As a new series of Desert Island Discs gets underway, we investigate the least talked about but most fascinating aspect of the show: the castaway’s book choice…
This March, in the most momentous archival unveiling since Glasnost, the entire back catalogue of the world’s longest-running factual radio programme, BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, went online.
Searchable and sortable, it’s a dangerously addictive resource, especially if you’re the sort of weirdo who’s been carrying around a mental list of eight songs, a book and a luxury since childhood.
Helpfully, the BBC has compiled a list of castaways’ top tunes: Ode to Joy, Land of Hope and Glory, and other drearily predictable fare.
What’s missing, however, is a league table of most requested books. It’s rather a niche interest I’ll admit, but the guest’s choice of desert island reading can be just as, if not more, revealing than their musical picks.
So, in an effort to record the literary tastes of the great and the good, I decided to conduct some research of my own.
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