Find Page One on APPLE PODCASTS or STITCHER.
(Background noise might make this episode a challenging listen.)
Episode image is a detail from the cover of By Night In Chile by Roberto Bolaño, published in 2009 by Vintage; cover © Paul Masson.
Kiran Chauhan, fun-time carpenter and serial enthusiast, joins Charles Adrian on Hampstead Heath for the 33rd Second Hand Book Factory. In this edition, Charles Adrian is a little condescending on the subject of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Kiran tells the story of his discovery of Kings of Convenience. There is also the most beautiful slice of Joni Mitchell.
Lissa, who is mentioned towards the end, is Charles Adrian’s younger sister; his interview with her is Page One 41. And James, whose birthday is the 5th of August, which is the day this episode was first published, is Kiran’s partner.
The book that Kiran would have liked to have talked about is Silence In October by Jens Christian Grøhndahl, which is discussed in Page One 22.
Another book by Viriginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse, is discussed in Page One 5.
Other writing by Margaret Atwood is discussed in Page One 86 (Forty Years Ago And Forty Years Ahead), Page One 95 (Hair Jewellery) Page One 108 (The Edible Woman) and Page One 146 (The Penelopiad).
By Night In Chile by Roberto Bolaño is also discussed in Page One 168.
This episode was recorded on Hampstead Heath 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: 5th August, 2013.
Book listing:
Orlando by Virgina Woolf
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
By Night In Chile by Roberto Bolaño (trans. Chris Andrews)
Links:
Episode transcript:
Jingle
You're listening... you're listening... to London Fields Radio.
Charles Adrian
Hello and welcome to the 47th Page One. This is the thirty-seven... thirty... Sorry, this is the 33rd Second Hand Book Factory. I was distracted for a moment by the bird that was making some noise. This is Page One On The Run. I'm with Kiran Chauhan [/tʃəʊhæn/] - is that right? Chauhan [/tʃəʊhæn/]?
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] Yeah, good enough.
Charles Adrian
Chauhan [/tʃaʊwən/]?
Kiran Chauhan
Chauhan [/tʃəʊhæn/].
Charles Adrian
Chauhan [/tʃəʊhæn/]. In... In Hampstead Heath. Now, Kiran, this is going to go up on the - on or around - the 5th of August. I lied to you. I said it was going up in July. It's not. It's going up on the 5th of August and, as you may well know, the 5th of August is the birthday of the mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
Kiran Chauhan
I didn't know that.
Charles Adrian
Well, you do now. He was... He apparently developed a proof of bi... the binomial theorem...
Kiran Chauhan
I know what that is.
Charles Adrian
... and, at the age of 19 - this is all from Wikipedia...
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
... and I'm quoting - “showed that there is no general algebraic solution for the roots of a quintic equation, or any general polynomial equation of degree greater than four, in terms of explicit algebraic operations.”
Kiran Chauhan
Wow.
Charles Adrian
Does that make any sense to you?
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] So that sounds like stuff that I might have understood about ten years ago but, as it happens, I was looking through all of the stuff that's in my parents loft that I did from about that time and didn't understand any of it. So...
Charles Adrian
Okay, so that's all gone over your head.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] ... it means something. Like, they're a bit... You know, when you, kind of, hear a foreign language and you can, kind of, pick out some words and you get what they mean. It's like... It's a bit like that. But that's quite exciting.
Charles Adrian
So he was born in 1802.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] The binomial theorem is a big deal, so...
Charles Adrian
Yeah, okay, so he's a... he's a big man.
Kiran Chauhan
I guess so.
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
Now, also on this day in 1930, Neil Armstrong was born...
Kiran Chauhan
Okay. That's more exciting.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] ... so I have chosen... to start the podcast, I have chosen a song that I feel combines both of those facts. This is the XX with Basic Space.
Kiran Chauhan
Ooo. I like XX.
Music
[Basic Space by The XX]
Charles Adrian
Sorry. We didn't really listen to that but...
Kiran Chauhan
I enjoyed the ambiance
Charles Adrian
It was nice, wasn't it?
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah, it was good. I liked it.
Charles Adrian
I don't... Yeah, I've listened to their second album and I don't particularly like it.
