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Season 1 Episodes

Charles Adrian hosts a programme of children’s stories (the first pages of) including the oldest book in his library. The music is gentle, the stories relaxing… what more could you want from a winter podcast? Put the fire on, slip your arms into the snuggie and bed down for half an hour of magic.

M. A. Titmarsh, as some of you will know (but Charles Adrian did not) is a pseudonym used by William Makepeace Thackeray for his Christmas stories.

This episode was recorded at the Wilton Way Café for London Fields Radio.

This episode has been edited to remove music that is no longer covered by licence for this podcast.

A transcript of this episode is below.

Episode released: 27th November, 2012.

Book listing:

Der Zauberfisch by Maria Francesca Gagliardi and Štĕpan Zavřel

The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The Little Grey Men by B.B.

The Rose And The Ring by M. A. Titmarsh

Links:

Charles Adrian

Episode transcript:

Jingle
You're listening... you're listening to London Fields Radio.

Charles Adrian
Hello and welcome to the 13th edition of Page One. This is London Fields Radio broadcasting - or recording - from the Wilton Way Cafe in Hackney. I'm Charles Adrian. Once again, it's just you and me this week. With that in mind and... and because this goes up on or around the 27th of November, which is when the Spice Girls musical is opening, for those of you didn't know, here's... here's 2 Become 1 from the Spice Girls.

Music
[2 Become 1 by the Spice Girls]

Charles Adrian
My first book this week is a children's book. It's written in German. It seems to have one Italian and possibly one Czech author and I bought it in Japan. It's called Der Zauberfisch. The story's, to be honest, pretty rubbish. It's about this picture of a goldfish in a museum and the goldfish comes alive and goes into the sea and has all sorts of adventures with lots of other fish and... and then it decides in the end that, absolutely, it would much rather be in the museum. It's really not... So it's not special for the story at all. The pictures, though, are lovely. And I hope I'm going to be able to upload at least one picture to somewhere where you who are listening will be able to see it.

I... I love the sound of German. That's one of the reasons that I've decided to read it today. I hope... I hope my accent is... is not too bad, any German speaking listeners who are listening.

This is Der Zauberfisch by Maria Francesca Gagliardi and Štěpán Zavřel:

Es stand einmal einer große Stadt am Ufer der Meeres und die [sic] steht noch heute da. Langsam ziehen die Schiffe an ihr vorüber. Sie ziehen vorbei an ihren Häusern, an ihren Palästen, an ihren Gärten und auch an dem großen Museum der Stadt, in dem viele Bilder berühmter Maler hängen.

In diesem Museum gibt es ein Bild, das alle Kinder besonders gernhaben. Darauf sieht man einen Goldenen Zauberfisch, der schön und unbeweglich auf blauem Grunde steht. Wenn die Kinder ins Museum kommen, bleiben sie jedesmal vor diesem Bild stehen.

And so we've got a picture of ships coming past the... the factories and we've got a picture of some very happy looking children looking at the golden fish. And that's... and that's the first page.

I'm now going to... to play Weird Fishes/Arpeggi by Radiohead. Because I can hardly not.

Music
[Weird Fishes/Arpeggi by Radiohead]

Charles Adrian
My second book today is The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame, which I think some of you will know.

I'm cheating here because this really isn't a second hand book but it was given to me on my first birthday by... by my grandparents. I'm not sure whether it was my maternal or my paternal grandparents but I think it was... I think it was my father's parents. They've just written: “Adrian, G & G. Birthday, October 1980.” So this... I mean, that would make it special even if I didn't love the book, which I do.

It's a hardback. It was published in 1979 - so the year of my birth. It cost £2.75, which must have been a small fortune in those days, and is illustrated by the magnificent E. H. Shepard, who understood Winnie the Pooh so well - and he... he draws some beautiful, beautiful illustrations for the Wind In The Willows.

Here goes, here's the... here's the first page:

I

The River Bank

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said, “Bother!” and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, “Up we go! Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight and...

And the rest of the book begins.

Meanwhile, here's a song for a rat.

