This blog sounds arrogant but my aim is to celebrate David Attenborough through some memories and meetings. I was 10 years old when I watched Zoo Quest on a tiny black and white TV but it is etched on my memory. From a young age I was fascinated by India and China so the search for the Kimodo dragon spoke to me. Dragons are benevolent in Chinese culture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omKm7jOkbcg
David also visited (a then) remote Hindu part of Bali. He fell and injured his arm. In the mountains there were no Western doctors so we watched him enter the premises of the local Ayurveda doctor. After 45 minutes he came out smiling and explained that he had pointed to his arm and the doctor had nodded and massaged his head. He had again pointed to his arm and the doctor massaged his shoulder and so on. I believe he said ‘He didn’t touch my arm but I feel a lot better.’
I never expected to meet David but I did twice and have never forgotten those meetings. For 10 years, with Gill Hedge, I ran Oxford Antiques Centre. We provided space for 30 dealers, a bookshop,a café and services like in the repair shop & a relaxed and popular meeting place.
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We had an antiquities dealer and a regular customer of his was Desmond Morris the writer of The Naked Ape. Desmond lived in North Oxford and he collected Etruscan Pottery.
One Saturday, he arranged to meet the antiquities dealer (on the stand next to mine) & he brought a friend with him -David Attenborough.
In the Jam Factory pic, I’m in the blue & white striped outfit and Gill is next to me and in the third pic too.
While Desmond was examining an Etruscan vase, I asked David if he collected anything and he replied ‘Studio Pottery’. I was pleased because we had a dealer in Studio Pottery. We showed him the cabinet with its examples of Leach and Cardew but he explained ‘I mostly collect Lucie Rie and Hans Coper.’ I was a bit downcast because that’s in another league but he said nice things about our centre and talked to everyone.
My next encounter was when writing for The Oxford Times. I was the art and antiques writer for 20 years and, for ten of those, I wrote the castaway series in which I wrote the stories of 100 interesting people from Town, Gown and County with connections to Oxford and sent them to my island of Oxtopia. Ma Smith , Chris Patten, Ray Foulk , founder of the Isle of Wight Festival, Euton Daley (Pegasus Youth Theatre), Shami Chakrabharti (then Chancellor of Brookes University where Atam taught), the Countess of Carnarvon, Colin Greenwood of Radiohead, Qu Leilei the Chinese artist who inspired me to write my first novel Brushstrokes in Time and the wonderful Roger Bannister etc. were among the hugely diverse castaways.
In 2012, David spoke at the press day for this Edward Lear exhibition at the Ashmolean.
The editor of Limited Edition Magazine and I attended eager to meet him and write the lead article in the magazine on the exhibition. After his talk and that of the curator, Tim & I looked for him and found him sitting alone in the shop. He looked tired… more tired than he does now at 100. We apologised but he started to chat. I gave him a copy of a wildlife related castaway feature and of the first castaway book. Tim and I explained what it was about and said, ‘We understand if the answer is ‘no’ but we’d be honoured if you might consider being an Oxford castaway.’
Oxford Castaways
But he didn’t say no! He suggested I get in tough with his agent in 18 months’ time & during the following year, 2015, said he may be able to do it. Imagine that!
When 2015 came around, Tim was to be one of the senior staff soon to be made redundant in sweeping cuts & the use of freelancers like me was being questioned. Newsquest was shedding staff and didn’t appear to be interested in content only in saving money. It was too embarrassing a situation to ask him. I don’t have many regrets in life but that is one of them.