Kiran Chauhan
Oh.
Charles Adrian
Am I allowed to say that?
Kiran Chauhan
Well, yeah, I guess so.
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Kiran Chauhan
I don't... Maybe they won't phone you up and...
Charles Adrian
I hope not. Um. [with German pronunciation] Kiran... [with English pronunciation] Kiran... [indistinct] [with exaggerated German pronunciation] Kiran.
Kiran and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
Kiran Chauhan
The German pronunciation.
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Yeah. [with slight German pronunciation] Kiran Chauhan [/tʃəʊhən/]... I've always... I've always called you Chauhan [/tʃaʊhən/], I think. Or Chauhan [/tʃaʊwən/].
Kiran Chauhan
I think it's fine. I think it's what... It's an Indian name and nobody really says it prop... I probably don't say it prop... In fact, I know I don't say it properly. So pretty much anything goes. I have a lot of it at work when I'm talking to various people in the places that I end up working and they say, “How do you spell... say your surname?” And they'll say something which sounds vaguely like Kiran Chauhan [/tʃəʊhən/] and I'm like, “Yeah, that'll do.”
Charles Adrian
“That'll be fi...” Okay. That's good. I think... I find it strange when people precious about the pronunciation of their names. I mean, I have a name that everybody mispronounces and I think that's fine. That's okay. I... How could you know?
Kiran Chauhan
Adrian is a difficult word.
Charles Adrian
No.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
Gillott [/dʒɪlət/]
Kiran Chauhan
[laughing] Ah yes of course.
Charles Adrian
[laughs] Um. How would you describe yourself?
Kiran Chauhan
It's a difficult question and I... having heard Page One lots of times now, I knew this question was coming. And I've been thinking about what to say because I suppose I do a lot of different things and none of them are particularly what... anything like my essence, if you like. So I'd probably say I'm a serial enthusiast. I manage to pick different things to be enthusiastic about, in... generally in sequence - so there's hardly ever more than one thing at a time - and then I focus on them intensely for a little while and then... then I float off and do something else. So for my work, I work in management consulting and we do, sort of, stuff with hospitals. And that's interesting because you get to talk to lots of different people about the stuff that's difficult for them. But then, if I wanted to be called something at the moment, I'd like to be called a carpenter because that's my new hobby. So... I make...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Oh. Okay. Yes. Right. Yeah. I haven't seen...
Kiran Chauhan
No.
Charles Adrian
... any of your construction yet. You have to show me.
Kiran Chauhan
I will do. Very soon, hopefully. But I've built cupboards and the desk and just working with wood is really fun. So that's...
Charles Adrian
Yeah. Cool.
Kiran Chauhan
And I at the moment think that if I could give up my job tomorrow then I would go and build cabinets. So. I have lots of tools and it's quite fun.
Charles Adrian
Excellent.
Kiran Chauhan
So. That good?
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Okay, I'm going to... I'm going to describe you as a serial enthusiast stroke... part time carpenter?
Kiran Chauhan
Maybe.
Charles Adrian
Is that all right?
Kiran Chauhan
That'll do.
Charles Adrian
Something like that?
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] Yeah. No.
Charles Adrian
I'll think of a better way of putting that.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughing] Okay.
Charles Adrian
Let's bring out the book that you like.
Kiran Chauhan
The book that I like. So I had a bit of a problem - again, because you nicked my... the book that I like in a previous Page One.
Charles Adrian
Yeah. And as I said to you, the reason that I had that book was because you gave it to me so I... [laughing] I don't think that's...
Kiran Chauhan
[laughing] No... So it's okay. No. And I didn't take it as a diss or anything.
Charles Adrian
No, in... Quite the opposite, I think.
Kiran Chauhan
Well, indeed. But it did then scupper slightly my choice of book...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Yes. Okay. I see. Yes.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] ... but that's fine.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Fine. I understand where you're coming from with that. Yes.
Kiran Chauhan
So I have chosen a book to bring today which... And, again, it's very difficult. This whole thing is very difficult, right? Because the things that you choose...
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Yes.
