Michael Rosen

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2006

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the author and children's poet Michael Rosen. Since his first book, Mind Your Own Business, was published more than than 30 years ago, he has been credited with revolutionising the way children's poems are written and performed. Words and language have always formed an important part of his life. The son of two teachers, he was born into a London, Jewish family, and brought up in a home full of literature, conversation and debate. His poems often rely on snatches of dialogue and memories from his own childhood and relate his experiences with his own children.

His greatest commercial success has been his hugely popular re-telling of the American folk tale We're All Going on a Bear Hunt. More recently he's published a series of memories aimed at adults rather than children. In particular, these attend to the central tragedy of his life, the sudden death of his second son Eddie, when he was 18 years old. His death became a public matter because Eddie had featured so often in Michael's early work and was a well-known character to millions of children.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Black, Brown and White by Big Bill Broonzy Book: The Complete Poems by Carl Sandburg Luxury: A didgeridoo belonging to his late son Eddie.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.7	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.4	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all
0:28.1	put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:41.8	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:44.9	The program was originally broadcast in 2006, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.
0:50.2	Music My castaway this week is a poet, performer and writer. He's created more than a hundred books, mostly for children, including anthologies, picture books, stories and poems.
1:15.6	He's a natural communicator, always informal but above all truthful.
1:20.6	His stories are real.
1:22.6	In his last year at Oxford, he had a play produced at the Royal Court, and then he joined the BBC as a general trainee, but he was sacked after three years, only learning later that his parents' communist background had been one of the reasons behind his dismissal.
1:35.3	One of his children, Eddie, died suddenly at the age of 18, an event that changed his life and has informed his work ever since.
1:43.4	You have to be utterly ruthless with your
1:45.9	feelings, he says. You can't tell fibs. He is Michael Rosen. Michael, your honesty in some of the
1:53.2	moments that you describe is very painful. Why wouldn't it work if you made it up? Why can't
1:58.9	you tell fibs? You can't tell fibs because the poem won't work.
2:06.0	If you tell a fib about what you're feeling, the next time you read it, you'll be embarrassed by it.
2:12.7	You'll feel awkward about it and it won't do the brainwork for you because when you write about something honestly,
2:20.0	when you look at it on the page, it can talk back at you and you can look at yourself almost
2:26.5	as if you're another person. You've written, of course, very honestly about the death of
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.