Desert Island Discs

Ann Patchett is an American writer. She is the author of ten novels, several works of non-fiction and three children’s books. Her breakout hit, Bel Canto, won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2002. It was her first bestseller and made her name around the world. Ann was born in Los Angeles in 1963, the youngest of two daughters to Frank and Jeanne Patchett. Her parents divorced when she was just four, and her mother moved Ann and her sister to Nashville where she eventually married her second husband. Ann’s stories are often about family and are sometimes inspired by her own experience of growing up with her biological parents, two stepfathers, a stepmother and numerous siblings. She says, “We weren’t the products of our parents’ happy marriages; we were the flotsam of their divorces.”Ann started publishing journalism and short stories in the 1980s. Her debut novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, followed in 1992, but it wasn’t until her fourth, Bel Canto, which came out in 2001, that she began to make a name for herself.She is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden and has been honoured by the Library of Congress. She owns a bookshop in her hometown of Nashville where she lives with her husband, Karl, and their dog, Nemo.DISC ONE: Burning Down the House - Talking Heads DISC TWO: Annie’s Song - John Denver DISC THREE: I Get a Kick out of You - Bobby Short DISC FOUR: Rainy Night House - Joni Mitchell DISC FIVE: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria. Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Glenn Gould DISC SIX: Aria From "La Wally". Composed by Alfredo Catalini and performed by Wilhelmenia Fernandez (soprano) and London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Cosma DISC SEVEN: Saint-Saëns: Le carnaval des animaux, R. 125: VII. Aquarium. Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns and performed by Alfons Kontarsky, Aloys Kontarsky (piano) and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karl Böhm DISC EIGHT: Dvořák: Rusalka, Op. 114, Act I: O Silver Moon / Song to the Moon. Performed by Renée Fleming, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti BOOK CHOICE: Middlemarch by George Eliot LUXURY ITEM: Notebooks and pens CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria. Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Glenn GouldPresenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Christine Pawlowsky

Plomley's castaway is impresario T C Fairbairn.Favourite track: Prize Song by Richard Wagner Book: The complete works by John Milton Luxury: Tape recorder

Roy Plomley's castaway is poet and broadcaster Pam Ayres.Favourite track: The New St George by John & Chris Leslie Book: The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth Luxury: Large basket of sugared almonds

Kirsty Young's castaway is Jimmy Mulville.He began his life in comedy as a performer and writer but success in front of the camera clearly wasn't enough - he set up the production company Hat Trick and has turned out a huge number of hits, including "Have I Got News for You", "Father Ted" "Room 101" and "Outnumbered". But he says that for many years he was a ticking time bomb - he became addicted to drugs and alcohol and, after triumphing over them, also fought cancer. These days, he is the father to four children and says he looks back with an overwhelming sense of gratitude at how his life has unfolded. Producer: Leanne BuckleRecord: In My Life - The Beatles Book: The Complete works of P G Wodehouse Luxury: A solar powered espresso machine.

Professor Dame Parveen Kumar is a gastroenterologist and co-author of one of the most influential medical textbooks in the world - Kumar & Clark’s Clinical Medicine. She was born in Lahore (then still in British India) in June 1942, one of three children to Cyril and Grace Kumar. When Parveen was four and her hometown was gripped by violence ahead of the 1947 Partition of the country into India and Pakistan, her mother packed up the family and fled to Delhi, then on to Simla, and later still to China before returning to India. Parveen was educated at the Lawrence School in Sanawar and then, following her mother’s decision to move to England, at Paddington and Maida Vale High School before she began studying at Barts Medical School. She specialised in gastroenterology, with a particular interest in coeliac disease, and, in 1982, was appointed one of the first women consultants at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. In 1987, Parveen published Kumar & Clark’s Clinical Medicine, co-edited with her supervisor, Mike Clark. She is a former President of the British Medical Association and the Royal Society of Medicine, a founding non-executive director of NICE, former chair of the Medicines Commission UK, and the recipient of many honours including a Dame Grand Cross (GBE). Professor Dame Parveen Kumar lives in Epsom, Surrey, and has two daughters with her late husband, David Leaver. DISC ONE: Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo. Composed by Pietro Mascagni and performed by Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan DISC TWO: Abide with Me performed by Ian Wells (organist) Liverpool Cathedral Choir and Massed Choirs from Merseyside, conducted by Ian Tracey DISC THREE: Never Give In - The pupils of The Lawrence School, Sanawar DISC FOUR: Ce Monde - Richard Anthony DISC FIVE: Verdi: Un ballo in maschera / Act 2: \"Teco io sto...M'ami, m'ami\". Composed by Giuseppe Verdi and performed by Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Margaret Price (soprano) National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti DISC SIX: The Gendarmes Duet ('We run them in') from Genéviève de Brabant. Composed by Jacques Offenbach and performed by André Previn, Benjamin Luxon (baritone), Robert Tear (tenor) DISC SEVEN: Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59, Act 3: "Marie Theres'! Hab' mir's gelobt". Composed by Richard Strauss and performed by Felicity Lott (soprano), Natalie Dessay (soprano), Angelika Kirchschlager (mezzo soprano) and Royal Opera House Orchestra, conducted by Antonio Pappano DISC EIGHT: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto In D, Op. 35, TH. 59: 3. Finale (Allegro vivacissimo) Performed by Maxim Vengerov (violin) London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Jane Austen LUXURY ITEM: Dark chocolate and Claret CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo. Composed by Pietro Mascagni and performed by Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Tom Alban and Christine PawlowskyDesert Island Discs has cast away many doctors and medical professionals over the years including Stephen Westaby, Professor Dame Pamela Shaw and David Nott.