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Kit de Waal

Michael Berkeley's guest is writer Kit de Waal.

Author Kit de Waal was brought up in a working class family in the Moseley suburb of Birmingham in the 1960s and 70s. She talks to Michael Berkeley about how reading wasn’t part of her childhood; she didn’t discover a love of books until much later in life. Her bestselling first novel, My Name is Leon, written in her 40s, draws on her own childhood experiences and her early career as a legal worker in the foster care system, and she devoted some of the proceeds to setting up a scholarship for aspiring authors from working class backgrounds.

Her music choices include tracks from classic film scores - her father was an avid film buff - including Rachmaninov, Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein's Broadway version of Carmen, alongside Bach, Chopin and Miles Davis.

Producer: Graham Rogers

Available now

36 minutes

Last on

Sun 4 Jun 2023 12:00
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Sergey Rachmaninov

    Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (1st mvt)

    Performer: Evgeny Kissin. Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 & 6 Études-Tableaux.
    • RCA Red Seal.
    • 1.

  • Georges Bizet

    Dat's love (Carmen Jones)

    Music Arranger: Oscar Hammerstein II. Singer: Marilyn Horne. Conductor: Herschel Burke-Gilbert.
    • Carmen Jones (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
    • Top Tracks.
    • 9.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Partita in A minor, BWV 1013: I. Allemande

    Performer: Marion Ralincourt.
    • NoMadMusic.

  • Trad.

    Casadh an tSúgáin (The Twisting of the Rope)

    Singer: Iarla Ó Lionáird.
    • Brooklyn (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
    • Sony Classical.
    • 12.

  • Bill Evans

    Blue In Green

    Performer: Miles Davis. Performer: Miles Davis. Performer: John Coltrane. Performer: Bill Evans. Performer: Paul Chambers. Performer: Jimmy Cobb.
    • Complete Columbia Recordings.
    • Columbia.
    • 5.

  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Ah ch'infelice sempre (Cessate, omai cessate)

    Singer: Andreas Scholl. Ensemble: Ensemble 415. Director: Chiara Banchini.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.

  • Frédéric Chopin

    Prelude in E minor Op.28 No.4

    Performer: Maria João Pires.
    • Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 In F Minor, Op. 21; 24 Preludes, Op. 28.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 7.

Broadcast

  • Sun 4 Jun 2023 12:00
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

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Podcast

  • Private Passions

    Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical loves and hates