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 Gould
Presenter: 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

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 Pawlowsky
Desert Island Discs has cast away many doctors and medical professionals over the years including Stephen Westaby, Professor Dame Pamela Shaw and David Nott.

Matt Haig is the bestselling writer, whose work ranges from magical realism to memoir. His novel The Midnight Library became a global phenomenon, selling 15 million copies, while his memoir Reasons to Stay Alive has provided comfort to millions around the world.
He grew up in Newark-on-Trent in a loving family, though his mother struggled with post-natal depression. Difficulties at school and the death of his grandmother led to a period of teenage rebellion. Matt met his future wife, Andrea, at university and credits her with helping him through the most dangerous period of his life. In their early twenties they spent summers in Ibiza, culminating in Matt’s mental breakdown, and an intense three-year recovery.
In 2015 he published Reasons to Stay Alive, a memoir based on his breakdown. It became a bestseller and transformed his public profile, though the way he handled his newfound success has become one of his biggest regrets. Further literary success came in 2020 with his novel The Midnight Library, which has been published in 56 languages and is being adapted into a film starring Florence Pugh. His children’s book, A Boy Called Christmas, was also turned into a film starring Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins, and Jim Broadbent.
Matt Haig lives in Brighton with his wife, Andrea, and they have two children.
DISC ONE: Here, There and Everywhere - The Beatles
DISC TWO: The flying theme from E.T. - John Williams
DISC THREE: A Forest – The Cure
DISC FOUR: Adagio for Strings.(Ferry Corsten Mix) Composed by Samuel Barber and performed by William Orbit
DISC FIVE: The Boys of Summer - Don Henley
DISC SIX: O-o-h Child - The Five Stairsteps
DISC SEVEN: The Mother We Share – CHVRCHES
DISC EIGHT: You Make It Easy – Air
BOOK CHOICE: The Diaries of Samuel Pepys
LUXURY ITEM: An unlimited A4 refill pad and pens
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Here, There and Everywhere - The Beatles
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Hannah Hufford
Desert Island Discs has cast away other writers to the island over the years including David Nicholls, Kate Atkinson and Bernardine Evaristo. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.
Details of organisations offering help and support with mental health or feelings of distress are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline