BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Robert Harris

More episodes

Robert Harris

Duration:: 45 minutes

First broadcast:: Sunday 28 November 2010

Kirsty Young's castaway is the best-selling writer Robert Harris.

He was, apparently, a political junkie from a young age; he was just six when he wrote the essay: 'Why me and my dad don't like Sir Alec Douglas Home' and he also had an early realisation that he wanted to grow up to be a writer. His first novel - Fatherland - imagined a world after the Nazis had won World War II. It sold more than three million copies and made him a household name. "I can remember I wrote the opening sentence and I practically had to go and lie down afterwards," he said, "the possibilities of it - and the feeling that I'd finally arrived at what I wanted to do - it was overwhelming."

Record: Every Day I write the book - Elvis Costello
Book: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
Luxury: A nightly fragrant bath.

Johann Sebastian Bach St Matthew Passion - Mache dich, mein Herze
Artist: Ulrik Cold
St Matthew Passion, Harmonia Mundi
Tommy Dorsey On the Sunny Side of the Street
Composer: Fields/McHugh
Hits of 44, ASV
Antonio Vivaldi Gloria in D Major
Artist: The English Concert and Choir, led by Trevor Pinnock
Gloria-Vivaldi-Corelli…, Archiv
Stubby Kaye (with chorus) Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat
Composer: Frank Loesser
Guys and Dolls: Original Broadway cast, MCA
Georg Philipp Telemann Concerto for Three Oboes, Three Violins and Bass
Artist: The Concentus Musicus of Vienna led by Nicolaus Harnoncourt
Telemann: Double Concertos, Teldec
Elvis Costello Every Day I Write the Book
Composer: Costello
Very Best of Elvis Costello, Universal Music tv
Antonio Lotti Gloria
Artist: Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble led by Thomas Hengelbrock
Lotti.Missa Sapientiae.Bach…, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi
Charles Trenet La Mer
Composer: Charles Trenet
Charles Trenet, Columbia

BBC Radio 4Sun 28 Nov 2010 11:15 BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4Fri 3 Dec 2010 09:00 BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Disc Fragment Archive 1942-1959

Some Desert Island Discs programmes only exist in their incomplete form. They may be missing...
Desert Island Disc Fragment Archive 1960-1969

Some Desert Island Discs programmes only exist in their incomplete form. They may be missing...
Desert Island Disc Fragment Archive 1970-1986

Some Desert Island Discs programmes only exist in their incomplete form. They may be missing...
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1951-1955

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1956-1960

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1961-1965

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1966-1970

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1971-1975

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1976-1980

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1981-1985

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1986-1991

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1991-1996

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 1996-2000

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 2000-2005

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs Archive: 2005-2011

Castaways choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the mythical desert island....
Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young

Kirsty Young asks castaways to choose eight records, a book and a luxury to take with them to the...