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Desert Island Discs
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MISSED A PROGRAMME?
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This Week's Guest:
JP Donleavy
4 March 2007
Repeated
9 March 2007 |
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JP's Choice |
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Photograph by Stephen Hyde
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer JP Donleavy.
The author of a dozen novels as well as numerous plays and short stories, he remains best known for his first novel, The Ginger Man, which is widely regarded as a modern classic.
Born in 1926 and raised in New York, JP Donleavy was the son of Irish immigrant parents. They told him little of Irish culture when he was growing up but, after the war, he moved to Dublin to take up a place at Trinity College. He was already a skilled boxer when he arrived in Ireland and found that street-fighting was almost a form of public entertainment in the city - and one which he excelled in. Despite Trinity's stature, his student life revolved around drinking, partying, writing and painting. He became friends with Brendan Behan and the legendary Irish writer became the first person to read the completed script of The Ginger Man.
Although The Ginger Man was banned in Ireland and expurgated in Britain and America it became a word-of-mouth success. But its publication plunged JP Donleavy into a legal battle that took twenty years to resolve. It was a legal struggle, though, that was worth fighting for - for the past fifty years it has never been out of print. |
1.The Water of Tyne
Performer Farnham Youth Choir
Composer Trad.
CD Title The Water of Tyne
Track 2
Label Herald Records
Rec No:
HAVPCD164
2.Oh Susannah
Performer The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Composer Stephen Foster
CD Title Songs of the Civil War: Mormon Tabernacle
Track 15
Label SONY CLASSICAL
Rec No:MDK48297
3.Annie Laurie
Performer The Red Army Ensemble
Composer Trad.
CD Title The Red Army Ensemble
Track Side 2 trk 4
Label COLUMBIA
Rec No:SAX 2487
4.Second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major
Performer Helen Grimaud
Composer Ravel
CD Title Gershwin/Ravel/Piano Concertos
Track 5
Label ERATO
Rec No:0630195712
5.Land of My Fathers
Performer Fron Male Voice Choir
Composer Trad
CD Title Voices of the Valley
Track 5
Label UNIVERSAL
Rec No: 476 572-0
6 Parce Mihi Domine
Performer The Hilliard Ensemble with Jan Garbarek
Composer Christóbal de Morales
CD Title Officium
Track 1
Label ECM
Rec No:4453692
7.The Humming Chorus
Composer Puccini
CD Title Madame Butterfly
Track CD2 trk 10
Label RCA
Rec No: GD84145
8.Part of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto
Performer Maurizio Pollini with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado
Composer Beethoven
CD Title Beethoven:Klavierkonzert Nr.5
Track 2
Label DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Rec No:4458512
Record: Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto
Book: 1972 Social Registry of New York
Luxury: His own long-handled spoon to make dressings
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