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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: Doris Lessing

21/11/1993

Doris Lessing

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Doris Lessing

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Doris Lessing

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Doris Lessing.

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has been described by some critics as Britain's greatest living writer. Doris Lessing will be talking to Sue Lawley about her early life in Southern Rhodesia, from where she was eventually exiled because of what the authorities called her 'subversive activities'.

She'll also be describing the bleak London where she arrived in 1950, clutching her small son, with 40 pounds in her pocket and the manuscript of her first novel, The Grass is Singing.

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

Favourite track: Tea For Two by Louis Armstrong & The All Stars
Book: A Thousand and One Nights
Luxury: Magic carpet

BBC Radio 4

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: Allied troops leave Berlin in 1994

Allied troops leave Berlin in 1994

BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, Allied troops leave Berlin in 1994

The final withdrawal of Allied troops from Berlin in September 1994.

The Allied troop withdrawals from Berlin prompt Alistair Cooke to remember the division of Germany following the Second World War.

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