Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Dame Beryl Bainbridge.

She grew up in Liverpool - in a home filled with acrimony and argument - and started writing when she was still a child. Her only ambition, she says, was to get married and have a 'proper' family, but when her first two children were still young, her marriage broke down and she turned to writing once again. She believes she finds inspiration from the trouble and friction of everyday life and that if her marriage hadn't failed, she would have been too happy to write another word. Now she is one of our most respected authors. She has written 17 novels and countless articles, screenplays and television plays. She's won armfuls of awards too - but, despite being shortlisted five times, she's never won the Booker prize. She doesn't mind not winning, she says, but she would like to be the writer who has had the most nominations.

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

Favourite track: Can I Forget You? by Richard Tauber
Book: The Case Books by John Hunter
Luxury: Pens and Paper. Show less