Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Self-taught gardener and garden designer, internationally renowned for creating beautiful gardens including her own at Barnsley House, and author of 14 books.
On the island
Eight records
the reason why I've chosen this is because my father was in the Royal Marines. And when I was sixth and seven and eight, he was brigade major at the depot at Chatham in Kent. and I can remember very vividly listening to the band of the Royal Marines practising as they walked up and down the parade ground. And it's had this extraordinary kind of effect on me, because every time I now hear a military band I feel they're playing for me.
Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64, No. 1
I've chosen this because when I was at school I was lucky enough to have some really good friends at my former. They were all rather musical, and I was they also ran. The other girls were allowed to play preludes and mazurkas and all the rest, and I was allowed to play the warses'cause they were easier. but they have always remained with me, and I know them by heart. And I've loved them. And I have chosen this recording because it is played by William Hard, who is a neighbour, and he's the same age as my family. and he is a very talented concert pianist.
one became very conscious of the coal porters and Ivanovellos and Ferdistars of life, you know how girls when they're fifteen and sixteen talk about all these things. And I couldn't help but choose night and day, because this is one of the tunes that I actually managed to master and could play on the piano myself.
When the girls and the chaps, the boys, were at home, one of the evening amusements was to we got a nice large drawing room with um good boards and rugs, and it was the great thing of the evening was to pull the rugs back. and turn the music on and I asked Davina which was one of the records she remembered, and she said the dance of the sugarplum fairy. So this is why I've chosen that, because I think it's really It's really tuneful. And you could dance to it.
Drums and Pipes of the First Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders
The next record I've chosen is one of the records of the Gay Gordons. And I think kind of looking back, a lot of these tunes that I've chosen Are motion ones, aren't they? You can either dance to them, or with a band of the Royal Marines you can march to them. And it would be so nice on the desert island to be able to get up and to dance the gay Gordons.
Papillons, Op. 2Favourite
My eldest son I shouldn't say my David's been dead for ten years, and I'm beginning to say my our eldest son, Charles. who was born in nineteen forty. played this piece. at the Eton School Conson. And I can remember, as though it was yesterday, Charles walking up to this large piano on the platform at Eton, the concert hall. He had his music in his hands. And then instead of putting the music in front of him, he actually put it on the chair and sat on it. which immediately made me think Heavens Is she going to forget it halfway through? Anyway, he didn't forget it, and he played beautifully. David and I were very proud of him.
my seventh record is one of Elton's, and I've chosen Candle in the Wind. which he wrote when Marilyn Munro had died. And I have also chosen it to be played by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Because he himself is playing and he himself is singing, and you've got Elton as he is. And I think that he Not only is he a wonderful singer, but he is a genius. I believe that whatever he had turned his hand to he would have surfaced to the very top, which he has done. And I'm terribly pleased and happy to be associated with him. It's lovely for me.
It's church music. And as I've said, there are several people in Gloucestershire who have made a great contribution to music. And there's twelve, thirteen-year-old boy called Christopher Griffiths. And I went and listened to him in Sances to church, I suppose, sometime last year, singing O for the wings, for the wings of the dove. Sadly, they didn't do A really good recording of him. I think I might have chosen this anyway, even if I hadn't heard Christopher singing it. Because it's rather a nice thought, isn't it, if you're on your desert island. You can you suddenly think to yourself, Oh gosh, what's happening the other side of the island? If only I had the wings of a dove, I'd be able to fly over there and see.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:28Do you have difficulty remembering all those Latin names?
No, I think so, that I can remember the names all right. But I'm not I've never had I should have studied botany at university rather than what I did, and then I would know far more about horticulture. And I think that there are so many people these days who are really learned about it.
Presenter asks
1:30Do you feel intimidated by people who are learned about horticulture?
No, oddly enough, I don't feel intimidated by them, because I know perfectly well that I have learnt a different way. I've learnt by the feel of the soil and knowing when seeds should be sown, and I know when you should take cuttings. Not because I've been taught it, but because I've learnt it from the feel with my hands, and I've done it for so long.
Presenter asks
2:52Do you sometimes kick yourself that you didn't get down to gardening earlier?
No, I don't think I do, because every phase in my life has been important to me. I got married when I was twenty my husband, David, was twenty five, twenty six and the most important thing to me then was caring for him, and the war was starting, and bringing up four children. And then when the children grew older and they went off to school, then I had time to learn more about the garden. And I'm so lucky because not only did I marry this wonderful man who I adored, but also We had this marvellous house, Barnesdale House. And if you've got a wonderful house, you should honour it by giving it a good garden.
The keepsakes
The book
Sir Roy Strong
I want to take something that I will be able to look at every day, and I have decided that I will take Sir Roy Strong's book called A Celebration of Gardens.
The luxury
An endless supply of waterproof pens and paper, and a nice folder to put them in
So that it didn't get sand in it or get blown away in the wind or anything like that.
Presenter asks
10:27What did you learn from your economics tutor, Hugh Gaitskell?
Well, he was an extremely good teacher. And I think through him I decided that I wasn't going to go on. I did maths for one year. and then decided that I really was much more interested in history and and social history. And so I did economics, which he taught me, and, as I say, social history. … I can remember he came to lunch. I remember it very well. He thought it was better to get married, and he was quite right. I'm deeply grateful to him for ever.
Presenter asks
22:21How much did your husband's death set you back professionally?
I just kind of felt Shattered by it all. And I didn't write another book for a year. He somehow knocks you on the head over in any form of creativity. But I knew I had to go on. You know, you had to kind of brace yourself and say, Get on with it. … Yes, because you can become so easily immersed, and I can remember walking round the garden only too well. very soon after David died, and thinking that he'd never looked more beautiful, and I was hoping that he hadn't gone so far away that he wasn't going to be able to enjoy it. I really did.
“I'm really frightfully stupid about plants, but I do have a feel for what they will look like.”
“I've learnt by the feel of the soil and knowing when seeds should be sown, and I know when you should take cuttings. Not because I've been taught it, but because I've learnt it from the feel with my hands, and I've done it for so long.”
“If you've got a wonderful house, you should honour it by giving it a good garden.”
“I had changed, he had changed. And I think this is where a lot of marriages came unstuck.”
“I can remember walking round the garden only too well. very soon after David died, and thinking that he'd never looked more beautiful, and I was hoping that he hadn't gone so far away that he wasn't going to be able to enjoy it.”
“He is about the most energetic person that I possibly know.”