Denise Robertson

Kirsty Young's castaway is the agony aunt and writer Denise Robertson.

She is, she says, one of life's survivors -- yet she seems to have had more than her fair share of tragedy; she's been widowed twice, dealt with financial hardship and lost a child to cancer. She's written dozens of novels and for more than forty years been an agony aunt on local radio, papers and television.

She says: "There have been times when I've thought, just as I get things right, fate steps in and kicks the steps from under me. But then you pick yourself up again. When I started out, there used to be a joke, that one day I'd open a letter without saying, 'Oh I remember when that happened to me'."

Choices

1.

Castaway's favourite

Louis Armstrong

What a Wonderful World

Composer: Weiss/Douglas

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2.

Charles Trenet

La Mer

Composer: Charles Trenet

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3.

The Duckworth Lewis Method

Jiggery Pokery

Composer: Edwin Sykes

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4.

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev

Dance of the Knights

Artist: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti

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5.

Jim Bryant and Marni Nixon

One Hand One Heart

Composer: Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim

6.

Joseph Canteloube

Bailero

Artist: Victoria de Los Angeles with the Lamoureux Concert Orchestra conducted by Jean Pierre Jacquillat

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7.

The company of the original London Cast

One day More

Composer: composed by Jean Claude Schonberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

8.

Lucio Quarantotto & Francesco Sartori

Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman

Artist: Time to Say Goodbye

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Book

A book on practical survival. by

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Luxury item

An endless supply of pen and paper.

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