Some showers all possible to night mostly fine but chilly the overnight low going down to 0 degrees Celsius tomorrow sunny in the morning cloud would increase in the afternoon with the chance of showers as a matter is all Lacey's news and weather the next to fall. Into b.b.c. Radio whereas the year. The b.b.c. . Say fine is on digital radio. You know some odd speak it. Has been a guest many a time before. His latest book a pig cooled Alice the story of one man and his fault that story. Straight up to this for. You. To. Believe it. 7 minutes past the Monday afternoon with Rachel for Stephen Foster on the way between 4 and 7 having a right up to date with the latest news now this I guess today. Then writing is broadcasting. Championing courses although we're not talking horses today and not yet anyway his latest book is the story of his pick called Alice which I gather that as a Christmas present for his wife writer and broadcaster Libby. It was. Quite a spectacle the story goes. I was just I was just thinking of starting this little farm of mine I'd spent some time in the late 1980 s. At the clock's famous fall. Down it's the story by naval and with Charles well and I got really infected by the whole business of you know small scale farming my real interest was the it was the Suffolk Punch you know which is as we all know in this county is the biggest animal ever to have walked the earth but if you're going to have a proper old fashioned suffered from which is what I was trying to recreate if you're going to do that you've got to have a pig and it's got to be a breed that was local to the part and the larger black capital a capital b. Was that pig so I decided we would have. Would have a large black pig and I didn't say anything to live because I don't quite. Quite a difficult thing to know what to say isn't it I'm just popping out I'm off to buy a long and bloody. It was just before Christmas and the story goes that I said What do you want for Christmas and she said something expensive Black and Sexy and so I bought out I started like. Only a writer broke out that actually given the money as a as a thank you to Tara Lynn nice to have I had just. As I had because they were exceptionally kind to me I was there sort of is there I was there to write a book but I was there also as their apprentice and. I thought I'd give them a present and they said that they wanted a black pick as well because they thought you know a proper suffered from needs a black paint on it so I actually bought bought them one as a present and Alice was the offspring of because when you. See Dorothy had to take . That leap you even go into that I. Think that is pink I went to see I went to see Mr Mr churchyard who is a well known quite distinguished breeder of large black pigs up. On the Norfolk border somewhere. And I said I think I'm going on the Tuesday as I browned on Thursday for the p.t.o. You'll be all right. So I turn up and there is this pig that I bought for the Clark. In a silver cardboard box with 12 piglets because she'd had them the night before he wasn't quite so he knew that she wasn't paying because I Pacific I wanted a south that was empty. You know plants could breed to breed a bigger and he came up with this lovely expression which I'd never heard before which was he said Oh I'm sorry but she had them last night he said I wasn't too certain when she was going to have her piglets because she'd had a running service. Oh. The idea is that the mind boggles what I wrote any service might be like but he didn't know when when Room answer taken place. Bit of a guess and he was obviously out by a couple of days so I had to I was terrified Riddick I was suddenly I had a pig and I'd taken a trailer to put the put the salve in that was no problem but what was I going to these 12 piglets and we just put them in the boot of the car and I drove them as good a way I judge of and understood when I enter number very well here and I think in the book it says that he was you open that they never thought and to sleep if they don't sleep sleep not the slightest bit interested Yeah so that's the take me. Back to the story of as you deliver job at pigs I did did Libby no one was arriving before you arrived with well I tried to get whether she knew or not I don't really know but I went and picked this. Pick up. From the clocks just before Christmas and our neighbors just down the road we were living in not sure that a neighbor's just down the road had no picked up in their garden because it's always been part of a farm so they said we could keep it there in the secrecy and we walked down on Christmas morning. There was Alison Merry Christmas. What's left to think. Alice was the 1st because she became a real famous pig didn't say Alice did become famous and she did say social media she would have been oh in the new days of social media she would have been a world she was you know how they were and Facebook Payson though they were the card absolutely no doubt about it she is the only pig ever to have been on the London Underground not literally speaking but I used to write a column in The Times newspaper about what went on a little farm and it featured Alice quite often because she was such a star of the show and The Times had not typing campaign and they used bits from various columns on adverts on the London underground so you could say she's been around the circle of life time p. People people. Have been stopped in Oxford Street in London and asked how Alice was . That there is some special relationship between us and pigs which is I really you know I want to be able to explain it but I can't but it does exist people people have a fondness for a pig in the way that they will not have the funds for say a sheep. Possibly possibly cattle but less so but pigs people can find they can somehow bond this interest because a film by sort of said their way out there is a yes we have as well sad but we don't write yes yes you should i thought i think you should I think we should be I think we should be open about it what you've got to remember is these are called farm animals and the fact that they're farm animals means that they are on farms for the purposes of producing food. That's what they are there for but people have this I think slightly wrong idea that if we were to stop farming animals a tall then the world would be full of happy pigs and sheep and cattle rooming around having a nice time the fact is they wouldn't they would become extinct because they have no real use except to provide food you can talk about wall and leather and that kind of thing but that's normal anyone