Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Bookseller who founded the Waterstones chain, turning bookshops into literary havens.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 (1st movement)
Cyril Smith (piano), Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent (conductor)
he gave me was the Rachmanov piano concerto, Malcolm Sargent conducting Liverpool fill with Cyril Smith, the soloist. And I took it home and my mother was out and we did have a radiogram. And I put the LP on and opened up the French windows into the garden and sat on the steps and looked out into the garden. And then this music just burst out and I just had an absolute, total revelation to me. I just couldn't believe I'd heard something so beautiful. And that got me hooked for life, you know, from Rachmanoff to all through a whole journey for the next 70 years.
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 (coda)
Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (conductor)
I've came to go through to one of my absolutely favourite pieces of music, Superior's Fifth Symphony, by my absolutely favourite conductor, Leonard Bernstein, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. We're going to hear the coder of it at the end. It is a piece made for Bernstein's conducting, very theatrical, very emotional. And he clearly, absolutely loved the piece. It is a sensationally beautiful piece of work.
The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38Favourite
Dame Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), Hallé Orchestra and Chorus, Sir John Barbirolli (conductor)
I wanted Elgar and I've gone to The Dream of Garantius performed by the Hallé Orchestra with Janet Baker. Tell me about Janet Baker. She actually started as a contralto at the bottom, so she moved into being a mezzo in the middle. And it gives her voice, to me, an absolutely unique quality in a mezzo, a very velvety, slightly dark quality. She has the most gorgeous voice.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks (conductor)
I've chosen an anthem, or perhaps more accurately described as a carol. I was at a small college called St Catherine's, and next door was the Great King's, and I used to go quite often to evensong in the King's Chapel, which is one of the most glorious places in the world, to hear the choral music, absolutely sublime. And one day I heard this carol, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, composed by Elizabeth Poston, who worked in BBC here for some time. She was a composer and she was a teacher of music. It is a most beautiful, beautiful piece of music.
Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor (Adagietto)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt (conductor)
The next piece of music is the Mahler Symphony No. 5, C-Sharp Minor, the Adago. The reason I've chosen that is that in 1990, I became director and a trustee of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave me seven incredibly happy years with the orchestra... There had been a concert at Christmastime in 1988... when the London Philharmonic was playing a wonderful concert led by the Mahler Symphony No. 5, conducted by Klaus Tensted... and it was only years later that I found that it was actually a night where they recorded the orchestra live. So we're going to hear it. Klaus Tenstadt and London Philharmonic was an absolutely magical combination. Put Mahler in front of them and you've got something absolutely totally divine.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 28 (Andante)
Itzhak Perlman (violin), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, André Previn (conductor)
This is the Goldmark Violin Concerto, number one. The story behind this was this early 90s, and it was a period of immense personal happiness in my life. I'd met Rosie, and we'd married, and I was so, so happy. And I must, I think, have been visiting the old Bronton Road shop... and I walked in and they were playing something which was absolutely beautiful, and I didn't recognise it, but I just stood there, absolutely transfixed with the beauty of this. And I bought the record and played it and played it and played it. And since then, it's become one of my absolutely favourite movements.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Eric Maschwitz (lyrics) / Manning Sherwin (music)
Most of my adult life has been in London, and I do love London very, very dearly. And I suddenly remembered that lovely song The Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square. And I had heard years ago the wonderful John LeMeasurer sort of talking his way through the song and so absolutely delightfully. I thought, what would be nice of me as I dream of London gazing out into the lovely sea around me on the desert island, and to hear John the Measurer's voice as well. So very English and so lovely.
L'Amer, Chal Trene, so suitable for desert islands. One of the very, very early lessons in Zen Buddhism is you should stand. Before a crystal blue sea, staring out at the horizon. There's a moons of calming yourself. So that's what I'm going to be doing, looking out at the crystal blue sea.
In conversation
Presenter asks
12:10[You describe] being sexually abused by the head teacher, and that is an experience from which many survivors never fully recover. What was the impact on you?
I discussed this all some years ago with a therapist, and I sincerely believe, I don't think I was damaged by it, I probably should have been. And I was extremely ignorant, and I just thought this is what life must be like, you know. But when I first talked to people about this publicly, it was a few years ago, and I did an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, and I talked about it then. And I did it so stupidly, it didn't do me any harm, sort of nonsense, you know. And about a week later, I had a letter forwarded on to me from a reader who read the article, and she was furious with me. Her husband, who'd been at that school after me, and had been through the same experience, and said, how dare you talk about it like that? You know, you ruined my husband's life. He killed himself, and never, never do that again. You may have come out of it, but most of those children will not have come out of it. So I don't know. I don't know. And maybe I had two things going with me at once. I had my father to deal with and this. And it was the father thing which really, really got to me.
Presenter asks
20:56Given your experience with your father, how did you find parenthood?
I find it the most blissful experience you could possibly imagine and I came to the conclusion early on that all you can do with children is love them and give them confidence and then you know let them go. But you know, I didn't give any of them a very secure childhood, but they all know that I'd love them dearly and still do.
The keepsakes
The book
The Oxford Book of English Verse
Arthur Quiller-Couch (editor)
something I do love doing is memorising poetry. So I've chosen actually the Oxford Book of English first, because then I can read lots of poetry which I already know and love and learn a lot of it.
The luxury
There is a photo of Rosie taken way back when we were very first together, and um she she's not realizing the photograph's being taken. It's in somebody's garden. And I carry that photograph with me everywhere, and um I'd like that to survive the shipwreck.
Presenter asks
23:50What do you remember about your thoughts as you left [WH Smith] that day [after being sacked]?
Oh, I marry it was it was the happiest moment of my life. I hated working there, and I'd always wanted to do Waterstones, and here at last I knew somebody'd made the decision for me and fired me.
Presenter asks
29:50You've written: 'Success is not the making of a fortune, but the making of a point.' Who are you proving yourself to?
Me, but of course my father, yeah. And a bit to the world too, you know. I mean, it doesn't sound as if we'd invented anything very original, but we had actually, and my father was underlying it... My sister was a brilliant sister to me, much, much older than me. She sort of mother to me, rather. I mean she was always completely on my side. A little bit was showing her.
Presenter asks
33:07What has looking back on your life taught you?
I think it's taught me that I'm an incredibly lucky man, actually. Obviously there are parts of my private life which have been catastrophic. But I feel very, very blessed. And what it's taught me, I think, is to follow your star. I hated corporate life. I came out of corporate life and created my own corporation. Be yourself. It's when you're not being yourself you're most uncomfortable. Love. That's what I learnt. Love.
“I said to him, go away, go away. We're happy without you here. Go away.”
“I had a terrible stutter from the age of six to thirteen or fourteen. I had to plan a sentence before I started it. And then I lost that suddenly when I went to secondary school, and confidence grew, and the stutter just disappeared extraordinarily. It it it did damage me, but the extraordinary thing is it gave in me such a desire to prove him wrong in his disparagement of me that, you know, I I'm absolutely certain that's where Waterstoat's came from in the end.”
“I stood there one day and I knew what I wanted to do was to create a book-selling empire, I'm sorry I'm so big, so immodest, which was sort of cross between the book club in Crowborough, the small independent, and Heffers, the vast great university bookshop. But I just wanted to put them together in one package. And I didn't want one little bookshop, I wanted hundreds of them.”
“Physically, I couldn't move. I literally couldn't move my hands with enormous effort and couldn't construct a sentence. And I just stopped. It's just your body, brains just stopped on you.”
“I find it the most blissful experience you could possibly imagine and I came to the conclusion early on that all you can do with children is love them and give them confidence and then you know let them go.”