Kiran Chauhan
... be it the books or the music or anything like that, you have to, kind of, decide what it says about you or what you want it to say about you, right? So shall I choose a book that's interesting or that I'd like other people to read or that shows me off in a good light or something that I just enjoy? And... Well, it all become very difficult in my head. So I just picked something... one of my favourite books instead and...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Okay. I think that's... that's a very good choice.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] And it also has a really good first page. So: bonus.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Cool. Yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
So the book is Orlando by Virginia Woolf, which is...
Charles Adrian
[appreciative] Mmm.
Kiran Chauhan
... a bit trad but amazing.
Charles Adrian
Yes.
Kiran Chauhan
And maybe not many people have read it. I suspect that's not the case, but...
Charles Adrian
I would have thought that people... a lot of people would struggle with it if they read it, actually. I had to read it a couple of times and I found it... I found it wonderful the second time I read it, but I... yeah, I don't think it's a straightforward book in any way.
Kiran Chauhan
No, but it is incredible.
Charles Adrian
Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
Kiran Chauhan
So. [indistinct]
Charles Adrian
Read. Read.
Kiran Chauhan
Chapter I
[clears throat] Excuse me.
HE—for there could not be any [sic] doubt about his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it—was in the act of slicing the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters. It was the colour of an old football, and more or less the shape of one, save for the sunken cheeks and a strand or two of course, dry hair, like the hair of [sic] a cocoanut. Orlando's father, or perhaps his grandfather, had struck it from the shoulders of a vast Pagan who had started up under the moon in the barbarian fields of Africa; and now it swung, gently, perpetually, in the frey... in the breeze which never ceased blowing through the attic rooms of the gigantic house of the lord who had slain him.
Orlando's fathers had written in the [sic] fields of asphodel, and stony fields, and fields watered by strange rivers, and they had struck many heads of many colours off many shoulders, and brought them back to hang from the rafters. So too would Orlando, he vowed. But since he was only sixteen [sic], and too young to ride with them in Africa or France, he would steal away from his mother and the peacocks in the garden and go to his attic room and there lunge and plunge and slice the air with his blade. Sometimes he cut the cord so the skull bumped onto [sic] the floor and he had to string it up again, fastening it with some chivalry almost out of reach so that his enemy grinned at him through shrunk, black lips triumphantly. The skull swung to and fro, for the house, at the top of which he lived, was so vast that there seemed to be trapped in it the wind itself, blowing this way, blowing that way, winter and summer. The green arras with the hunters on it moved perpetually. His fathers had been noble since they had been at all. They came out of the northern mists wearing coronets on their heads. Were not the...
And that's the end of the first page.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Brilliant. I think that's an excellent choice. I love it. And it... Yeah, I'd forgotten the Moor's head. That's good.
Kiran Chauhan
And one of the great things about this - and... so I was having a flick through a few books before choosing one - actually, when you read it out, it sounds very different to how it sounds when you read it in your head, right? Because there's so much rhyme and stuff which you just... I suppose you miss unless you're saying it out loud. And that's... I don't know. So: Bonus on Page One for me was seeing Virginia Woolf in a slightly different way.
Charles Adrian
[appreciative] Mmm. Jolly good. Have you ever been to Knole...
Kiran Chauhan
I haven't.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] ... which is the house that it's supposed to be based on - his house or [indistinct] house?
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] No. I haven't, no.
Charles Adrian
It's a National Trust property and I... I've always meant to go. It's supposed to be huge. I think Vita Sackville-West owned it...
Kiran Chauhan
Oh right. Okay.
Charles Adrian
... and Virginia Woolf was so impressed by it that I think it inspired... She... Vita Sackville-West, I think is supposed to be the, kind of, inspiration for Orlando in some way.
Kiran Chauhan
That would make sense. After he turns into a woman. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Well, quite. Yes. Yeah. And I think she was quite between the genders...
Kiran Chauhan
Yes. Indeed.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] ... from what I understand.
Kiran Chauhan
Didn't she and... Yeah, because she and Virginia Woolf were...
Charles Adrian
Yeah, they may have been lovers [indistinct]. Yeah. Yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] ... together at some point in some way, I think.
Charles Adrian
But I j... You know, I love... I... Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite authors and I've... Yeah, Orlando now - now that I have reread it and feel like I understood it a little better - I really liked it. Thank you, Kiran. We're going to play the first song that you've chosen, which is by a band that I... I have the feeling you really like these guys.
