Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Author, columnist and broadcaster; financial editor, former editor of Punch, and founder of The Money Programme.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral': IV. Ode to JoyFavourite
Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Abbado
It's got everything, you know, lots of people, cheerfulness, and of course power. And it's also the European anthem, and I consider myself to be very much a European.
I love Italy and had a house there for 20 years, as I said, and adore it. I particularly like the cheerfulness of Neapolitan songs. And I'm very, very fond of Luciano Pavarotti.
And when I got there, I found them cheerful, amusing, good fun, and they were human after all. And it always seemed to me that the one thing that sums it all up is the Russian army choir singing Kalinka.
It's a song that I love. Uh And it fits me as well. As a hand in a cloud, yes it does, yes it does.
The Magic Flute, K. 620: 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen'
I particularly like the Papagueno song, because it's so cheerful, and I like cheerful music.
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit
It has to be another piece of Italian music, that lovely passage from Capricia Italiene that I always wanted to hum because it reminds me very much of my marvellous days in my Italian island Lippere.
Carmina Burana: 'Floret silva'
Well, uh the one I play a lot in in the Bahamas is uh and I first heard it in a record shop in New York, and I absolutely love it.
Nabucco: 'Va, pensiero' (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves)
Halle Choir and Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes
Well, this is a I as you notice, I've chosen nothing but cheerful music so far, but this is one that I don't always get to me. I find it deeply emotional, and it's one I enjoy very much
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:03Could you adapt to this simple life on a desert island?
Oh, I think so. I've had a home on an island, in fact, two islands, for a good many years. … But yes, of course I could.
Presenter asks
4:59What kind of a childhood was it [in Germany during the war]?
Yes, very hard. And of course it it uh has affected um me all my life. You see death at a at a very early age, ten, eleven years old, uh death and destruction are all around you, great hunger and poverty and a very grim childhood. I didn't see my parents for a good many years during the war years and and it's still, you know, it left a deep mark on me and it's still there.
Presenter asks
9:01Did you have any ambition when you were a sixteen-year-old boy in England?
Always wanted to be a writer. Didn't always want to be a journalist and and uh never had any doubts about that. Uh at school it was my writing was my best subject. Um always had I suppose uh an imagination and I'm blessed with a lot of energy which … is the greatest gift uh I've got.
The keepsakes
The book
A Dictionary of the English Language
Samuel Johnson
I think the book I would choose would be Dr. Samuel Johnson's dictionary because it's marvellously witty and inspiring. It's full of dotty definitions, and I think that would keep me going for quite a while.
Presenter asks
Why did you start as a financial journalist?
I applied uh tried desperately to get into journalism. … it just so happened that the one that uh that I could get a foot in the door in was uh a paper called the Stock Exchange Gazette. And that's how I got into financial journalism.
Presenter asks
15:22What exactly do you mean by wanting to 'conserve rich people'?
Well I think they're a luxury we can afford as a country. The rich have built all a lot of the beautiful things we have in this country. … I think the rich people are, as I say, luxury we ought to be able to afford. And I wanted to conserve them.
Presenter asks
27:47Is the urge to get away from it all very strong in you?
Yes, and I do get away. Two months of the year, I'm on a small island. I travel the rest of the time. … But it is very important for me to get away.
“I think one of the main things results is that I have ever since been grateful for the good things that have happened to me. I don't take them for granted. And I really don't have much time for people to complain about, particularly young people who complain about life today, because as far as I'm concerned, they've never had it so good because they have not had to go through the horrifying experience of war.”
“To me making money and I've made a bit has always been a means to an end and first and foremost money buys freedom. It buys me the freedom to choose what I want to do rather than what I have to do.”
“I think the outstanding characteristic of rich people is their concentration and persistence. That's how you build a business. But it's certainly hard work. I mean, let nobody think that the money just lies there on the streets.”