So far there my TV life there have been three people, when I’ve interviewed them on camera, who have managed to bring a little tear to my eye.
The first was a lady who escaped Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains as a girl, describing being reunited with her parents at the end of the war.
The second I met at The National Trust’s ‘Back to Back’ houses in Birmingham. This lady had grown up in a cramped, crowded house just like the ones the National Trust have, and knocked me for six when she told me that the first time she’d ever slept on her own in a bed was at the age of sixty, after the death of her husband.
And the third I met on Saturday, in the Welsh village of Fron. Malcolm Wiles was the man who’d driven and run errands for and generally helped the writer and food historian Dorothy Hartley (‘Miss Hartley’ as he always calls her) in the last years of her life there.
I’ve spent the last year, on and off, making a BBC4 programme about Dorothy Hartley (1893-1985), her magnificent book ‘Food in England’, published in 1954, and her rather odd, nomadic, creative life which took her up and down England recording lost customs, weird foods, and ancient housekeeping habits. In the picture up there I’m actually holding her own handbag, outside her house at Fron.
These will be the final words of the film, which we completed on Sunday by her grave in Fron churchyard. I hope they sum up the respect I feel for both him, and her:
‘Dorothy died in 1985, and it was Malcolm who brought her body up from the house to the churchyard. I was really struck how much Malcolm and her other friends still seem to miss her.
They regret the fact that she left no children, but instead she did leave us this amazing book.
As I’ve followed Dorothy up and down the country from Yorkshire, to Leicestershire, to Suffolk, to Wales, I’ve come to appreciate how magnificently eccentric she was.
She devoted her whole life to this mad quest of capturing a lost world. And thank goodness she did, the world needs crazy, passionate people like Dorothy.
There’s just one final piece to add to the picture: a home movie, showing her doing what she loved to do: working in the garden, and digging up potatoes for dinner.’
And the movie of Dorothy in the garden will play over the closing credits.
Tissues.
Wow …. Do your skills know no bounds Lucy
Oh, gosh, Lucy! Just had to do an enormous gulp as I’m in the middle of a cafe! Trying not to tear up! Beautiful sentiments, looking forward to the programme, will have box of tissues to hand, thanks for the warning!
What a great way to start my Friday morning – learning yet something else new about England and English authors.
As a tea enthusiast, I am curious now to buy this book to see what she had to say on the subject. In viewing the book’s Index online at Amazon, it does appear there is some interesting info there.
Thanks, Lucy. Looking forward to the programme!
Looking forward to another great program Miss Lucy. I’m often left with mixed feelings about characters like this because whilst having great respect and admiration for the dedication and commitment of these people, it is tinged with the knowledge that position enables opportunity. In particular of the previous generations, this isn’t inverted snobbery on my part (the worst sort I think) it’s more a feeling of how many people, for instance your back to back lady may have done great things themselves given chance? The cure for cancer could have born and died a thousand times by now. I also felt this in your Harlots series and feel you touched upon this as it certainly applied to women and probably still does in higher professions. I hope I don’t sound pompous, I love your programs and to steal a quote “iIf we don’t know where we’ve been we won’t know where we’re going. More power to your elbow Lucy (there’s a program for you, where do all the sayings come from?)
I haven’t heard of Dorothy Hartley before, but a book about our cultural and culinary history sounds fascinating. I am looking forwards to watching this in the future! I watched your Harlots, Housewives and Heroines recently, and greatly enjoyed it, especially because of your obvious enthusiasm for the subject and your vast knowledge
Hello Lucy,
The programme about Dorothy Hartley sounds fascinating, and I am looking forward to seeing it.
I am currently enjoying the repeat of ‘Elegance and Decadence’, having also enjoyed watching ‘Harlots and Houswives’ – both of which I think deserve a DVD release.
Speaking of the latter, I really enjoyed that scurrilous verse pamphlet about a fictional cat fight between Nell Gwynne and another of Charles II’s mistresses – a French one, I think. You’ll know the pamphlet I mean. I was sort of trying to read it on-screen as you were talking about it. It looked very well written to me. I love stuff like that. I really like the look of printed English from that time. It just looks and feels so authentic. And obviously those pamphlets look bigger and better in the flesh than they do when reproduced at a much smaller size in history books.
Sorry to drone on, but you do pick the most interesting subjects for your programmes. In truth, it’s taken me a while to warm to you as a presenter, but I’ve now reached the point where I look out for your programmes, and I will continue to do so. Having just found it for myself, I think I’ll keep an eye on your blog as well.
Thanks, Lucy!^^