in the war because she was just Brilliant at codes and crosswords, she could do the times crossword in about ten minutes. She very well read. She used to write very good parodies of famous poems, she was a good dancer, and she looked after all of us.
Presenter asks
11:12How did you look when you arrived in Paris?
I'd got my hair off my face and it flicked up in the style. I might have even had a hairband. I was wearing a nice tweed coat and I had a matching patent leather handbag and pair of shoes.
Presenter asks
19:13How did you find being a stepmother?
I'm delighted to be a be a stepmother. I fi I found it wonderful. But of course it's difficult because there's no kind of manual, unlike all the manuals there are for being a being a parent. I think it requires tact and sort of realizing that you aren't actually a parent.
“As soon as I could hold a pencil I was off. I I loved drawing. It was the thing I liked best. It was the thing that got me out of playing Monopoly later on, which I I couldn't stand.”
“I'm a watcher. I want I want to get things the look of things absolutely right. Sometimes people say, Gosh, he must be an eavesdropper, too. I'd like to say, I'm not. I've never actually eavesdropped. People are kind enough to talk very loudly, particularly now on telephones. If they want to share their their lives with the whole of the bus, I mean, I'm there to luck it up.”
“I use myself as a model for expressions. I work opposite a big mirror, so I can check what hands look like or how eyes go when they're angry and things.”