Category: Radio
4
Date: 16.01.2005
Printable version
The artist Sam Taylor-Wood
has spoken frankly to the 91Èȱ¬ about her difficult childhood when as
a 15-year-old her mother disappeared - only for Sam and her siblings
to discover months later that she had moved just three doors away and
never told them.
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Speaking to Sue Lawley on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4's Desert
Island Discs, Taylor Wood revealed how unsettling her early years
were.
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She says: "Mum and dad split up when I was nine.
We upped and moved from London to Sussex and suddenly I went from an
urban life to nothing in the countryside - with a new father and new
life.
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"We lived in a horrible dark house which was called
'Sunny Villas' and became a yoga centre. We lived a basic, hippy existence."
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She went on to describe the day her mother left: "She
handed me a note and said 'Give this to your stepdad because I'm leaving
you all.'
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"I asked her where she was going and she said she'd
be in touch. Then we just didn't see her. It was a very strange and
uncomfortable time."
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The difficulty in dealing with her mum's sudden disappearance
was compounded when Sam discovered she was still living nearby.
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She says: "One day I saw her and she was living
three doors away. I was walking to school and saw a blind in a kitchen
window go up and there she was.
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"Then she pulled the blind back down again. I still
can't quite believe that she was there. It's quite extraordinary."
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It was moving out of home at 16 and getting into art
college that helped her turn her life around.
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She says: "I think I was lucky I got into art college.
That's what saved me. From there I got into the system - I was away
from the disaster of it all."
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Sam's chosen music to take to her Desert Island includes
Elton John's Tiny Dancer and Johnny Cash's version of the U2 song One.
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The luxury item she'd take to the island would be a
karaoke machine.
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This interview can be heard in full on Desert Island
Discs on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 at 11.15am today (Sunday 16 January).
