Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Gardener and writer who left medicine to write best-selling gardening books and build a multi-million pound seed company.
On the island
Eight records
It reminds me of that still very, very like a child and no hint of teenage years. And so joyful and kind of free for that.
I was brought up reeling, Scottish dancing in Cayleys. When you're tiny, when you're sort of five or six, there are two really easy reels to learn. One is Strip the Willow, which most people know a little bit, but the other is A Dashing Light Sergeant, which as a twin we always rather love because there'd be we only needed to find one person, but we could then be dancing together.
It was the one that was the anthem of that time [in New York].
This was when I was in Oxford with all my friends and then the years after when I was training to be a doctor, we were all kind of making our way in the world. But we would almost always at weekends come together, make food and have a bit of a party and always dance.
SeptemberFavourite
This is a really good link between that time when we had a young family, and a lot of our friends had young kids, and we often holidayed together. So, we would eat, put the kids to bed, and then we'd put this on.
It just reminds me so much of Adam belting out on the dance floor.
This is a real family tune... last time we were there, my now son-in-law, Liam Ashmore, we were there with these great friends, and there was Liam belching out this song over the whole valley. And it's a very happy picture in my mind.
Daniel Hope, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, André de Ridder
My dad loved Vivaldi... Rosie, our eldest daughter, suggested that she would take us to the Albert Hall to hear Max Richter playing his new version of The Four Seasons. And I just feel it's a brilliant sort of combination with Adam, with the birds, my dad, my children, Petchill.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:45If we were to step into your garden together at Perch Hill, what would we see and smell?
So the roses are just coming to an end, but the sweet peas are following straight on behind them, really. And then on to other lovely, unusual scented things like the scented gladiolus acidanthra, which I really like, which has got a sort of slightly lemon-y fragrance. Anyway, dahlias, dahlias, dahlias.
Presenter asks
3:10How does your metaphor of combining plants like guests at a wedding work?
I was picking a big flower, which I call my bride's. And then I always pick something of the same colour, but a little more delicate, a little more background, which I call my bridesmaid. And she's there to back up the bride and not compete with her... And then, all importantly, I always choose some contrasts, and I call him my gate crasher.
Presenter asks
5:07When you think back to your early childhood, what is it that you remember?
I loved nature almost as soon as I could walk, I think. And I really loved plants and flowers. And of course, when you're down low and you're little, you're at flower height. So I think I bonded with that at a very early stage.
The keepsakes
The book
John Fielding
I want to just start at the beginning and in the A's and get through to the Z's and imagine myself into Crete. And when I'm feeling sad, that will be where I can distract myself.
The luxury
Linen sheets, a comfy bed, and a hot water bottle
I'm a home bird and I want linen sheets and a comfy bed and if I'm allowed it on top, a hottie, which is a hot water bottle, because I feel the cold very badly. ... And the thing about me, I think maybe because of being a twin and obviously being in a womb with someone else, if I have a pet or a child or Adam or anyone and they're near to me, or I'm on my own but I've got a hottie, I'm asleep in five minutes. So you need that presence, that warm presence next to you.
Presenter asks
6:51How did those trips [with your father] actually work?
We would both be spotting flowers as we were driving along... He gradually taught me that I became his eyes on the road, and he could trust me that I could spot a colour difference... As his emphysema got worse, he was not able to get around nearly so much... We would have this botany book by Keebel Martin. He'd show me the picture and then I would go off, sometimes for 20 minutes, sometimes for four hours. And then I wouldn't be able to pick it, but he would just have to trust my word that I had.
Presenter asks
14:43How did you cope [after your father died]?
I kinda left home really at that point. I made my own way and my friends and my twin, who I've remained very close to, became absolutely pivotal to my survival, really.
Presenter asks
19:29How did people react when you told them [you wanted to go to medical school]?
Everyone thought I was bonkers. I remember my mum saying, We don't have any doctors in the family. I don't know what you're thinking. And I was like, Well, it's what I want to do, and maybe it's 'cause I took care of dad and I was brought up by a nanny. I took care of her when she was dying.
“I loved nature almost as soon as I could walk, I think.”
“I love that feeling that somehow it's sort of genetic because my dad never taught me to teach, but I think he taught me a love of learning new things. And then if you know them, there's nothing nicer than handing them on.”
“I am a very oversensitive or perhaps just sensitive person. I definitely am a very emotional person. And so I am looking for soothing things, I think.”
“As Sister Scholastica and Sister Amadeus will tell you, I'm born a rebel.”