Desert Island Discs has run on BBC radio since 1942 and its archive is now accessible. This book is the first to assess the programme from a scholarly perspective. Chapters by musicologists, sociologists, and media scholars are complemented by personal spins by 'castaways', who reflect on talking publicly about the role of music in their lives.

‘For seventy years now Desert Island Discs has managed that rare feat – to be both enduring and relevant. By casting away the biggest names of the day in science, business, politics, showbiz, sport and the arts, it presents a cross-sectional snapshot of the times in which we live. As the decades have passed, the programme has kept pace; never frozen in time yet always, somehow, comfortingly the same.’ Kirsty Young BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs celebrates its seventieth birthday in 2012. Since the programme’s deviser Roy Plomley interviewed comedian Vic Oliver in January 1942, nearly 3,000 distinguished people from all walks of life have been stranded on the mythical island, accompanied by only eight records, one book and a luxury. Here the story of one of BBC Radio 4’s favourite programmes is chronicled through a special selection of castaways. Roy Plomley, inventor of the programme as well as its presenter for over forty years, quizzes the young Cliff Richard about ‘these rather frenzied movements’ the 1960s pop sensation makes on the stage. Robert Maxwell tells Plomley’s successor Michael Parkinson that ‘I will have left the world a slightly better place by having lived in it.’ Diana Mosley assures Sue Lawley that Adolf Hitler was ‘extraordinarily fascinating’ and had mesmeric blue eyes. And Johnny Vegas tugs Kirsty Young’s heart-strings with his account of a childhood so impoverished that family pets were fair game: ‘My dad had always claimed that rabbits were livestock, but we’d never eaten one before.’ Desert Island Discs is much more than a radio programme. It is a unique and enduringly popular take on our lives and times – and this extensively illustrated book tells in rich detail the colourful and absorbing story of an extraordinary institution.

A “deeply impressive . . . devastating but quite stunning” novel about doomed love and ambition in Nazi Germany (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). Set during World War II amid the trenches of the eastern front and the turmoil of Berlin under the Third Reich, The Undertaking intertwines the lives of two German strangers entering into a proxy marriage of convenience, self-interest, and of ideology. Peter Faber is a soldier desperate to escape the madness of war if only by a three-week honeymoon leave. His new wife is Katharine Spinell, a resourceful young woman from Berlin who anticipates the likelihood of a widow’s pension should Peter die in battle. When they finally meet there is an attraction as unexpected as it is intense. But as Peter returns to Stalingrad, and as Katherine ruthlessly works her way into Nazi high society, the tides of war change. So do Peter and Katharine’s fates and fortunes, in this “bold, honest novel about Nazi greed and moral blankness . . . and the small people who are inseparably part of a great ravagement” (The Guardian). Finalist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, The Undertaking is “one of the most riveting accounts of love in time of war that this reviewer has ever read” (Library Journal (starred review)—“a violent, elegant, unsentimental journey through hell and halfway back” (Chris Cleave, New York Times–bestselling author of Everyone Brave is Forgiven).

A wonderfully entertaining and fascinating mosaic of the 1970s, arguing that it was much more than just the decade that taste forgot and actually represents a key period in 20th-century culture.

We all have treasures hidden away in the attic, well-loved and well-worn belongings that have been passed down from generation to generation. They may be damaged or no longer working, but we can't bear to part with them. The expert craftspeople of hit BBC series The Repair Shop are dedicated to restoring and conserving these heirlooms. They know that the true worth of these possessions doesn't lie in their monetary value, but in the memories they hold and the stories they tell. In this fascinating book, you'll step inside The Repair Shop's Workshop of Dreams to explore some of the most moving family stories from the hit BBC series. From a glamorous sequinned dress that belonged to a popular travelling circus performer to a pump organ that was brought from Jamaica by a member of the Windrush generation, each family item is brought vividly to life - and lovingly restored by the team of Repair Shop experts who also contribute to these expanded stories. With a foreword by Jay Blades, Tales from the Workshop of Dreams is a heartfelt love letter to our collective past, and a fascinating slice of social history. This book features items fixed by Repair Shop experts Steve Fletcher, Will Kirk, Lucia Scalisi, Suzie Fletcher, Kirsten Ramsay, Dominic Chinea, Brenton West, Tim Gunn, Sara Dennis, Chris Shaw, Matt Nickels, Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell. With great care and attention to detail, the Repair Shop team resurrect priceless pieces of family history and breathe new life into the stories they hold.

This book explores the idea of the poetic in radio and sound as well as the concept of pure sound as poetry, both historically and within a contemporary perspective, examining examples of makers and works internationally. The work examines the development of poetic forms in sound broadcasting historically and geographically through chapters taking narrative themes. It includes primary source material gathered through interviews conducted by the author with distinguished producers and poets. Among these are producers Piers Plowright, Matt Thompson, Alan Hall, Simon Elmes and Julian May (UK) Edwin Brys, (Belgium) Hildegard Westerkamp (Germany/Canada) Chris Brookes (Canada) Robyn Ravlitch, Michael Ladd and Kaye Mortley (Australia) as well as poets, including Michael Symmons Roberts and Jeremy Hooker. There is a chapter on the poetic sound in the natural world, which focuses in particular on the work of the renowned UK sound recordist, Chris Watson. Alongside audio poetry, the book discusses the spoken word including documentaries and public announcements, the radio feature, soundscapes, sonic art with contributions from key figures such as Colin Black (Australia) and Marcus Leadley (UK)and the poetry of the vernacular in speech and sound. It considers new platforms for listening including podcasts and developments in mobile technologies, examining the work of current practitioners including Francesca Panetta, who is responsible for The Guardian's podcasts as well as the award-winning Hackney Podcast, and Tim Wright.