Katharine Whitehorn

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the journalist Katharine Whitehorn. Katharine Whitehorn was the first journalist to write a column about her personal and domestic life and draw broader truths from her experiences - it's the kind of material that is now commonly found on women's pages and is satirised in Private Eye's Polly Filler - but in the 1950s and 1960s it was a new phenomenon and she was its brightest and wittiest exponent.

She came to journalism through a circuitous route that took in Picture Post, Woman's Own and The Spectator, but it was on the Observer - where she worked for more than 30 years - that she really made her mark. She was at the vanguard of a generation of women who were told they could 'have it all' and she may even be the only one to have managed it - a successful, well-paid career, a happy marriage and complete family. While at the Picture Post she met Gavin Lyall - who went on to become a successful novelist - they had two sons and were married for 45 years until his death in 2002. She is now the agony aunt for Saga Magazine.

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

Choices

1.

John Denver

Follow Me

Others who chose this artist

2.

Fryderyk Chopin

Waltz in A flat major, Op. 34/1

Soloist: Alan Schiller

Others who chose this artist

3.

Pascal Bastia

Je Tire Ma Reverence

Soloist: Jean Sablon Orchestra: Wal-Berg's Orchestra

4.

Jean Sibelius

Finlandia

Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy

Others who chose this artist

5.

Ella Fitzgerald

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

Others who chose this artist

6.

Castaway's favourite

Johann Sebastian Bach

Concerto for Two Violins in D minor - 2nd movement

Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Sir Colin Davis

Others who chose this artist

7.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major - 2nd movement

Soloist: Arthur Grumiaux Orchestra: The London Symphony Orchestra

Others who chose this artist

8.

Franz Schubert

Impromptu in F Minor, D935 No. 4

Others who chose this artist

Book

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Others who chose this author

Luxury item

A machine to distil whatever is there

Others who chose a similar luxury

Roy Plomley's castaway is newspaper columnist Katharine Whitehorn.

Choices

1.

Castaway's favourite

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat major

Soloist: Dennis Brain Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Others who chose this artist

2.

Jean Sablon

Je Tire Ma Reverence

Artist: Wal Berg and his Orchestra

Others who chose this artist

3.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major

Soloist: Yehudi Menuhin Orchestra: Robert Masters Chamber Orchestra

Others who chose this artist

4.

Harry Belafonte

I'm Just a Country Boy

Others who chose this artist

5.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major

Soloist: Annie Fischer Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra Conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch

Others who chose this artist

6.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A major

Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Others who chose this artist

7.

The Modern Jazz Quartet

One Never Knows

Others who chose this artist

8.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Concerto for Two Violins in D minor

Soloist: Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras Orchestra: Festival Chamber Orchestra Conductor: Yehudi Menuhin

Others who chose this artist

Book

Her favourite works by William Faulkner

Others who chose this author

Luxury item

Negligee

Others who chose a similar luxury