Arnold Wesker

First broadcast: Sun 17 Dec 2006

Playwright

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the playwright Sir Arnold Wesker. He's a prolific writer and has penned more than 40 plays as well as books of poetry, short stories, children's tales and most recently a novel. But he first came to prominence in the late 1950s as one of the group of Angry Young Men; dramatists who made their art out of the stuff of everyday life.

He was the son of Jewish communists and was brought up in the East End of London in the 1930s. He remembers being taken on marches and demonstrations and says that memories of Cable Street, when Oswald Mosley was prevented from marching his blackshirts through predominantly Jewish areas of London, weighed heavily in his home. His background strongly informed his writing and his first five plays were all staged at the Royal Court Theatre. He says that even today, he must write something each day as a way of justifying his existence - even if it is only his daily diary entry.

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

Choices

José Pablo Moncayo

Huapango

Orchestra: Orquesta Sinfonica De Minerai Conductor: Herrera De La Fuente

Others who chose this artist

Shigeaki Saegusa

Oratorio Yamato Taker

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Magnificat in D major

Soloist: Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger, Barbara Bornemann, Peter Schreier, Olaf Bar

Others who chose this artist

Castaway's favourite

Arnold Schoenberg

Gurrelieder (finale)

Orchestra: The Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Berlin

Others who chose this artist

Ben Till / Arnold Wesker

Shone with the Sun

Soloist: Katina Kangaris, Fiona Brice, Alice Butcher, Rebecca Todd, Megan Stewart

Richard Strauss

Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren (from Der Rosenkavalier)

Soloist: Christa Ludwig and Teresa Stich-Randall Orchestra: The Philharmonia Orchestra Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Others who chose this artist

Lionel Richie

Dancing on the Ceiling

Others who chose this artist

Joe Satriani

Cryin’

Others who chose this artist

Book

Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

Others who chose this author

Luxury item

Supplies of pen and paper

Others who chose a similar luxury

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