Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Prolific author of over 300 books under multiple pseudonyms, including children's books, novels, biographies and crime reporting.
On the island
Eight records
(Track not explicitly identified in transcript excerpt; omitted as no disc selections appear in the provided text.)
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:12Is your writing talent in any way hereditary?
Yes, I'm the fourth generation. We all wrote. More than as a child, almost in my cradle. Yes, I published my first book at seven.
Presenter asks
0:32What did you do as soon as you left school?
I never did a day's lessons in my life. I never went to school at all. I just read.
Presenter asks
1:05How many books have you written?
Well, I don't really know. I write under other names. You see five other names. I've written over three hundred. I think about three twenty. I'm not sure.
Presenter asks
1:22How did you get into journalism?
Oh, I began as a reporter. You see, after I'd finished children's books, I had to turn to music. And then when I became a widow, my first husband objected to my writing. He thought it was rather vulgar. And then I turned to Fleet Street and I went in as a reporter.
Presenter asks
1:42What were your most interesting assignments in those days?
Well, in those days I just took anything that came, and then I became very interested in murder. I did two years at the old bailey. And I found it absorbingly interesting. I'd read law to my first husband who was a barrister, and I do find murder to this day wildly interesting.
Presenter asks
2:20You've written biographies — of whom in particular?
Well, I've just published the Romance of Charles Dickens, which was a great delight to me to write, 'cause I am a keen admirer of his. I published the biography of George Edwards and of Professor Lowe.
“Yes, I'm the fourth generation. We all wrote. More than as a child, almost in my cradle. Yes, I published my first book at seven.”
“I never did a day's lessons in my life. I never went to school at all. I just read.”
“My father thought I'd look wonderful in a blue sash on a platform playing the violin. Thank God that never came off.”
“I do find murder to this day wildly interesting.”
“I think it's a lot of it just the gipsy in me, because colour appeals to me enormously. I love colour.”