who's kept a flock of sheep will know that the money you get for a fleece is really not worth having so they would just disappear so I don't really have any I've never really had a problem with with eating farm animals I mean you touch. You know I don't know not but this wasn't for me she became she lived lived a happy life we did what I found is that even the hardest hearted of farmers always have at least one animal that they're fond of and know no harm must come its way. And that was certainly the case with Alex we kept a phone we kept her for a long time. We didn't know how long she would live because most people. People don't have any idea how long pigs live because they never later find out if you know to be. A pivot is born today will probably be bacon in 5 or 6 months time. So you know how long does a picture for the answer now is Alice's cases just short of even when you found one seed. Dead in they all said we lived in the orchard in her later life which is a perfect place for people because you know a pig the gets is nice to get his nose into the ground is a really happy pig and all that stuff that falls off apple trees and trees Norma's you know. It's just absolute bliss for pick an orchard absolutely perfect place and we just went to feed one morning and she was dead. Then we had the problem of. Disposing of her and I probably did the wrong thing Actually I'm probably going to be arrested I think when I leave the studio but we buried her I don't know if we were allowed to do that but anyway we got digger in and dug an enormous hole and I mean a seriously enormous hole and we rolled old Alice into it and she went down into this hole with a thump and we had a grand old boy helping us out on the farm called Derek Philby who lived in laced and and Derek had he'd been if he'd been a farm worker or all his life. And he was helping in particular because he was he was really very good at powering all those things you were doing with with Suffolk horses at very interesting that. Comes on this program quite a lot and all those expressions you he's I've heard him talking about the expressions that die out and you know we're losing all these expressions all these expressions that he talks about these are the ones that used all the time coming to who is holy wet or. That was just his language it wasn't. Just the way he taught it he gave his hand to. Roll Alice into her gray just as he did so he gave the most enormous sneeze and his false teeth shot. Landed on top of Alice and so you had to jump down into Alice is a grave and pull the false teeth. Only put them straight back. In the book or you just tell lotsa stories about Alice but also I mean it was a way of learning about pigs wasn't it which was going to be part of your farm for the future one story you say we must talk about was her affair with a god switch for Yes Well this is all a bit embarrassing really afternoon it isn't after. The one of the slight problems with a large black peak from the point of view of the meat they produce is that they do have a massive amount of fat on their back which is very unfashionable. I was in a I was in a function for a couple of days ago and I got some lovely pork chops from Gloucester on spot pigs and you know that the fat of it was a couple of inches thick apps you know if you're into that down and save it for dripping you know you know you'll never catch cold ever but it's out of fashion and people want one lean meat and the way to get a slightly lean piglet from a large black pigs to cross it with a large white pick. You also get rather amusing piglets because they tend to be blackened by Dr sporty although from the look like maps of Europe you know. The question was where to get. A large white boar for Alice and my different Tom warned Tom and Sandy Warner who live in which they had found that home with the tile I'm sure. He had a large wipe or called Cyril who lived in Ipswich I said What do you mean it lives in its region he lives in Ipswich lives in the middle of it which is a killer live in the middle of it he does yeah and there was a slight problem with several because he came home to keep his company but in whatever it was that he lived in Ipswich. It was next door to a bakery. And 4 o'clock every afternoon as the shop was closing all the stuff that was unsold went straight over the war to fatten up this giant ganti boar called Cyril when Cyril came to us and we started to feed conventional pig food like you know ground up barley and midlands and mangle words and stuff like that. He had. To do. It to be a bit like only ever having eaten pizza and suddenly presented with Chinese food you wouldn't know where to start. He didn't lose any weight as he would have you know in the end he would be anything but it was very successful they got on quite well. In just a minute. I think it was. Like yes they're old and I think. Because it was a very special. So this is a pig is the story of one man and his whole and it's published by the history press law on the show and they've given away the book already say you have to. Be away and Iran has to see the competition. And I think. Translates slowing down if you're heading from Woodbridge to southbound side of the eights well from the sacred roundabout the road reports of the place to read dealing with obstruction of some kind. And temporary traffic lights the road just getting out of it changed towards Heathrow is quite slow in the speed sensors. Rather he sat looking quite heavy as well. And it was starting at least. 40. Straight down to the patchy from Josh Norman Barrington straight in the directions . Both directions high street. I'm. A travel if you see something. 