Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Desert Island Discs

Discussion & Talk

Podcasts

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Life Stories

Castaway guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Kirsty Young

Robert Harris

Desert Island Discs: Robert Harris

28/11/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Robert Harris

Writer Robert Harris joins Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs.

Best-selling author Robert Harris joins Kirsty Young to choose his Desert Island Discs.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the best-selling writer Robert Harris. 

He was, apparently, a political junkie from a young age; he was just six when he wrote the essay: 'Why me and my dad don't like Sir Alec Douglas Home' and he also had an early realisation that he wanted to grow up to be a writer. His first novel - Fatherland - imagined a world after the Nazis had won World War II. It sold more than three million copies and made him a household name. "I can remember I wrote the opening sentence and I practically had to go and lie down afterwards," he said, "the possibilities of it - and the feeling that I'd finally arrived at what I wanted to do - it was overwhelming." 

Record: Every Day I write the book - Elvis Costello
Book: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
Luxury: A nightly fragrant bath.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Desert Island Discs

Robert Harris

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4