The Desert Island diva
SOPRANO Elisabeth Schwarzkopf made her famous appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on July 28, 1958. She told the programme’s creator Roy Plomley: ‘I will stick to my own records. I would like to relive my life.’
The only disc she selected that did not feature one of her own performances was the prelude to Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
However, she had taken centre stage for much of the rest of that particular recording of the famous opera, playing the noblewoman The Marschallin, whose charms are succumbing to old age.
Schwarzkopf choosing seven of her own recordings out of eight was outdone by the virtuoso pianist Moura Lympany.
In an episode of Desert Island Discs broadcast in July 1979 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her debut concert, she chose all eight of her own records.
This was her second appearance on the show, having appeared for the first time in 1957. She explained to Roy Plomley that when she considered her choices, they were the same as the ones she had chosen 22 years earlier, so she decided to use the desert island to reminisce about her life.
When comedian Sir Norman Wisdom appeared on the show in 2000, he was asked by Sue Lawley why he’d chosen five of his own recordings, including the appropriately titled Narcissus.
He answered spiritedly because ‘my records are damned good’.
Crooner Engelbert Humperdinck chose just one of his own records, All This World And The Seven Seas, when he appeared in 2004. Perhaps more surprising was his choice of book, What’s In A Name? — his autobiography.
Two egotists had spectacular falls from grace after appearing on the show.
In 1999, the Australian-born entertainer Rolf Harris chose three of his own songs — Ego Sum Pauper (I Give You My Heart), Two Little Boys and Offenbach’s The Gendarmes Quartet in a live duet with his father, Cromwell.
Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter, chose Rock And Roll/I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life as one of his songs when he appeared on the show in 1981.
Ellen Lehmann, Brighton. QUESTION What invention was so perfect it has never been improved upon? THE wheel is often described as the most important invention of all time — it has had a fundamental impact on transport, agriculture and industry.
Invented around 4500 BC, while the materials have changed, the design has not been improved upon.
Barbed wire has been used to build secure, inexpensive fences since Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, received a patent in 1874 after he modified previous versions. His design has yet to be improved upon.
In the late Fifties in Hawthorne, New Jersey, inventor Alfred Fielding and Swiss-born engineer Marc Chavannes had a bizarre idea for a new wallpaper.
They sealed two shower curtains together, creating air bubbles, which they tried to sell as a plastic, threedimensional, tactile wall covering.
By 1960, they realised their product’s possibilities and patented a ‘method for making laminated cushioning material’.
They formed the Sealed Air Corporation and bubble wrap became the ultimate packing material . . . and the cheapest form of therapy. In 1903, John Mast made improvements to William C. Hooker’s spring-loaded mousetrap of 1894 by making it safer to load. We still use this design today. C. W. Hooper, Loughborough, Leics. QUESTION Are there any moles in Ireland? THERE are no moles in Ireland. When DIY chain B&Q opened its first store in Dublin, it stocked mole traps, attracting mockery in the Irish press.
The reason why there are no moles in Ireland dates back to when the last Ice Age ended 11,700 years ago and the world’s warm-blooded animals migrated north, following the retreating ice as new grass grew.
Grazing animals, such as bison, deer, wild sheep and cattle, were followed by predators, such as bears and wolves.
The mole took longer to migrate. Burrowing made their progress much slower and they had to wait for their food, earthworms, to move first.
Worms rely on the soil to warm them up and provide them with the energy to move. It would have taken several hundred years after the end of the Ice Age for the soil to reach the temperature for worms to survive all year.
As the ice receded, the Irish Sea was formed by the breaking of the land bridge that connected Northern Ireland to Scotland. The low-lying land further south flooded to form the sea.
The Isle of Man was formed from what would have been a mountain range before the flooding.
As well as a lack of moles, there are no snakes or lizards in Ireland, as they are cold-blooded creatures that rely on the Sun’s warmth to give them energy.
Like the worms and unlike warmblooded creatures, they had to wait for temperatures to increase, but this did not happen before the breaking of the land bridge.
There are no moles on the Isle of Man, the isles of Scilly and the Scottish islands for the same reasons.
Once the land bridge between England and France was broken in 6,000 BC, no new animals arrived in the British Isles unless they swam or came in boats.
The rabbit, which was bred for its meat, was introduced in the 12th century. Wild rabbits are descended from animals that escaped from captivity.
The hare, which is considered to be a native species, was, in fact, introduced by the Romans 2,000 years ago.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.