Music
[A Lucky Guy by Rickie Lee Jones]

Jingle
London Fields Radio... it's London Fields Radio.

Charles Adrian
I'm... I'm going to stay with the children's theme today. And now I'm going to read from a book which is by B.B., otherwise known as D. J. Watkins-Pitchford. Who would give up a name like that? Extraordinary.

When I was very young at school - I was in some kind of preparatory or junior or kindergarten-type class - I remember being read something by B.B. I have no idea what it was. This... This book here is called The Little Grey Men and I bought it round the corner from Kings Cross Station, not far from The Poor School. And, well, I was just... I was just pleased to be given a reintroduction to... to B.B.

Here's... So here's the first page. This is... This is, in fact, the introduction:

This is a story about the last gnomes in Britain. They are honest-to-goodness gnomes, none of your baby, fairy-book tinsel stuff, and they live by hunting and fishing, like the animals and birds, which is only proper and right. This story concerns their exploration of the Folly brook, on whose banks they dwell, and of their search for Cloudberry, their long-lost brother, who years ago went up the Folly and never returned.
You may not believe in the Little People, but that is because most fairy books portray miniature men and women with ridiculous tinsel wings, doing all sorts of impossible things with flowers and cobwebs. That sort of make-believe is all right for some people, but it won't do for you and me.
If you don't believe in the Little People, I would ask you to make yourself as small as possible (which is horribly difficult) and keep very quiet (which is more difficult still) and watch and wait by the streams and in the woods, as I have done. And suddenly you will understand that the birds and wild animals are the Little People! Such a simple fact, and yet we never realised it!
There are water sprites, such as wagtails and kingfishers, reed warblers, buntings, water-voles, and water-shrews. And there are goblins! Watch the wood mice among the leaves, the hedgehog hunting at twilight, the squirrels swinging among the trees. There are goblins with wings, goblins of the night, such as nightjars and owls, which are rather frightening. And in the larger, wilder woods are trolls, the lumbering cautious badgers, who walk by night and are seen by few mortals.

Now, time for some more music, I think. I'm going to play you The Last Rose Of Summer. This is by one of my favourite musicians. This is by Nina Simone.

Music
[The Last Rose Of Summer by Nina Simone]

Charles Adrian
The book that I'm finishing with today is a book that I... I think it was passed to me by my father. It's falling apart. It's taped together in places. It was apparently published in 1855. The frontispiece describes it as the second edition. Somebody's also written their name in blue ink here on the frontispiece but it's unfortunately illegible. It's described as: “A fireside pantomime for great and small children”. So I definitely fall within the remit.

This is The Rose And The Ring by M. A. Titmarsh, who is apparently the author of The Kickleburys On The Rhine and Mrs. Perkins's Ball, etc.

PRELUDE.

It happened that the undersigned spent the last Christmas season in a foreign city where there were many English children.

In that city, if you wanted to give a child's party, you could not even get a magic-lantern or buy Twelfth-Night characters - those funny painted pictures of the King, the Queen, the Lover, the Lady, the Dandy, the Captain, and so on - with which our young ones are wont to recreate themselves at this festive time.

My friend Miss Bunch, who was governess of a large family that lived in the Piano Nobile of the house inhabited by myself and my young charges (it was the Palazzo Poniatowski at Rome, and Messrs. Spillmann, two of the best pastrycooks in Christendom, have their shop on the ground floor): Miss Bunch, I say, begged me to draw a set of Twelfth-Night characters for the amusement of our young people.

She is a lady of great fancy and droll imagination, and having looked at the characters, she and I composed a history about...

So I suspect that the history that they composed is The Rose And The Ring. I don't know if it's still in print - I haven't done very much research - but, if it is, look for it and... and read it.

And now to finish - just because - I'm going to play Cripple And The Starfish by another of my favourite musicians. This is Antony and the Johnsons.

So thank you for listening. Until next time! I've been Charles Adrian. This is... This is Page One on London Fields Radio broadcasting from the Wilton Way Cafe.

Music
[Cripple And The Starfish by Antony And The Johnsons]

[Initial transcription by https://otter.ai]