Sue Biggs (notes from a BBC interview)
/In this post, there is a list of the advanced words and phrases from the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Sue Biggs - the director general at the Royal Horticultural Society. Aggie and I are currently creating a podcast (in which we will explain some of the words) and it will be launched on 11th October!
You can listen to the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006l62
LL INTRO
0:53 Organisation is best known for its spectacular flower shows and garden festivals
0:57 Including annual extravaganzas at Chelsea, Hampton Court…
1:02 RHS = largest and most venerable gardening charity
1:07 Promotion of horticulture and exchange of ideas
1:15 Engage future generations
1:25 Under her green fingered leadership
510,000 members
1:37 A keen gardener ever since she received a packet of seeds and a trowel for her 7th birthday
1:42 Before deciding to change lanes to horticulture (from travel industry for 25 years)
1:48 Horticulture is a great leveler (meet royalty…)
A natural respect for people who know how to garden
SB STARTS SPEAKING
2:22 And to tend to plants (how to be a good gardener)
CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW
2:34 It’s complete and utter madness
11 acre site in the middle of London, world’s best flower show
3:03 I find it a very moving week actually
→ so many people are so passionate
One of your jobs is accompanying the Queen around the the show
→ She certainly knows what she likes!
A joy of creating!
FIRST DISC
Favourite film ever (Gladiator)
3:56 Despite the fact that RHS doesn’t allow gnomes but I do!
5:00 Before we move on, I have to follow up on the Russell Crowe gnome
ADVICE TO GARDENERS
5:25 The technical stuff including all the latin
5:37 What would you say to the would-be gardeners?
I don’t know all the latin!
6:14 Put it in on the website and then you can wow everyone with your amazing latin knowledge!
Worst thing you can do is to kill a plant!
NATURE DOSE
6:38 We should have a nature dose of at least 2 hours a week
6:45 What scientific proof is there
6:59 Also increasingly on the social science side
You have to have a dose of nature!
If you care about nature you have to be in it
7:21 Sitting inside on a tablet or whatever isn’t connecting with nature
Would encourage every day outside
7:27 Even if you only manage for 5 minutes, take your socks and shoes off
7:32 Reconnect with nature
SECOND DISC (from BORN FREE)
7:53 It just had such a huge impact on me
The charity that came out of it
Thank Virginia McKenna for both my 2 careers
8:26 My love of nature and conservation
EARLIEST GARDENING MEMORY
9:16 It makes me sound really quite churlish in a way
7th birthday got up all excited for my present
9:33 I thought this is a bit of a dull present
Gave me a square yard of their garden
10:00 They’ll be like little jewels
10:13 It was a magical present
MOTHER
To 6 children all within 9 years
She was amazing bring us up
Popular with all my friends too - pretty special
THIRD DISC
11:11 Most beautiful piece of music reflecting nature that I’ve ever heard
11:16 Lark ascending encapsulates everything - reminds her of her mother
11:31 Slightly tinged with sadness for me
11:46 Birdsong really talks about how beautiful it is in this country and part of what makes us British but all the birds are under threat
11:55 It would be terrible if nature ends up being so devastated that we only have this to listen to
SCHOOL
13:17 Home life was quite outdoorsy
Loved school
I wanted to go to study Estate Management at Reading but head told me that wasn’t a career for young girls and that I should instead go and study English
Long time ago
14:02 At that stage women didn’t go into that very much
14:08 [LL] So you weren’t supposed to go outdoors with your welly boots on?!
3 wonderful brothers
14:16 All teasing and joshing
Never really viewed mens’ things and womens’ things
Just follow your heart and do what you love
14:39 [LL] How does the path that you took match up with what you expected as a teenager?
14:45 I knew fairly soon that I wanted to be in the travel world
Terrible mistake - went to be an air stewardess at BA
neckerchief
15:26 A white shirt dress cinched in at the waist
15:37 I looked like a walking union jack
15:43 It certainly sounds eye catching
FOURTH DISC
At nottingham uni, beautiful campus
15:51 Even though I had quite a wild time of union bars, possibly drinking too much
Great big pink cherry trees
1st concert was John Martyn
16:21 I was smitten (when John Martyn gave her his cigarette to hold)
POST UNI JOB IN TRAVEL
Dream career creating holidays
17:16 It was all long haul travel
Terrible places to have to suffer (!)
Very very lucky
17:46 How many destinations did you help put on the map? [LL]
· Maldives
· Sri Lanka
18:22 At the island, a few thatched huts
We used to tell our customers your hair’s going to get frizzy! Baked beans and pineapple chunks for most of your holiday!
18:54 How much has the digital revolution changed the way we travel?
Changed totally with the internet
Book own flights and own hotels
19:34 The horrors of 9/11 and the tsunami to deal with
19:43 It’s tough to be on your own when something like that happens
19:48 What’s your role and whats the responsibility of the company?
19:55 My role was to lead the rescue
19:59 Send out literally funeral directors
The team was amazing
FIFTH DISC (PHILADELPHIA)
20:39 The 80s it was Quite a frightening time
20:43 The AIDS ads with the tombstones falling down
20:49 There was this one track in it which really stirred my emotions
A very good friend of mine died from AIDS so I remember him when I listen to this
BOARD OF THE TRAVEL COMPANY
· Youngest
· First woman
Quite nice and quite funny
First meeting - card and a present
22:59 Inside the card “Congratulations, at last we’ve got somebody to iron our shirts”
It just wouldn’t be acceptable today
SIXTH DISC
Quarter of a century at the travel
23:47 The new boss and I didn’t see eye to eye
At the end of the leaving party they played this
24:12 My then husband had to take me home as a weeping jelly
CANCER
Went through cancer treatment twice
Brothers and sisters and friends
At the same time my mother died and then after 30 years my husband decided he’d rather be somewhere else
25:38 My fifties were my not happy decade
25:49 Friends and family got me through that but so too did my garden
I remember thinking ugh I’m not sure if it’s worth all this
But thought ‘what! I just moved into this new garden’
Wanting to see the bulbs come up and the trees and the colours
26:13 So I think they’re tremendously healing
Is there a sense of tapping into something about the promise of the future even when times are difficult, it’s that idea of planting seeds in the hope that things will change
26:40 Its a very optimistic thing to do because you are planting for the future
Sense of responsibility
26:53 It’s exciting looking to the future
SEVENTH DISC (I LOVE MY LIFE)
27:27 There were times when it was all a bit doomy gloomy
27:42 I would put it on at full blast
And shout it out in my terribly flat voice
IMAGE OF HORTICULTURE AS A CAREER
28:45 Facing a green skills crisis in the horticulture industry [LL]
A lot of the people who work in horticulture are from overseas (worrying about post Brexit)
29:06 Not everyone views horticulture as a career to be respected and proud of
29:13 I look at our curator, studied for 7 years, post degree level
Needs to start at schools and through careers advisors with parents and grandparents
29:53 Diverse industry, with great big industrial production
30:01 It is such a satisfying job
OFF TO THE ISLAND
Think I’d get lonely quite quickly
30:24 I imagine you’ll want to cultivate your garden [LL]
Lose weight and die if its Maldivian because they’re all just sand
Maybe a month of solitude
EIGHTH DISC
31:13 I remember distinctly being at a sailing club (with first boyfriend)
He stopped me and said Sue you can’t dance you really shouldn’t dance
31:47 I think we should dance to it now, just to show him! [LL]
32:33 A few bits and bobs to pass the time
· The book of joy
33:15 Its got to be a bed
· Lark ascending