Stephen King

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the author Stephen King. He's written more than 40 novels, won 23 major awards and sold hundreds of millions of books worldwide. He is best known for his tales of small-town America corrupted by the supernatural and macabre; with novels such as The Shining, Misery, Salem's Lot and Carrie making him a household name.

His first success came with Carrie - at the time he was scraping a living as a teacher, living with his young family in a trailer and writing short stories to supplement his income. He threw the first draft of Carrie in the bin and it was his wife Tabitha who fished it out and urged him to finish it. But with success came drug and alcohol abuse - and again it was his wife who intervened and encouraged him to stop. He nearly gave up writing after a road accident in 1999 which nearly killed him. But, to the delight of his legions of fans, he took up his pen again and the stories keep on coming.

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

Choices

1.

The Beatles

She Loves You

Others who chose this artist

2.

Castaway's favourite

Bob Dylan

Desolation Row

Others who chose this artist

3.

James McMurtry

Choctaw Bingo

Others who chose this artist

4.

The Pretenders

Middle of the Road

Others who chose this artist

5.

Old 97's

Barrier Reef

Others who chose this artist

6.

Bruce Springsteen

Ramrod

Others who chose this artist

7.

Rihanna

Pon De Replay

Others who chose this artist

8.

Ryan Adams

When the Stars Go Blue

Others who chose this artist

Book

Collected poetry by W H Auden

Others who chose this author

Luxury item

Water hammock

Others who chose a similar luxury