English Recordings

A Could you tell me who your favourite fictional
detective is?
B Yes, my favourite detective's Chief Inspector Wexford. He's the detective in a lot of the crime novels written by Ruth Rendell.
A What do you like about him?
B I like the fact that he's a very real character. For example, he's happily married, which is quite unusual for fictional detectives, he's in his mid-fifties, he lives in a small village near the coast, and he has two grown-up children.
A Is his family important in the books?
B Yes, apart from the murder or crime, part of the stories are always about his family. For example he has two daughters and one of them is an actress, and the other is jealous of her because she's successful and she's Wexford's favourite.
A I suppose he always solves the crimes.
B Well yes, of course he does, but what I like about him is that he doesn't have any incredible powers. He's an extremely good listener, he listens to everything, even pieces of silly gossip, which can often give him a clue which helps him solve the crime. Then he sits at home and works things out. What I really like about him is that he's just an ordinary person who's good at his job.

Well, I did the questionnaire and I scored 18, which means that I'm 'naturally unlucky' and that I 'don't attract good luck. I'm not sure that's really true. I've always thought of myself as being quite a lucky person - I won £50 on the lottery once, which is more than any of my friends have done. It also says that I 'need a more positive and adventurous attitude to life. It's true that I'm not very adventurous, but I think I am positive about life. Maybe I should be a bit more open to new experiences, talking to new people, trying new food and so on - but on the other hand, I'm very happy with the friends I have and the food I eat. I can see that new experiences might be enjoyable, but I'm not sure they really make you luckier. In fact, I think that some people are just naturally unlucky, and there's not much they can do about it.

Someone I admire is the artist William Turner, who was born in London in 1775. I don't know very much about his life, or what he was like as a person - I just really like his pictures. I know that his mother died when he was a child, and he didn't really go to school very much, but he was always good at art, even when he was very young. He had an exhibition at the Royal Academy when he was 15. His paintings are usually very delicate images, often of rivers or lakes or the sea. One day he tied himself to a ship in a storm so that he could really experience the storm before he painted it. He travelled a lot in Europe and painted beautiful cities like Venice and Rome. When he was older, he decided to live a lonely life, painting and travelling on his own. He often refused to sell his
paintings – maybe he already had enough money. He died in 1851, in London, I think.

Actually, I once met several film actors when they were making a TV film in my home town. I even had a part because they needed extras. I just had to walk up and down a street. But I think they edited me out of the final film!
What do I prefer, TV, DVD, or cinema? It depends on the film. If it's a film that I think I'm really going to like, I'd rather go to the cinema to see it. If it's just entertainment, then I'm happy to wait and rent the DVD when it comes out or watch it on TV.
I normally prefer seeing foreign films with subtitles, even if I don't understand the language they're in. I think it's very important to hear the actors' voice and tone.
I've seen several films this year but nothing really fantastic.
Manhattan Murder Mysteries by Woody Allen made me laugh a lot. I thought it was very good.
Manchuga, a Chilean film, made me cry.
A film I have seen several times is Grease. It's my favourite film ever. I have seen it a thousand times and I know the script by heart.

Near my house there are a lot of small Indian shops selling vegetables and spices. I love walking around them, looking at everything.
I suppose my favourite shops are delicatessens. I just love food. I don't think I really have favourite shops for buying clothes, shoes, and books.
For presents, it obviously depends what I am buying and who it's for. I don't have one favourite shop.
I regularly shop at markets, supermarkets, and shopping centres. I like variety, it makes shopping more interesting. I go shopping when I need to and I generally go on my own as it's easier.
I enjoy buying books and I absolutely hate buying swimsuits.
Shopping in the sales is a nightmare as everything is in a mess and there are thousands of people. I hate it.
I go to street markets sometimes - you can often find bargains there.
I have done quite a lot of shopping online. It is so easy. I have bought flight tickets, films, and books.

I'm going to tell you about my sister-in-law, Marjan. She's a cardiac surgeon, so she operates on people with heart problems. It's an incredibly responsible job and very tiring. Some of the operations she does last for hours, like heart transplants, and she has to be standing up and concentrating for all that time. She works really long hours, and she also often has to get up in the middle of the night if a patient of hers has got worse or something. She works in one of the big London hospitals, and she also has a private clinic. I'm not sure what her salary is as we don't talk about things like that, but I imagine it's quite high.
She loves her job in spite of all the downsides. It took her years and years of studying and exams to get to where she is now, and she's passionately interested in what she does. She also spends ages reading articles and keeping up to date, and I think she does some teaching too. Probably her only complaint would be that she doesn't have enough time for her son. He's seven years old and of course she has very little free time for him or for herself.

I think that both men and women read novels but they read different types. Generally men prefer reading science-fiction novels and action-based novels, and women prefer to read novels about feelings, emotions, and personal relationships. I think men find that quite boring and prefer something with more action in it. I know that personally, I don't really like reading science- fiction novels so I'm the stereotype, I suppose.
Well I think generally women like shopping much more than men and they can spend hours looking around shops, not making any decisions, just looking at things. However, my boyfriend and I aren't typical at all because he loves shopping, much more than I do, and he can spend hours walking around all the shops. Whereas I find it really, really boring.

Personally I think banning fast food restaurants would be a good idea, but I don't think you can do that. I mean you can't ban a particular type of restaurant just because the food is unhealthy. People have to take personal
responsibility for what they eat, and if people want to eat burgers, you can't stop them.
But banning cars from city centres, that would be great, that would really make a big difference. We need better public transport, and the best way to get it is to make people leave their cars at home. Anyway, there's nowhere to park in city centres. Some people probably wouldn't like it at first, because everyone uses their cars so much, but it would make the city centre so much nicer if you could walk around without worrying about the traffic. Also you could make pedestrian zones, with trees and cafés, and places to sit and read or just watch the world go by.

I used to have a friend called Matilda. We were together at secondary school. When we were 16 she moved because of her father's job, but we kept in touch. We used to write long letters to each other – email didn't exist then. I went to stay with her a couple of times too. We lost touch after university. I'd love to see her again. We used to be really good friends.
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I used to hate a couple of teachers at school, but I suppose the one I hated the most was my French teacher. He was really horrible. I don't think he liked children or even teaching. He used to be rude to us and he didn't explain things well. I failed French - it was the only subject I ever failed at school.
I used to play a lot of squash, but I recently started playing tennis and now I much prefer it. The problem with squash is that it's pretty hard and aggressive and maybe I'm just not fit enough to play it any more. Also the friend I used to play with always beat me. The great thing about tennis is that it's outdoors, and I play doubles with three friends. It's less competitive and more fun. The only problem is you can't play when it rains.

If I won a dream holiday in a competition, I'd go to Kenya or Tanzania. I've always really wanted to go on safari, ever since I saw the elephants in the zoo when I was five years old.
If I could choose any car, I'd get a Ferrari or something like that. Not very practical, but good fun.
If I could be very good at a sport, I think I'd choose tennis. Every week I play my friend Kate, and every week she beats me. It drives me mad!
If I could choose my ideal job, I'd be a newsreader on TV. The money's good, and you only have to work for half an hour every evening.
If I had more time, I'd learn how to cook properly. I love eating but I'm not very good at cooking. I'd like to be able to cook a really nice dinner for my friends when they come round.
If I could buy a house in another country, I'd buy a ski chalet in the Swiss Alps, with enough room for all my family and friends. We could go there every Christmas - it'd be fantastic.