Sir Tim Waterstone (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 Tim Waterstone. He is a very successful British business man and founded the Waterstones bookshops. Aggie and I have created a podcast called Radio English and we explain some of the vocabulary in the interview (you can listen to it below.)
You can listen to the interview here:
INTRO BY LL
Founded Waterstones 1982
0:50 Initial vision of a literary haven for book lovers
0:54 bursting with stock
Was considered highly unconventional
1:03 many didn’t think it would last (including former employees from WH Smith)
Became the natural choice for book launches
1:16 browsing was actively encouraged and good for business too
70% of book sales were 1:23 impulse buys
Love of books - the most fabulous consumer product
BROWSING
Sooner or later they’re going to buy
2:29 Is it true that you sometimes pop into waterstones to people watch? [LL]
2:32 huge branch in Piccadilly
→ to see how happy people are
BOOK SELLING TRADE CHANGING
Audio books going up, overall book sales going down
Independent book sellers have to be very good
3:17 they can’t survive if they don’t run a proper width, and depth of stock
And people working in the stores who aren’t just enthusiasts but know what they’re talking about
FIRST TRACK (RACHMANINOV)
3:51 A piano that was polished all the time to impress the neighbours
What are you looking for and how much money have you got? Asked the record shop owner
4:19 I’ll give you this scratched record from the back of the shop
→ if you like it then I’ll give you another one like it
4:42 This music just burst out, an absolute total revelation to me
WARTIME CHILDHOOD
6:14 Your father had enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps [LL]
6:19 After following his postings around the country [LL]
6:21 You settled in Crowborough [LL]
Extremely fun! The fighter planes used to fight above us
6:50 They added to the whole spice of things (the Canadian soldier camp)
A shock when my father came home, I’d been a baby when he went away to war
Drew some pictures to give him when he arrived
7:32 I remember her face dropping
“Go away, go away, we’re happy without you here, go away”
7:40 He shrunk back
7:45 If he’d been a man of stronger character, he’d have handled it
V awful relationship
7:54 Dated from that dreadful thing I said to him in the hall
8:01 You said that sarcasm was his weapon of choice [LL]
8:04 Quite a chilling description [LL]
8:06 A weapon that a child can’t weather or combat
8:25 Trying to offset what my father was doing (mother was very affectionate)
8:32 He couldn’t really cope with the world
8:39 I had a terrible stutter from 6 - 13/14
→ had to plan sentences
Lost when he went to secondary school
9:09 I had such a desire to prove him wrong, his disparagement of me
→ Absolutely certain that’s where Waterstones came from
SECOND TRACK
9:36 Very theatrical, very emotional
9:42 A sensationally beautiful piece of work
EARLY LOVE OF READING
10:45 Where and how did you feed your love of reading?
A wonderful bookshop opened in the village
11:11 I remember peering through the window before it opened
Never bought a single book all those years
11:28 Started off with fairly standard childrens books
11:39 Then we went into my moody teenage years
11:55 Mrs Santoro as quite an imposing character
12:00 She caught me licking my finger before turning a page
BOARDING SCHOOL AT AGE 6
Sexually abused by head teacher
12:36 I sincerely believe I wasn’t damaged by it
12:29 I was extremely ignorant, I just thought this must be what life must be like
I did it so stupidly
She was furious with me
13:18 You may have come out of it but most of those children won’t have come out of it
THIRD DISC (ELGAR)
13:53 A velvety, slightly dark quality
TONBRIDGE SCHOOL AGE 13
Life changed for the better
Asked me questions I hadn’t been asked before
15:44 What does the story mean? (Mrs Austen to him)
→ lightbulb went off
15:49 fiction is about meaning some things
15:59 Struck by the atmosphere of both those experiences [LL]
→ that was what you went on to recreate in your shops
16:22 I knew I wanted to create a book selling empire
16:24 Sorry I’m being slightly immodest
16:26 Wanted to create a cross between the book club in Crowborough (the small independent) and Heffers (the University book shop in Cambridge)
FOURTH DISC (A CAROL)
College called St Catherines, next door was King’s college
17:07 I used to go quite often to evensong in King’s Chapel
17:13 Absolutely sublime (the choral music)
BROKING FIRM IN INDIA, FIRST MARRIAGE → BREAKDOWN
18:39 The marriage didn’t last
18:43 Afterwards you suffered a breakdown
18:57 Absolutely unmistakable, it’s not just being depressed or moody or blue
→ Couldn’t move my hands
19:03 I couldn’t construct a sentence
19:12 I was very anxious not to lose my job
Brilliantly they checked me off, which in those days was unbelievable
Put his hand on my shoulder (the dentist)
19:39 I’ve actually blurred the memory of this
Taken to the Maudsley in South London
19:49 They immediately admitted me
→ they must’ve drugged me up
20:06 The dreadful institutional smell of those places
On 5th or 6th day I just did feel better
I absolutely never did (go back)
3 children with first wife, and 3 with second wife claire
PARENTHOOD
21:03 the most blissful experience you could possibly imagine
Love them, give them confidence, and then let them go
FIFTH DISC (MAHLER)
Director and trustee of London philharmonic orchestra
21:59 A legendary conductor
22:06 A terrifyingly frail man with a furious temper too
Recorded the orchestra live
1973 W H SMITH
23:56 Learned a great deal about the book business
23:58 1981 Sacked and left with a redundancy payment of £6000
Happiest day! Hated working there
I was angry + excited
→ should have been scared, all these children to care for
24:31 I was absolutely exhilarated
WATERSTONES
All young arts graduates from Uni who agreed the idea would work
1982 (when it was born)
24:56 The original vision, when you set it out to those staff that you converted
25:01 The place is going to be packed with books
25:12 Trading very long hours
It was illegal in those days to trade on Sundays! Did it anyway
25:17 And we got away with it
25:20 What I impressed on everybody was that we were going to open branch after branch after branch
No head office really
→ 3 people in the head office but only space for 2 chairs so third would have to sit on the loo !
Everything was pushed to the branches
25:55 Wonderful thrust of new authors
No literary festivals, these were those
SIXTH DISC (VIOLIN CONCERTO)
26:34 A period of immense personal happiness in my life
27:00 Absolutely transfixed with the beauty of the record
BUSINESS EXPANSION
28:34 Notable for your aggressive tactics
28:37 Challenging established book shops
28:41 Sometimes you’d open near a lone independent, result would sometimes be them going out of business
Led to closing of Alan Bennet’s favourite book store
29:20 They’d had the shot (the independent stores which were shutting down)
People say I am Personally responsible for closing down so many independent stores but Waterstones when it started out was the smallest independent store you could possibly imagine
What we had was self confidence, a very clear vision and wonderful staff and stock
29:49 We weren’t sympathetic
SUCCESS
29:54 “Success is not the making of a fortune but the making of a point”
Who are you proving yourself to? [LL]
My father + the world
30.30 what did she make of it? (his success)
Sold it to WH Smiths in ‘93
31.08 which they did honour (WH Smiths honoured the amount of investment they said that they would)
SEVENTH DISC
Song that would remind him of London
THIIRD WIFE
32.39 A 25 year age difference (49/24)
32.57 Coup de foudre (love at first sight)
LOOKING BACK
33.13 You’ve just written a memoir
33.20 Parts of his private life that have been catastrophic
33.26 Feels very blessed
GOING TO THE ISLAND
Intends to look out at the horizon of the crystal blue sea
35.00 I’d be completely incapable of constructing a raft
The Oxford Dictionary of English Verse
A photograph of his wife