Howard Jacobson

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Howard Jacobson.

After many years of swiping at literary prizes, last October he walked off with the biggest one going, the Man Booker. His book, The Finkler Question, was a study of what it meant to be Jewish in England. It's a subject that has been very near to Howard Jacobson's heart. He says: "My sense of myself has always meant being on the outside. On the outside as a Jew, looking into gentile England, but also on the outside of Jewishness too. I have always felt myself to be on the outside of everything."

Choices

1.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach’s Cantata No.82 – Schlummert ein ihr matten Augen – Close in sleep, O weary eyelids

Artist: Dame Janet Baker with the Bath Festival Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin

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2.

Salvatore Cardillo & Ricardo Cordiferro

Core ‘ngrato-Ungrateful Heart

Artist: Mario Lanza

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3.

The Whirlwinds

Look at Me

Composer: Petty/Holly/Allison

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4.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Stars Fell on Alabama

Composer: Frank Perkins & Mitchell Parish

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5.

Yossele Rosenblatt

Misratze B’Rachamim

Composer:

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6.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Là ci darem la mano (from Don Giovanni)

Artist: Graziella Sciutti & Eberhard Wachter with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini

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7.

Franz Schubert

Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major

Artist: Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud & Pablo Casals

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8.

Castaway's favourite

Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and His Band

You’re a Sweetheart

Composer: Harold Adamson & Jimmy McHugh

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Book

The Oxford Book of English Verse by Christopher Ricks

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Luxury item

Never ending supply of pressed shirts and trousers

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