Main content

Denise Robertson

Kirsty Young interviews agony aunt, writer and presenter Denise Robertson.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the agony aunt and writer Denise Robertson.

She is, she says, one of life's survivors -- yet she seems to have had more than her fair share of tragedy; she's been widowed twice, dealt with financial hardship and lost a child to cancer. She's written dozens of novels and for more than forty years been an agony aunt on local radio, papers and television.

She says: "There have been times when I've thought, just as I get things right, fate steps in and kicks the steps from under me. But then you pick yourself up again. When I started out, there used to be a joke, that one day I'd open a letter without saying, 'Oh I remember when that happened to me'."

Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 1 Jun 2012 09:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Peter Ackroyd

Next

Margaret Rhodes

See all episodes from Desert Island Discs

Music Played

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Louis Armstrong

      What A Wonderful World

      Composer: Weiss/Douglas

      • Louis Armstrong – the Great Entertainer.
      • Music for Pleasure.

  • Charles Trenet

    La Mer

    Composer: Charles Trenet

    • CafΓ© Parisien.
    • Not Now.

  • The Duckworth Lewis Method

    Jiggery Pokery

    Composer: Edwin Sykes

    • Duckworth Lewis Method.
    • DCR.

  • Sergey Prokofiev

    Dance of the Knights

    Artist: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti

    • Romeo and Juliet.
    • Decca.

  • Jim Bryant and Marni Nixon

    One Hand One Heart

    Composer: Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim

    • West Side Story.
    • CBS.

  • Joseph Canteloube

    Bailero

    Artist: Victoria de Los Angeles with the Lamoureux Concert Orchestra conducted by Jean Pierre Jacquillat

    • Canteloube: Chants D’Auvergne.
    • EMI.

  • The company of the original London Cast

    One day More

    Composer: composed by Jean Claude Schonberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

    • Les Miserables.
    • First Night.

  • Francesco Sartori

    Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman

    Artist: Time to Say Goodbye

    • The Best of Andrea Bocelli.
    • Sugar.

  • Book Choice

    • A book on practical survival.

  • Luxury Choice

    • An endless supply of pen and paper.

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Denise Robertson

Broadcasts

  • Sun 27 May 2012 10:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 LW
  • Sun 27 May 2012 11:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 FM
  • Fri 1 Jun 2012 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast