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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: Professor George Steiner

18/02/1996

Professor George Steiner

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Professor George Steiner

Sue Lawley's castaway is academic and critic Professor George Steiner

Sue Lawley's castaway is academic and critic Professor George Steiner.

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Professor George Steiner. One of the most prominent intellectuals of our time, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how the English academic establishment has taken decades to accept him despite his early popularity as a Cambridge lecturer, and about the problem of reconciling the love of beauty with great acts of evil.
He'll also be describing how his family left Austria for France in the 1920s and how he was one of only two boys to survive in his class in the largely Jewish lycee he attended in Paris. 

When asked to select just one record to take to the island, Professor George said that for him, it was all or nothing.

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

Book: 500 year ahead calendar and appointment book
Luxury: Computer

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: The Helms-Burton Bill

The Helms-Burton Bill

BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, The Helms-Burton Bill

Trade with Cuba, and the importance of tobacco to the American south.

The Helms-Burton bill, which penalises foreign companies doing business with Cuba, Senator Jessie Helms and tobacco , and the importance of  Southern states to President Clinton.

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