Eighty bits of history from a desert island ..........

How we encounter history will be as varied as the events and people who tumble from the page.

Old school history

When I was growing up the past was packaged up by “professional historians” and delivered in hefty scholarly tones, dry as dust textbooks and the occasional TV documentary.

Added to which there were some wonderful children's histories and  always the less than accurate accounts from comics and novels.

I still remember the series of television lectures by the historian A.J.P. Taylor, delivered without reference to a picture, footage from a newsreel or that now customary practice of repeating what was said earlier, as if ten minutes into the broadcast the viewer needs to be reminded of what had been said ten minutes earlier.

These TV lectures were a masterpiece in the art of talking history and Mr. Taylor always ended his piece on time.  There were apparently no over runs, no recourse to redoing a section and no hesitation.  Just one historian, one event and the story.

Of course history is more than the opinion of historians who will have wandered over heaps of documents, mined a shedload of memories and weighed them all in the balance.

It is the things we all use, experience and pass judgement on, whether it be a picture postcard from the early 20th century, letters from a long dead maiden aunt or our own family tree.

All of which is an introduction to The Definitive Desert Island Discs compiled by Ian Gittins which consists of 80 conversations with a mix of people who talk about their lives and the eight pieces of music they would choose to share the solitude of a desert island.

A dippy into book

It is a well-loved format dating back to 1942 and can now boast 3,000 episodes hosted by 5 presenters.

The book offers up 80 guests starting in 1942 and running through to 2022. Each has a transcript of the conversation and the eight “discs”, along with a book and a luxury the castaway couldn’t do without.

And with a nod to our cultural past, they will be given a copy of the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare, although today instead of the bible guests may be offered an alternative.

The Definitive Desert Island Discs, was a Christmas present and is what I call a dippy into book, which is perfect for a quiet moment when you can select a few of the contributors, marvel at their lives and choices and go back on another day.

A 1940's "disc"

I couldn’t at first decide whether to truly dip in, start at the beginning or work backwards.

As it is I have chosen to start at the start, with Captain A.E. Dingle who was a writer and a genuine real-life castaway having been shipwrecked five times and followed this up with the comedian Arthur Askey.

I have to admit I had never heard of the shipwrecked captain, but I grew up with Arthur Askey, who was a mainstay of comedy programmes on the wireless and the telly.

My late teenage self-became quite sniffy of Arthur Askey, but reading the resume of his conversation made me revisit some of his radio broadcasts and I was hooked.

He  forged his career in the music halls before starting in the BBC’s first radio comedy series Band Wagon in 1938, went on to star in a host of other shows before making his way on to the telly, and during the war years entertained the troops.  

What I hadn’t known was that prior to show business he had been a clerk for 8 years in the Liverpool Education Office, commenting that he was still trying to get his pension contributions back.

And in the course of the interview, he threw in some fascinating asides about his early life and that is part of the magic of the book, because its about real people describing their lives in real time, with all the ups and downs.

That Christmas selection, 2023

Put the 80 together along with their choice of music much of which reflects the period the broadcast was made, and you have a history, which is pretty much where we came in.

Leaving me just to say for those who want to listen, lots of the shows are available by following the link.*

Later I will return to the other history books I got for Christmas.**

Pictures; drawings  by J.C.B. Knight, from People in History, R.J. Unstead, Volume one, 1955, the records of Vera Lynn, 2020, from the collection of David Harrop

*Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr

**Pax, Tom Holland, Northerners, Brian Groom, The Definitive Desert Island Discs, Ian Gittins and the Lost Rivers of Manchester, Geoffrey Ashworth