Kiran Chauhan
Who are they?
Charles Adrian
They're the Kings Of Convenience.
Kiran Chauhan
I do really like them.
Kiran and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah. No, they're one of my favourite bands. And I saw them recently, which was brilliant because it was a gig that was sold out within, like, the first five seconds of them going on sale.
Charles Adrian
Wow.
Kiran Chauhan
And the reason that I know about them - it's a great story - is that - well, I think it's great story - when... back when we were at Oxford I went see Requiem For A Dream in the little cinema that was up in Jericho and, because they were so small at that time that they couldn't pack out any kind of small venue, they were just touring independent cinemas and playing a couple of songs beforehand. So, in fact, this is one of the songs that they played - I think. I'm pretty sure it was. But it's so long ago now and because they were so small that nobody ever wrote it up or anything I actually don't know whether they played it or not.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Ah, you can't find out. Yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
So it's one of those things where it may as well be the truth even if it isn't because who's going to tell [indistinct]. The only thing that was remarkable about that evening, though, was that after they played and I'd really liked them so I write down their name and went and pre-ordered their CD in HMV when that's what you did...
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Yes.
Kiran Chauhan
... 1999 or 2000...
Charles Adrian
Right. Back in those days.
Kiran Chauhan
Back in those days. I bought CDs from shops. Crazy. The film started but I never saw the end of it because somebody had some kind of epileptic fit or something from the flashing lights in the film and so they just stopped the film, cleared out the cinema, gave us, kind of, vouchers to go back and I don't think I ever saw the end of Requiem For A Dream so...
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
Kiran Chauhan
... it's all, kind of, melded into one thing in my mind, which is quite nice.
Charles Adrian
That's a lovely story.
Kiran Chauhan
And I saw them play at Barbican about four years ago and then they played today and I think, you know, you can get your cheapo tickets when they go on sale but they were going for, like, ten times what I paid so that was quite satisfying as well. And it was a lovely gig. It was like wearing a big warm jumper.
Charles Adrian
Oh wonderful.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
And this... So this is them, this is Kings Of Convenience playing I'd Rather Dance With You.
Music
[I'd Rather Dance With You by Kings Of Convenience]
Charles Adrian
So that was the Kings Of Convenience with I'd Rather Dance With You. Now it's time for the book that I think Kiran should have and this was tricky because there was nothing... I mean, I feel like I should know what you've read because I've stared at your bookshelves...
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
… [laughing] a fair amount but I... and was looking at my bookshelves and thinking, “There's nothing that... that I feel like you're lacking”. So what I thought I would do... I'm just giving you a book that I really loved when I read it and hoping that you haven't read it or that you're ready to reread it. And it's Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.
Kiran Chauhan
Ah. I have never read any Margaret Atwood and I have wanted to, so...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Oh brilliant. And you... it comes with a free - as I've just discovered - a free Christmas card...
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs] Excellent.
Charles Adrian
... as a book mark.
Kiran Chauhan
From?
Charles Adrian
From... Dani.
Kiran Chauhan
Who is Dani?
Charles Adrian
Dani's a friend of mine from Oxford. You may... Well, you may not have met her. She would have left by the time we were friends, I think, probably. Anyway, that's all by the by. I think this is a beautiful book. And I love Margaret Atwood - she's one of my favourite novelists - but this was my... this was my favourite of her books. And it's the story... I'm not going to tell you very much about it and I like the fact... I was just reading the back and I like the fact that, actually, it doesn't give too much away. It just tells you... I'm going to read it to you because this will tell you as much as you need to know about it: “Around the true story of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the late... of the 1840's, Margaret Atwood has created an extraordinary...” sorry... “an extraordinarily potent tale of sexuality, cruelty and mystery.” That's... I think that's all you need to know.
Kiran Chauhan
Sounds intriguing.
Charles Adrian
It's a beautiful... I think, a beautiful novel. It's what a novel should be.
Kiran Chauhan
Okay.
Charles Adrian
So I'm going to read you the first page.
