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Desert Island Discs

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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.

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Kirsty Young

Torquil Norman

Desert Island Discs: Sir Torquil Norman

Sir Torquil Norman

12/12/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Sir Torquil Norman

Aviator and arts patron Sir Torquil Norman joins Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs.

Philanthropist, businessman and aviator Sir Torquil Norman joins Kirsty Young to choose his Desert Island Discs.

Kirsty Young's castaway week is the aviator, inventor and arts patron, Sir Torquil Norman. 

He comes from a family where derring-do is in the DNA - his grandfather was a pioneering airman, his grandmother an adventurer and his father also a keen pilot. 

Torquil ended up in the toy trade where the skills needed were, he says, a close attention to detail combined with the outlook on life of a seven year old. He was, he admits, perfectly qualified. In retirement he set about his biggest project - he bought a disused railway engine shed and raised tens of millions of pounds to safeguard its future as a venue for performing arts and a centre for young people.

Record: Nobody Knows You when You're Down and Out - Bessie Smith
Book: Book by his father: Nigel Norman - Verses 1911 - 1943. 
Luxury: A miniature still with a little ice-making machine attached to it to make dry martinis.

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