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Desert Island Discs

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.

Desert Island Discs: Mary Wesley

22/04/1990

Mary Wesley

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Mary Wesley

Sue Lawley's castaway is novelist Mary Wesley

Sue Lawley's castaway is novelist Mary Wesley.

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is novelist Mary Wesley. Although she has written poetry and prose throughout her life, it was not until she was a widow in her 70s, struggling to make ends meet, that she had her first book, Jumping the Queue, published. That was eight years ago, and since then she has gone on to write six more best-sellers like The Camomile Lawn and Not That Sort of Girl. Mary Wesley will be talking to Sue Lawley about the pleasures and perils of her late arrival to literary fame and choosing eight records to accompany her to her desert island.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 7 - Final Movement by Ludwig van Beethoven
Book: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Luxury: Denis Healey or large double bed with pillows

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

Letter from America by Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke’s weekly talks on American life, history and politics from 1946 – 2004.

Alistair Cooke’s weekly talks on American life, history and politics, as broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 1946 – 2004.

Alistair Cooke’s weekly talks on American life, history and politics. Over 900 programmes, as broadcast from 1946 – 2004.

Letter from America by Alistair Cooke: The End of the Eighties - Great or Greedy?

The End of the Eighties - Great or Greedy?

BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, The End of the Eighties - Great or Greedy?

Does the end of the Reagan era mean an end to the culture of greed of the 1980s?

Alistair Cooke muses on the end of the Reagan era and a collective shift away from the greed of the 'me' decade.

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