Interviewing the castaways: the importance of asking open questions and then listening & lessons for would-be writers from Colin Dexter.
Yesterday, I attended the Kyoto Prize lecture by Carol Gilligan. The psychologist has shown how women in particular silence themselves and say what they think they should say rather than express their true experience and opinion. Here is her lecture.
She stressed the importance of listening. To do that well she says you have to avoid judgement and employ curiosity. That triggered memories for me. For 10 years, I interviewed interesting people from five continents, most religions and backgrounds from aged 29-88 and cast them away on my mythical island of Oxtopia. Castaway was a magic word, even Chris Patten the last governor of Hong Kong and former chancellor of Oxford University let me cast him away and he was frank and open.
Oxford Castaways
Many of the castaways told me stories they had never told before. Kenyan born Nancy Mundenyo Hunt (Founder of the Nasio Trust) confessed that her father had not registered her birth because she was a girl. It was a few years later when her oldest sister named her Nancy and registered her, so she is not certain if the date her sister wrote is correct. Caroline Qu told me that the founder of the Stars Art Movement, Qu Leilei would NEVER talk about his first marriage. When he agreed to say a little something to me, it was like the floodgates opened: he talked for three hours. Similarly, Sir Roger Bannister, Dr Maria Jaschok, former Director of International Women’s Studies (Oxford), and the scientist Christopher Watson told me stories never in print before.
Why I wondered had that happened?
I started writing as the freelance specialist on Art and Antiques for the magazines of The Oxford Times, in 1998. I’d been a teacher and then started a business and ,although I’d been an avid reader since aged seven and had written for pleasure, I had no formal training as a journalist. I simply used my instincts, instincts that I now believe were right.
I did some research before the interview but not so detailed that I and not the interviewee determined the story. I always started with the same question When and where were you born? Given the answer, I’d follow that with open questions about how the castaway got from there and then to the here and now. Some needed more prompting than others but once they got going, I just listened, recorded them and took notes and only interrupted if something wasn’t clear.
Fun but useful stories also immerged. When interviewing Colin Dexter, the author of the Morse series, I interrupted him for a clarification and the result was great advice for when, like him, I started to write novels. Colin had been a Classics teacher but started to lose hearing and needed to change career. He explained that was how he came to Oxford and the Oxford Exams Delegacy. He then launched into talking about his writing , so I interrupted him.
‘Colin I just want to check that I’ve underside this correctly. Are you saying that you wrote the Morse books while working fulltime at the delegacy?’
‘Yes’ he replied.
‘Bbbut how’ I asked, ‘how did you do it?’
His reply is a great lesson for would be authors.
‘It was like this. I went home and had supper (Having a wife is useful! Dorothy cooked it) I listened to The Archers, and then went to the pub for a pint or two (with fellow crossword compiler Don Manley). But I’d worked out that there are 365 days in a year and if I wrote a page a day, I’d written a book.’
So please, women or men readers, don’t silence yourself, express the real you – it will enrich your life and that of your listener. Once silenced stories are released, you are FREE you can be truly you.
Colin Dexter above and a few more other castways …
David & Me.
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.
Please say NOT IN MY NAME
These inhumane times are hard to bear. It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of evil. There is one thing we can all do and that is to say or express, in any form we prefer,
NOT IN MY NAME
With Malcolm Atkins, I’ve founded Sing4 Gaza. It’s not a bureaucratic membership organisation more an idea that anyone anywhere in the world can use. We have a fundraiser event on Feb 14 for the Hands Up Project. They support children in Gaza and connect them to children elsewhere in the world. They write profoundly moving poems which Hands Up publish. We hope to connect with some of the young poets on zoom.
Sing 4 Gaza have the names of 20,000 children killed by the IDF. With friends we are recording them. It will take a long time to complete. A bell rings, I read the name of the child and his/her age and a bell rings. Of the three pages of the names I read last week, three quarters of the dead children were under two. They deserve an identity not just a body bag.
Minneapolis
I was stunned to realise that the population of Minneapolis is only double that of Oxford (when the students are here). Every citizen must be affected by the barbarities of ICE. The wonderful citizens of the city are saying
NOT IN MY NAME
This is my tribute to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in the style of William Blake,
Make America Great Again
Stand Tall
‘Yea’ shouts the crowd,
Be Proud,
Make America Great Again.