1014121 cheap one. D.a.b. Digital radio this is b.b.c. Radio. Yes with us on the highways talking about his latest how many of us have you written that pulled your. Many. One wild song that was my voyage to Cape Horn which was I think we talked back on to me a funny thing about writing books. People say to me I've stopped doing television and people say to me What are you doing these days. I'm writing a book and they said oh you're not working that. Well I guess it depends if you're in the cold on the way and so on their idea but might not feel a lot like well so when you write it I've. Just had to season sailing in Iceland so I ask about Iceland and ask if he was like oh this is easy is a key difference I think the last time you or I can safely I know that's precedent . Name one of the posters you have or used to have on your bedroom. Did you. Realize it yes I can actually and I don't know why it was there. It was posted for Rose ranch come. What it will be my choice at the time I can't imagine why I certainly would have it now. Never ending the rolls or is that funny you'll be wondering that for days and I play a bit of music and I will come back and talk more with. Arabic. We play the music. If I get you somewhere with the $3.00 to $4.00 just over half an hour to go before we catch up with all these got Dominick on the show television with Lynn Mortimer all the news in detail from 5 o'clock and then the final are the police guitarist John Abell and jell Fisk who's going to be at the Help in Billings on new program new ish programs that between 7 and 10 tonight. Different sports in the county and a particular meeting women and girls across the county have powering on in this scene from skateboarders to rugby players football to read. With the between 7 and 10 Nicklaus be with you at 10 o'clock. The radio. Heinie is with a Suffolk man as well how long have you lived. In 183 was when we 1st pitched up here how was that unlike you can you take. Your 40. 7 years yeah to think that counts as likely Well I don't really. Probably and I think suffocates it. Would come back and talk more about your pick called us and a little bit about yourself and stories is on here as well but citing is the light is a sort of the last passions in the things you've been writing about most in the last year the saying goes. Way way beyond all the all the farming so often predates certainly coming to Suffolk the 1st but must be my very early twenties I can tell you exactly how it happened a lot of things in my life seem to happen entirely by accident you know it was coming across the clocks and their farm which was a great influence in my life that was accidental but I was working in. It must have been in the mid seventies I was working as a reporter on a brand new programme on Radio one which was called News beat and when I told people these days that I used to be on Radio one they can't quite believe it or another can I but this was a news program and it was brand new here trying to bring news to do young people who weren't in the slightest bit interested in it and it was a Finn news day it was New Year's Day And so the editor said to me he said it's the 1st day of the London Boat Show go down and bring me back a story. So I got my little portable record or am I rather heavy and big this is a really. Terrible of the year I got on the bus and went to court and I never did find a story but I did buy a boat. I bought I bought a dinky which is completely completely and utterly wrong but because I I just got this idea that what I really wanted to do was sail across horizons in one way or another and I thought well a little bit like a dinghy was what you needed to do that and of course is exactly the wrong kind of it and I soon discovered that I really needed was a boat in which you could make a cup of tea and a boat in which you didn't get very wet and so I ended up. Buying you you know cruising boat eventually but the one that I bought was on the river crouch in Essex and I did I did sail up to Suffolk I can remember bravely she was only a little 17 foot boat but I can remember bravely coming up the river Orwell which seemed to me like the far end of the earth like big zip big ships with no you know you know do go past that and I was having to come through you know through 3 feet because there are inherent chop and all the rest of it but I can remember I can remember doing that it felt like such a brave thing to do to see it all the way from Burnham on Crouch up to the river or you did to me so round the world as well not really rather one I've sailed the sail from the both ends of the Atlantic Ocean because I set off from here about 5 or 6 years ago. To sail down to Cape Horn and back again and that was an 18000 mile round trip and I sailed 11000 of those miles on my own. And that was a produced a book called one wild song Wild song being the name of the boat and that was probably the biggest saving adventure. That I didn't put you off either of this thing well you know you have good days and bad days some days it is absolute bliss and some days you would give anything to be able to get off one of the problems with. With. Being on your own and being on a boat is that. Your whole world shrinks to the size of that boat and there is nothing else beyond it you just have to live within the space that that provides you know there's no going out to the shops or driving here there everywhere and sometimes you get a bit fed up you get a bit depressed knew you just know you just know what would sort all this out in your head and that is to go for a walk and that is the one thing you can never ever do you and so useless like have to put up with it did you do you learn something about yourself or did it make you realize that you do that maybe you are allowed Leben not to say I did a little of evil research when did you did you learn anything about yourself to which I say thank goodness no. No I can't I can't I can't say no I can't say I can't honestly say that I did in that sense know so tell me about it so I could have been signing in Iceland that I'd be saying I saw the on a boat with a cup it's a little bit with a cup of tea and some way to lie down there. And some warmth Yeah Iceland is Iceland is very interesting it's a hugely popular tourist destination there it's a very small place in terms of its population there are only 300000 people in Iceland so it's the same size as Coventry in terms of population spread out over this over this island which is actually mostly barren volcanic country the whole center bit apart from one or 2 settlements is entirely deserted everything happens around the fringes. And really they've the prosperity until recently was derived from the fact that it is the most amazing place in the world for card to grew and that's what their prosperity was based on the catching of course but what I did discover in research. That the trade between Suffolk and Iceland has been going on since the 1415 hundreds and this this well. That. I'd be interested in if you're surprised by this Leslie but in the early 15 hundreds every year 150 ships left Southwold Harbor to sail to Iceland and back again and that was an annual train they used to set off in March which is not a very nice time of year and they'd go up there and they'd take grain or whatever it is they were exporting and they'd bring back dried fish or fish that they caught themselves there and salted down in barrels and then they'd bring it back but. I mean. Difficult to imagine 150 ships in South let alone 150 Shipley weeks of course i