1
Out of the gravel there are peonies growing. They come up through the loose grey pebbles, their buds testing the air like snails' eyes, then swelling and opening, huge dark-red flowers all shining and glossy like satin. Then they burst and fall to the ground.
In the one instant before they come apart they are like the peonies in the front garden at Mr. Kinnear's, that first day, only those were white. Nancy was cutting them. She wore a pale dress with pink rosebuds and a triple-flounced skirt, and a straw bonnet that hid her face. She carried a flat basket, to put the flowers in; she bent from the hips like a lady, holding her waist straight. When she heard us and turned to look, she put her hand up to her throat as if startled.
I tuck my head down while I walk, keeping step with the rest, eyes lowered, silently, two by two around the yard, inside the square made by the high stone walls. My hands are clasped in front of me; they're chapped, the knuckles reddened. I can't remember a time when they were not like that. The toes of my shoes go in and out under the hem of my skirt, blue and white, blue and white, crunching on the pathway. These shoes fit me better than any I've ever had before.
It's 1851. I'll be twenty-four years old next birthday. I've been shut in [sic] here since the age of sixteen. I am a model prisoner...
Comma. End of page.
Kiran Chauhan
Wow. Thank you very much. That sounds... I love the random details, like the shoes. They're great. Thank you very much. That's really great.
Charles Adrian
My pleasure.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] And I'll look forward to reading it.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] I hope you enjoy it. I hope you get as much sucked in as I did.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughing] Okay.
Charles Adrian
Your second... Well, the second song choice that I have chosen of your list is A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell.
Kiran Chauhan
Oh, lovely.
Charles Adrian
And she's somebody I think... [I'm] pretty sure that other guests of mine have chosen - or other guest of mine has chosen - Joni Mitchell but she's not somebody that I know much about. But I was listening to this and I... I just thought the lyrics are extraordinary.
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah. They really are.
Charles Adrian
And I don't often feel so strongly about lyrics but this is gorgeous. And I love her voice.
Kiran Chauhan
What's lovely about this song as well [is] that the... I think the recording you've got is from Blue, which is the very early one.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Yes, it is.
Kiran Chauhan
And then she re-recorded it for an album called Both Sides Now, which is very late, and her voice, kind of, drops an octave and it has a totally different feel to it. It's... With this one, it's, kind of, young love and the interesting difficult things about that, and the one on Both Sides Now is, sort of, looking back over your life and thinking about all the, kind of, strangeness that's happened. It's... I don't know. But it's an incredible song in... yeah.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Aha. I'm going to have to go and listen to that version as well, then. Wonderful. So, A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell.
Music
[A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell]
Jingle
London Fields Radio... it's London Fields Radio.
Charles Adrian
It is, it's London Fields Radio. I don't think I did a proper introduction at the beginning of this. So: It's London Fields Radio, this is Page One, I'm Charles Adrian, I'm here in Hampstead Heath for Page One On The Run with Kiran... [takes a breath] with Kiran.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
Now it's time for your book for me.
Kiran Chauhan
Okay. Adrian, I've chosen a book for you which I hope very much that you'll enjoy because I enjoyed it very much. It's a bit of a [sic] odd one because I don't know how much people read Roberto Bolaño. I think he has become famous recently but he's been writing for a long time and he's dead. And it's in translation, which is always a... you know, an issue, but it's a good translation as far as I'm aware, but I don't know... I don't know enough about Spanish or Portuguese or whatever language it's written in.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] But it sou... it... it reads... it reads well in... in English. That's important, yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] Exactly. So the book is called By Night In Chile. And there's a connection because obviously Lissa has been to Chile so there's something
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] True. True. Yes.
Kiran Chauhan
But I think that the choice of it is actually just: it's a really great book that not many people would ever get to.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] I've never heard of this guy.
Kiran Chauhan
So he, kind of, does the magical realism thing but I think much better than people like Marquez do so... And it's written... like, it's one paragraph, I think, the whole thing... There's no, kind of, obvious breaks in it. So I thought that might be good for a morning in or an afternoon in or an evening in.
Charles Adrian
Yeah, definitely.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] Or on a plane given how much you travel. So I'll read you the first page.
Charles Adrian
Lovely.
