BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Athene Donald

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Athene Donald

Duration:: 45 minutes

First broadcast:: Sunday 22 March 2009

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the scientist Athene Donald. A Cambridge professor and fellow of the Royal Society, she has dedicated much of her life to studying everyday objects like plastic, food or plants. Her enthusiasm is so strong that, at her daughter's eleventh birthday party, she couldn't resist describing the structure of melting ice-cream - it was a rare case of misjudging her audience.

By her own admission she is a workaholic - but she also champions the cause of women who want to become scientists and have families too. Her great triumph was to marry a supportive husband and after that, she says, the trick is learning how to cut corners: there are no 'dainty dinner parties' at her home, and she makes sure her clothes are machine washable and easy-iron.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: The Dies Irae (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Book: The Lymond Novels by Dorothy Dunnett
Luxury: A bat.

Shades Blue Skies
Barbershop Bonanza, Saydisc
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathétique' - 1st movement
Soloist: John Lill
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, ASV
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem in D minor - Dies Irae
Choir: Members of the Choir & Les Arts Florissants Conductor: William Christie
Mozart Requiem, Erato
Paul Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Hindemith: Mathis der Maler. Violin Concerto, Eloquence
Joseph Haydn String Quartet in D major, Op. 64/5 ‘The Lark’
Orchestra: Hagen Quartet
Haydn: String Quartet, Deutsche Grammophon
Enrique Granados Oriental March (from Piezas sobre cantos populares españoles)
Soloist: Alicia de Larrocha
Granados: Goyescas, EMI Classics
Franz Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' - 2nd movement
Orchestra: The Juilliard String Quartet
Schubert: String Quartets Nos 12-15, CBS
Ralph Vaughan Williams Dirge for two veterans (from Dona nobis pacem)
Soloist: Yvonne Kenny & Bryn Terfel Orchestra: the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra Conductor: Richard Hickox
Vaughan Williams: Sancta Civitas, EMI

Archive audio

This episode of Desert Island Discs is from the archive.
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