H. de Vere Stacpoole
This is the first talk in a reminiscent series to be given fortnightly by established broadcasters. H. de Vere Stacpoole, whose talks in the Savoy Hill days will be remembered by many listeners, is famous as the author of ' The Blue Lagoon ', and is surely the most versatile of living novelists. Stories as different as ' The Pools of Silence ' and ' The Street of the Fluteplayer ' have come from his pen, and nobody who read ' Patsy ' and ' Garryowen ' could possibly doubt his being an Irishman.
He is to speak of his childhood and youth—especially his childhood spent at Kingstown. His mother knew Charles Lever and was well up in Irish folk lore; he says that he attributes to her whatever gifts he may have for writing. An Irish doctor, who was stone deaf and carried a stethoscope in his hat, gave him the idea of becoming a doctor. The great charm of his talk lies in his description of the Irish characters he met around his home as a child, among them Macmahon, a gardener, who saw fairies and believed that ships that never came back sailed into the full moon.