Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Creator of the Adrian Mole series, charting the life of a teenage boy through his diaries.
On the island
Eight records
No particular reason for choosing that, apart from liking the philosophy. I like the philosophy of thinking. Well, a hundred years from today it'll all be the same.
My sister Barbara sings this at family parties, and it doesn't matter how rowdy the party is. Or what drunken arguments may be taking place. This brings everybody to complete silence.
This reminds me of poverty. It reminds me of baked potatoes in the oven. I'm being cold. Um when I left home I left all the home comforts behind me.
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
This reminds me of a time when things were getting better, I'd got three part-time jobs, the children were okay at school. And I bought this uh LP at the Co op for a pound, and I'd put it on and I it cheered me up. I used to stomp around my living room with the curtains closed in the afternoon.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (first movement)Favourite
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Mullova, Seiji Ozawa
This is the music I play to myself, when I'm working through the night, I often work through the night. If I have a piece that needs intense concentration, like a screenplay or a film treatment. You need to concentrate. It's like playing a terrible game of chess with yourself. And um I play this in the background. I just adore it. I think it's exquisite.
Um I can't tell you the exact reason for this. But it I played this over and over again during a time when I was very, very sad and missed somebody and uh at the end of the time I was reconciled, but it reminds me of that very sad time.
This reminds me of a long car journey from southern Spain to the ferry in France. And my very patient husband let me play this over and over again until I was word perfect. And then he had to put up with me singing it.
And ever since I heard this record I've just adored it. And again, it reflects something I'm very fond of, which is my house, my home. I've always, always wanted to make a nest where people are comfortable.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:58Was Adrian Mole, in the beginning, a male version of you at thirteen and three quarters?
Well, I don't know where you found this out because I've only recently started to uh tell the truth about this. Yes, we we do have a lot in common. Certainly when I was Adrian Moll's age, thirteen and three quarters, I was very pretentious. I used to walk around with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy under my arm, with the spines showing. to a very indifferent public, um, to prove to the world that I could read and I like the Russians and so on.
Presenter asks
1:28Why did you write Adrian as a boy rather than a girl?
To to keep a certain amount of distance. It's always more interesting, I think, if you uh distance yourself from your characters. And also boys are far more. Um I mean it's easier to laugh at a boy or a man because they have more to hide. They tend to hide their feelings. And the whole point about the diaries is that they're secret, they're not meant to be read. I suppose it i it's true, isn't it, that the the awkwardness of of a young boy going through puberty is is perhaps funny. I I mean Adrian constantly is preoccupied with the size of his penis or the dirty magazine under his mattress and so on. I mean it's just it's just a more comic, uh more fertile ground, isn't it?
Presenter asks
3:14The keepsakes
The book
Kingsley Amis
I think I'll go for a good laugh, a good cattle. King's Yame is a good thing. I'll go for Ki Lucky Jim, yeah.
The luxury
A swimming pool full of cold champagne
I would restrict myself to two glasses, but I would need to have something to get me through the night and get me through the mosquitoes.
How much do you relish the idea of escaping from everybody, including Adrian Mole, and going to a desert island? Does it appeal?
No, because I know what the reality of a desert island is. I speak as somebody who is tormented with mosquitoes and insect bites. I'm actually allergic to them, very badly allergic. And I note it's like to have sand constantly in your undergarments. Very uncomfortable. I know the sea. People think the sea is going to be very attractive. They're going to take a dip in the sea. The sea is going to be full of creepy crawlers. And uh it's very salty. And it's going to be Extremely difficult to survive on a desert island. I've not romantic at all about it.
Presenter asks
11:40Were you a very serious minded child, or could you make people laugh too?
I think I was a very serious child. I I did take things very seriously. But I had a marvellous playing life. I used to roam the countryside with a big gang of children, boys and girls, and we had the great fortune to be able to play on a deserted um in a deserted manor house in their grounds. They've built a borstel on the grounds now, so it's all gone. But um No, I did think in sentences. I did think. a form of words which I I recognise wasn't shared by the other children I played with. And occasionally I used to say things to them and they used to laugh and so I learned to keep my mouth shut.
Presenter asks
17:44When was the first time that you actually submitted something formally to any kind of publisher?
I never ever did that. I um rejected myself for twenty years, and it was only my second husband who suggested that I write I join a writers' group. I confessed to him one night that I was a writer.
Presenter asks
26:40Do you have a single burning literary ambition? What kind of work would you like to be remembered for?
I suppose in the knowledge that you're never going to escape the mole are you? No, I'd be I'd be quite happy to be remembered for mole. Um I just want to get better as a writer. I it's a terrible thing to say you have no professional ambition. But I've actually Actually, done most of the things I've wanted to do. I've had plays on the royal court. You know, I've written articles and screenplays that are going to be made. I've done more than I ever, ever dreamed of doing. So All I can say is that I want to get better.
“To to keep a certain amount of distance. It's always more interesting, I think, if you uh distance yourself from your characters. And also boys are far more. Um I mean it's easier to laugh at a boy or a man because they have more to hide. They tend to hide their feelings.”
“I learned to read with the William books. I was eight before I could read. I didn't learn to read at school. It was quite late, actually. Very late. I had a very cruel teacher. And if you got a word wrong, she used to smack your legs very hard. And I was frightened of her, and so were lots of kids in the class. And um my brain froze when I was in her presence, and I was away from school with mumps, and my mother went to a rummage sale and bought me a pile of William books. And I was very curious about the illustrations and wanted to know what the words underneath said. And she started to teach me very, very quickly I picked up on the words and miraculously I mean it is a miracle learning to read. I could read. From then on, I don't think I've ever spent a day without reading.”
“Well, I I um It never actually crossed my mind to send any of my stuff away. I was still waiting to be a good writer. And to a certain extent I'm still waiting now. I mean I still Th that's what I hope for myself.”
“Um, something I value more than anything else, which is my independence and my freedom. I've always been a terrible employee. I cannot bear people telling me what to do, especially if I don't think what they're asking is fair.”
“Oh, gosh, yes. I mean, I've described myself as a cheerful manic depressive, and I think that's not a bad description. I think that encapsulates me quite well.”
“Yes, I think it is it is tragic. I mean the most tragic thing of all is that Mole thinks he's a genius. And he thinks he's uh a misunderstood genius and that the pu the world of publishing has not yet recognized this wonderful talent he has for writing. In fact, his um epic poem, The Tadpole, uh has not been published. And his novel Lo the Flat Hills of My Homeland. um which is an experimental novel, lacking vowels. Has yet to be published.”