 |
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME INFO |
|
|
|
|
|
Desert Island Discs is one of Radio 4's most popular and enduring programmes. Created by Roy Plomley in 1942, the format is simple: each week a guest is invited by Sue Lawley to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island.
The discussion of their choice is a device for them to review their life. They also choose a favourite book (excluding the Bible or other religious work and Shakespeare - these already await the "castaway") and a luxury which must be inanimate and have no practical use. |
|
|
|
|
LISTEN AGAIN |
|
|
|
|
PRESENTER |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Sue's biography
- Sue's interview
- Quiz about Sue |
|
|
|
"Lawley's consensual, almost sensual probing, producing an ambiguous bond like that between hostage and hostage-taker, is ... a masterpiece of technique."
The Sunday Times 17 March 1996
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME DETAILS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minette Walters
After Minette Walters' father died of injuries sustained in World War II she won a scholarship to Godolphin School, and eventually became Head Girl. From a young age she shunned girls' story books, preferring the more gripping Biggles and later, Agatha Christie. Her ambition was to be a writer, she says "I just adored the whole thing of escapism into somebody else's world. When you're a writer and you are creating a world - you can only relate to one reader at a time, so it's: how do you persuade people? how can you draw the reader into that world so you can share it together? It's very exciting and any good writer, that is exactly what they do - they are tempting you into a world of their creation."
Minette Walters went to Durham University to read modern languages. When she left she took on barmaid and secretarial work that would allow her to continue her writing but all her many manuscripts, in particular plays to BBC Radio, were rejected. Her efforts in magazine publishing were more successful and, after a stint as editor, she soon found herself writing 30,000 word hospital romances.
She was inspired to attempt a novel and after having two children she turned her attention to crime fiction, a subject that had held her interest since childhood. But she says of The Dark Room: "there is virtually no comparison with Agatha Christie - it's much deeper and darker and more naturalistic, realistic, gritty. That's why I put 'fart' in the first paragraph, because I thought, whoever reads the first page of this book is not going to think they are reading an Agatha Christie!"
She has written eight books in 10 years and received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best crime novel published in America for The Sculptress and won the Gold Dagger Award for best British Crime novel in 1994 for The Scold's Bridle. Her books have been translated into 36 languages and five of her books have been made into television films.
Minette says she never knows who has done the crime until she finishes the book: "I set up a limited number - if I knew which one was guilty I would either underwrite them or overwrite them and if I don't know then I still explore them in depth. This joy, of going inside their heads, I'd be bored stiff if I knew what was going to happen."
1. Bohemian Rhapsody
Performer Queen
Composer Queen
Publisher Original Sound Recordings made by Queen
CD Title A Night At The Opera
Band 11
Label EMI
Rec No CDP 746207 2
2. Peggy Sue
Performer Buddy Holly
Composer Allison, Holly, Petty
Publisher Southern Music Publishing Co. Ltd.
CD Title 20 Golden Greats
Band 2
Label MCA
Rec No DMCTV 1
3. The Marseillaise
Performer Placido Domingo with the Choir of the Paris Orchestra
Composer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Publisher Polydor
CD Title Berlioz: Requiem, Domingo/Choeur et Orchestre de Paris/Barenboim
Band CD2 Track 7
Label DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Rec No 437 639-2 & 640-2
4. Symphony Number 9 in D Minor
Performer Various orchestras and choirs, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Composer Beethoven
Publisher Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
CD Title Ode to Freedom
Band 4
Label DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Rec No 429 861-2
5. Free As A Bird
Performer Louis Armstrong
Composer Handy
Publisher Phonoco International 1982
CD Title New Orleans Function
Band S2 4
Label BLACK LION
Rec No BLM 52005
6. Brian before Pilate sketch
Performer Monty Python
Composer Monty Python
Publisher Ganga Distributors BV. C.
CD Title Life of Brian
Band 14
Label VIRGIN
Rec No VCCCD 009
7. I never went away
Performer Cleo Laine
Composer Richard Rodney Bennet
Publisher CBS
CD Title Let the Music Take You
Band S1 T5
Label CBS
Rec No 25751
8. No Puede Ser
Performer Placido Domingo with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma conducted by Zubin Mehta
Composer Sorozabal
Publisher The Decca Recording Company Limited
CD Title Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert
Band 9
Label DECCA
Rec No 430 433-2
If Minette could take just one record it would be No 5 Free As A Bird.
Her book, apart from The Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, would be the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Her luxury would be Van Gogh's Irises.
Check out the Message Board
|
|
|
RELATED LINKS
|
|
|
|
|
