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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Desert Island Discs: Professor Peter Hennessy, historian

12/05/2023

Professor Peter Hennessy, historian

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Professor Peter Hennessy, historian

Peter Hennessy, historian, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne.

Professor Peter Hennessy, historian, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item he would take with him if cast away to a desert island.  With Lauren Laverne.

Professor Peter Hennessy is one of the UK’s leading contemporary historians.  He has written acclaimed and important books about politics, the civil service, the intelligence agencies and the British constitution on which he is an expert. 

Peter was born in London in 1947 and read history at St John’s College, Cambridge.  He started writing for the Times in the mid-1970s, covering the inner workings of Whitehall whose activities at that time were shrouded in secrecy.  Peter says he approached his journalism like an amateur anthropologist trying to discover more about an unknown culture.  His reports were viewed with suspicion by some members of the civil service and Harold Wilson, the then prime minister, issued an edit banning them from talking to him.        

In 1986 Peter co-founded the Institute of Contemporary British History, and in 1992 he moved from journalism to academia at Queen Mary, University of London where he is Attlee professor of contemporary British history. He is a fellow of the British Academy and was made a crossbench life peer in 2010.  During the COVID-19 pandemic he started keeping a diary which he describes as an “aid to humility” with the aim of assessing post-world war history as BC (Before Covid) or AC (After Covid). 

Peter lives in London with his wife Enid. 

DISC ONE: Slow Train - Flanders & Swann
DISC TWO: Italian Concerto in F, BWV 971, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by George Malcolm 
DISC THREE: Why Don’t Women Like Me? - George Formby
DISC FOUR: Schubert String Quintet In C Major,D. 956 - 2. Adagio, composed by Franz Schubert, performed by Robert Cohen (cello) and Amadeus Quartet 
DISC FIVE: The Elements - Tom Lehrer
DISC SIX: London Girls - Chas & Dave
DISC SEVEN: Skye Boat Song - The Pipes and Drums Of Leanisch  
DISC EIGHT: How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place, composed by Johannes Brahms, performed by Festival Choir And Orchestra, conducted by Thomas D. Rossin
    
BOOK CHOICE: Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes
LUXURY ITEM: A fountain pen, ink and paper
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: London Girls - Chas & Dave

Presenter  Lauren Laverne
Producer  Paula McGinley

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