Deport five year old Liam in his bunny hat.
Stand tall as you deprive him of his mother.
Be Proud,
Take old Chongli in his underwear into the freezing snow.
Make America Great Again
Sneer at outdated empathy.
Be brave with your guns.
Shoot Renee in her car,
and Alex on the ground.
Make America Great Again
Ignore the homeless
Ignore the hungry
Ignore the sick
Ignore the unemployed
Be proud
Watch Melania preen and scowl.
Make America Great Again
Echo true grit around the world.
‘Yea vote for that!’
Vote Farage, Vote Reform
And beat those puny folk in boats.
Make Britain Great Again
*****
There’s inhumanity everywhere. Yesterday I went to an International Liberty Meeting (Exiled Iranians).We held the pictures of beautiful young people shot in the back of the head by Revolutionary Guards. A Ukrainian living in my village says her daughter in Kviv is without heating and lifts etc. on a 16th floor flat. It’s minus 22 degrees. The Kurds are being treated like the Palestinians and life in the Sudan is hunger and horror. All we can do is not look away but raise our voices to demand a better world.
The Joy of the Oxford Indie Book Fair
The joy of the Oxford Indie Book Fair: inclusion, creativity, connection, fun & thought. The Lord High Sheriff gets it and describes it as ‘uplifting.’
https://highsheriffofoxfordshire.co.uk/a-morning-among-oxfords-storytellers
Oxib is run by a volunteer committee, and you can see from the faces of the delightful students volunteers from Oxford Brookes Publishing Course that as well as hardworking, they were enthusiastic.
There’s a pic of me when I was their age behind the Lord High Sheriff !
Here’s me now on my stand in 2025 ..ah well.
None of this could have happened without the support of Felicity and Richard Dick and the Lucy Group.
It is great to have an independent Oxford icon behind us. Shona Nicholson the experienced event organiser is neither an author nor publisher but manages everything on the day out of the goodness of her heart. It was great to see another incredible organiser at the fair Michelle Casteletti announcing the theme for The Oxford Festival of the Arts 2026 Signs Symbols and Secrets
The pics show that oxib is for EVERYONE. Dr Katie Isbester of Claret Press, my publisher, led the discussion of David v Goliath. She launched Secrets of Micro publishing… so if you want to start a publishing company get a copy.
The tables turned & Oxford Lives interviewed ME!
…and my life in one picture thanks to the artist Diana Bell.
Last week I was interviewed for Oxford Lives by Jeremy Allen and Graeme Fry produced this podcast from the interview.
https://oxfordlives.libsyn.com/oxford-lives-episode-69-with-sylvia-vetta
For ten years, I wrote the life stories of 100 inspirational people from five continents and every background for my Castaway Series in The Oxford Times. My profile features were popular so they were made into three books. The only condition was that the castaways had to have a link to Oxford. The series could have gone on forever such is the turnover of amazing people who come to live, work or study in this wondeerful city which I call the Hollywood of Stories. It felt to me that Oxford Lives is the successor of Oxford Castaways except it isn’t written journalism. The tables had been turned but the conversational style of the podcast was in the style of the castaways series where my aim was to let the castaways tell their story and not select from it and edit it in a way that distorted it or could lead to misinterpretation.
The Oxford Castaway series enriched my life because I became friends with many of the Oxtopians and they turned the island into a kind of club, connecting people across careers and classes. All the Oxtopians from Town, Gown and County were achievers but were modest with it. The advantage of approaching an interview without preconceptions was that I was constantly surprised by the stories I heard. I told the castaways that I would share the copy with them and that they were welcome to delete anything or add to it. That was why they felt they could trust me and were willing to reveal themselves. For example, Sir Roger Bannister, the famous scientist & runner, told me a story, not then in the public realm, of how he used himself as a guinea pig in an experiment on heat disease.
I castaway the Chinese artist, Weimin He, and he made the cover illustration for the first book, he also attended many castaway related events including the launch of his fellow castaway Ray Foulk’s memoir ‘Stealing Dylan from Woodstock’. In 1969, Ray and his brothers stole Bob Dylan away from Woodstock to the most unlikely location of the Isle of Wight. The Beatles and those festivals blasted through the class-ridden, patronising, conservative norm of the UK I knew as a child. I compared the launch in Blackwell’s and here is Weimin’s sketch of the event.
