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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: Molly Keane

13/05/1990

Molly Keane

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Molly Keane

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Molly Keane

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Molly Keane.

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of the most highly acclaimed writers of today. The author of Good Behaviour, Time After Time and Loving and Giving, she began writing in the early 20s using the pseudonym MJ Farrell to conceal her identity from her sporting friends in Ireland, where she was born and grew up. It was a world of snobbery and decaying aristocracy which she portrays in her books with excruciating accuracy.
Then, after a period in the early 50s as a successful playwright, she fell silent, to emerge 25 years later under her real name, Molly Keane, and went on to achieve huge success and literary recognition. Now 86, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her childhood, her books and her Ireland.

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

Favourite track: Greensleeves by James Galway
Book: A bound copy of the Spectator magazines
Luxury: A bed, netted from snakes and flies

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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: Greta Garbo and Jim Henson

Greta Garbo and Jim Henson

BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, Greta Garbo and Jim Henson

The lives and careers of Greta Garbo (1905-1990) and Jim Henson (1936-1990)

The death of Greta Garbo, the way in which television is prolonging the life of movies, and a eulogy for puppeteer Jim Henson, as discussed by Alistair Cooke.

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