BBC Radio 4 LW

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: Jeanette Winterson

09/10/1994

Jeanette Winterson

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Jeanette Winterson

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Jeanette Winterson

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Jeanette Winterson.

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Jeanette Winterson. Her first book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was based on her Lancashire childhood where she grew up as the adopted daughter of evangelical parents. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her upbringing - in which her parents saw her as a child they could dedicate to God, about how she left home at 15 after falling in love with another woman and about how she finally managed to get herself into Oxford.

Her first book won the Whitbread Prize and has been followed by more books and more prizes, all of which have attracted criticism and acclaim in equal measures.

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

Favourite track: Di, Cor Mio from Act 1 of Alcina by George Frideric Handel
Book: Four Quartets by T S Eliot
Luxury: A case of Krug champagne

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: Diane Feinstein's forestry bill

Diane Feinstein's forestry bill

BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, Diane Feinstein's forestry bill

The drama of Congressional voting, as highlighted by Diane Feinstein's forestry bill.

Senator Diane Feinstein's heroic effort to pass a bill in Congress for the protection of 6 million acres of Californian desert highlights the drama of congressional voting. 

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