Ray and I have become friends and we are two of the founders of The Oxford Indie Book Fair (oxib) which has grown and grown. The 2025 Oxib will be opened on Sunday 23 November by the Head of the Bodleian Richard Ovenden. The castaway series had came to an end when Newsquest stopped using freelance writers. I would LOVE to have castaway Richard and many of our speakers including Paterson Joseph with whom I was just interviewed on local radio.
Many famous Americans have passed through Oxford including Bill Clinton whom I never met but I castaway his fellow American, Bill Heine, who worked for a while for Robert Kennedy and documentary filmmaker, Dai Richards who did interview Clinton. I had the privilege of getting to know Steve J Gould when on sabbatical here. There are few scientists famous enough in their life time to be canonised by the US Congress as a ‘Living Legend’ but that happened to Steve. In 1997, he even voiced a cartoon version of himself on The Simpsons. I have used him to inspire a character Steve Darwin in my just published feminist crime thriller Reptiles.
A fellow oxib organiser James Harrison published Oxford Castaways 2&3. The cover illustration of the book above was by his partner and castaway the animator, Joanna Harrison of the Snowman fame.Is it because I am getting old that local radio and Oxford Lives want me to talk about my life history in all its variety.? Unique surely is the way artist Diana Bell has depicted it? My life in one picture! 
Diana is part of the memoir panel on Sunday@oxib. She’ll launch her book – do come. The panel is facinating.
Writing ‘Reptiles’ evoked memories of Bagley Wood
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4430842.run-bagley-wood/?
Reptiles, my latest novel starts with Toad Patrol in Bagley Woods. In this pic, I’m wear my high viz jacket but the month wasn’t appropriate, the amphibians move at the end of February and in March.
This is how I describe Toad Patrol in Reptiles
‘City girl, Alex, was amused when she first heard about Toad Patrol after buying a house in the village. She witnessed residents wearing high-visa jackets patrolling alongside the old Abingdon Road during mating season to protect a throng of frisky toads, newts and frogs from being flattened as they bounced out of Bagley Wood to the pond near Chandlings School. George had explained it to her,
‘Amphibians are not good at dodging traffic so we use torches to spot them as they near the kerb.’ Alex joined the team twice a week the previous year. She learned to place the rescued in buckets. George identified them including their sex, recorded the numbers and carried the buckets across the road where they were released to finish their journey to spawn in their favourite pond.’
I’ve good memories of taking my sons there in the holidays but you had to get permission from the Bursar of St Johns in those days. With Shirley & Idris Jones, John & Gill Hedge & Chris Warner, Atam & I founded the Kennington Peace Group and when the CND activist, Bruce Kent, was walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats, we arranged to meet him for a picnic in Bagley Woods on the way. I think it was 1983. Atam and Justin are talking to Margaret Ibbott. Bruce is sitting on the grass.
I became involved in KOA in 1974.
In the nineties, we started the Bagley Wood Fun Run. In 2013, I made a coup when I persuaded Sir Roger Bannister to open it. He invited the winners to tea with him. In those days, Ekhard Groth followed by Sylfest Muldal organised the Fun Run and it involved a lot of work! It was popularwith runners and walkers for 25 years. I walked it when not a marshall. 
KOA ended after 50 amazing years. Under the KOA banner and using our volunteers, the village ran brilliant events including Kids 4 KOA concerts, Opera Gala Nights, an annual pop up shop–the first in Oxfordshire- &,with the school and church, we ran a village fete. They like the Fun Run ended with KOA.
In 2018, when I stepped down from being chair of KOA we couldn’t find a replacement for me so decided that our 50th anniversary was the perfect time to celebrate our achievements and wind it up.
The final Fun Run was opened by the Lord High Sheriff who changed out of his ceremonial gear to run it.
When I wrote for the Oxford Times between 1998 and 2018, I was lucky enough to get a two page spread for a feature on Bagley Woods.
St Johns College,who own the wood, have been more open in recent years. I contacted Professor Heather Bouman, who has the great title of Keeper of Bagley Woods to try to make the woods family friendly. She’s open to the idea of nature trails and information boards but the wheels turn slowly in the colleges.
So watch this space….
To buy copies of Oxford Castaways 2
Go to
http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk
and click on the cover image.