Category: Autobiography & Biography

Posts on the rosemarysutcliff.com weblog about the life and thoughts of Rosemary Sutcliff, including what she wrote and said about writing and her own craft.

Choices of Rosemary Sutcliff on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio in 1983

Anthony Lawton3 Comments

As posted here in the last couple of weeks, Rosemary Sutcliff talked about her life and work and chose eight records to take to the mythical BBC Radio desert island on October  1st, 1983. Interviewed by Roy Plomley, she said she chose her music just because she loved it. The full list of her choices is:

Record 1: Dvorak’s New World Symphony, played by the London Symphony Orchestra,  by Istvan Kertesz.

Record 2: “Eternal father strong to save” – Hymn.

Record 3: L’Apres-midi d’une Faune by Debussy. Royal Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Beecham.

Record 4: “We’ll Gather Lilacs” sung by Anne Ziegler & Webster Booth.

Record 5: “The Flowers of the Forest” played by the pipes & drums of the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards.

Record 6: Excerpt from “Under Milk Wood”. Polly Garter’s song.

Record 7: “The Lark Ascending” by Vaughan Williams. The Boyd Kneale Orchestra.  With Frederick Grinker.

Record 8: “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Bach. Choir of King’s college, Cambridge, conducted by David Willcocks.

One record: The Lark ascending

One Luxury: Roy Plomley refuses her her request to take her beloved dogs. She chooses flowers, delivered daily by bottle.

One book: “Kim” by Rudyard Kipling.

Rosemary Sutcliff BBC Radio Desert Island Discs Record Choice Seven, 1983

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Children’s author and historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff chose  ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams as her seventh record on Desert Island Discs in 1983. (Played by The Boyd Kneale Orchestra with Frederick Grinker).

Rosemary Sutcliff’s sixth record on BBC Radio Desert Island Discs in 1983

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Rosemary Sutcliff’s sixth record choice on the mythical island of BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs in 1983 was an excerpt from Under Milk Wood by  Dylan Thomas: Polly Garter’s song. The wonderful opening lines of the whole piece – which have confounded the wordpress spell-checker:

To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea.

Bagpipes Lament “The Flowers of the Forest” Record Five of Rosemary Sutcliff’s Desert Island Discs

Anthony Lawton4 Comments

On Desert Island Discs in 1983 Rosemary Sutcliff’s fifth choice  was a military lament, and bagpipes music. The bagpipes were her favourite instrument. She chose a version of  “The Flowers of the Forest” played by the pipes & drums of the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards, perhaps reflecting also her love of all things military. This is the traditional lament for the fallen (people killed) in forces of the British Commonwealth.

Rosemary Sutcliff, Tom Lehrer, The Pope and The Vatican Rag

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Tom Lehrer did not figure in Rosemary Sutcliff’s Desert Island Discs choices; but both she and my mother – they were great friends –  loved the satirical songs of Tom Lehrer. And the visit of the Pope to the UK reminds me of a Lehrer song The Vatican Rag which they would undoubtedly have known from record and then also from watching in the 1970s Marty Feldman’s take on the song.Read More »