Kiran Chauhan
Okay.
I AM DYING NOW, BUT I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO say. I used to be at peace with myself. Quiet and at peace. But it all blew up unexpectedly. That wizened youth is to blame. I was at peace. I am no longer at peace. There are a couple of points that have to be cleared up. So, propped up on one elbow, I will lift my noble, trembling head, and rummage through my memories to turn up the deeds that shall vindicate me and belie the slanderous rumours that [sic] the wizened youth spread in a single storm-lit night to sully my name. Or so he intended. One has to be responsible, as I have always said. One has a moral obligation to take responsibility for one's actions, and that includes one's words and silences, yes, one's silences, because silences rise to heaven too, and God hears them, and only God understands and judges them, so one must be very careful with one's silences. I am responsible in every way. My silences are immaculate. Let me make that clear. Clear to God above all. The rest I can forego. But not God. I do not [sic] know how I got on to this. Sometimes I find myself propped up on one elbow, rambling on and dreaming and trying to make peace with myself. But sometimes I forget even [sic] my own name. My name is Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix. I am Chilean. My ancestors on my father's side came from the Basque country, or...
And that's the end of the first page.
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Great.
Kiran Chauhan
Random...
Charles Adrian
Yeah. I like it
Kiran Chauhan
... but kind of lyrical and wonderful.
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
So...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] It reminds me a little bit of Notes From The Underground. Have you ever read that?
Kiran Chauhan
No, I haven't read it.
Charles Adrian
A, kind of, similar “Let me...” - as far as I remember it - like, “Let me set the record straight”. But in that... in that book the narrator is... is mad, I think.
Kiran Chauhan
Okay. Does he take you on a weird and wonderful journey then through his madness?
Charles Adrian
Yeah. Kind of. Yeah, yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
So I think... Again, so this is, sort of, magical realism so it's weird and wonderful but he's very political and he always talks about Chilean literati. So it's, kind of, fascinating from that as well. So there you go.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Thank you very much.
Kiran Chauhan
I hope you enjoy it.
Charles Adrian
I think I will. That looks... That looks fantastic. And thank you very much for this, our interview in Hampstead Heath...
Kiran Chauhan
Thank you.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] ... beneath a beautiful copper beach, which happens to be one of my favourite trees...
Kiran Chauhan
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
... only, I think, because there was one in the front garden when I was a [laughing] child. [I think] I found it exciting that it had purple leaves. So, yeah, thank you very much.
Kiran Chauhan
Thank you for having me.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] This has been lovely. And we're going to go out on another of your choices but one that I could have chosen myself so I've decided you get three choices.
Kiran Chauhan
Okay.
Charles Adrian
A lot of my guests only get two. This is Cucurucucu Paloma by Caetano Veloso. Is that his name - Veloso?
Kiran Chauhan
I have no idea how to say it.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] I've written that so badly I don't remember any more...
Kiran Chauhan
I think it's Veloso.
Charles Adrian
Yeah.
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
And I... Yeah, I loved this scene in...
Kiran Chauhan
Talk To Her.
Charles Adrian
Talk To Her.
Kiran Chauhan
It's beautiful.
Charles Adrian
It's so gorgeous.
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
Okay, We'll reminisce about that while we listen.
Kiran Chauhan
Okay.
Music
[Cucurucucu Paloma by Caetano Veloso]
Charles Adrian
[fading in] ... but he was good in it.
Kiran Chauhan
Very good. I should have said also August 5th is James's birthday.
Charles Adrian
No! Is it?
Kiran Chauhan
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
I'll put that in the blurb.
Kiran Chauhan
Do it.
Charles Adrian
Do you want to... Do you want to say that now because it's still recording?
Kiran Chauhan
What do I say?
Charles Adrian
Just say...
Kiran Chauhan
Will you edit it back into the beginning?
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] I will seamlessly edit it back in.
Kiran Chauhan
[laughing] Okay. So the other thing about the 5th of August is that it's James's birthday...
Charles Adrian
Beautiful. Thank you, Kiran.
Kiran Chauhan
[speaking over] ... so another famous person born on that day, although much later than the two you mentioned.
Charles Adrian
[laughs]
[Initial transcription by https://otter.ai]