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Katharine Whitehorn

Sue Lawley's castaway is journalist Katharine Whitehorn.

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the journalist Katharine Whitehorn. Katharine Whitehorn was the first journalist to write a column about her personal and domestic life and draw broader truths from her experiences - it's the kind of material that is now commonly found on women's pages and is satirised in Private Eye's Polly Filler - but in the 1950s and 1960s it was a new phenomenon and she was its brightest and wittiest exponent.

She came to journalism through a circuitous route that took in Picture Post, Woman's Own and The Spectator, but it was on the Observer - where she worked for more than 30 years - that she really made her mark. She was at the vanguard of a generation of women who were told they could 'have it all' and she may even be the only one to have managed it - a successful, well-paid career, a happy marriage and complete family. While at the Picture Post she met Gavin Lyall - who went on to become a successful novelist - they had two sons and were married for 45 years until his death in 2002. She is now the agony aunt for Saga Magazine.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Slow movement of Double Violin Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach
Book: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Luxury: A machine to distil whatever is there

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 6 May 2005 09:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Josephine Cox

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Music Played

  • John Denver

    Follow Me

    • John Denver's Greatest Hits.
    • RCA.

  • FrΓ©dΓ©ric Chopin

    Waltz in A flat major, Op. 34/1

    Soloist: Alan Schiller

    • Chopin: the Complete Waltzes.
    • ASV.

  • Pascal Bastia

    Je Tire Ma Reverence

    Soloist: Jean Sablon Orchestra: Wal-Berg's Orchestra

    • Je Tire Ma RΓ©vΓ©rence.
    • Conifer.

  • Jean Sibelius

    Finlandia

    Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy

    • Sibelius: Finlandia.
    • Decca.

  • Ella Fitzgerald

    Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

    • Cool Summer Jazz.
    • Virgin.

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Concerto for Two Violins in D minor - 2nd movement

      Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Sir Colin Davis

      • J S Bach: Concertos pour violin.
      • EMI.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major - 2nd movement

    Soloist: Arthur Grumiaux Orchestra: The London Symphony Orchestra

    • Mozart.
    • Philips.

  • Franz Schubert

    Impromptu in F Minor, D935 No. 4

    • Schubert: Impromptus D.899 and D.935.
    • CBS.

  • Book Choice

    • A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

  • Luxury Choice

    • A machine to distil whatever is there

Credits

Presenter Sue Lawley
Interviewed Guest Katharine Whitehorn

Broadcasts

  • Sun 1 May 2005 11:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Fri 6 May 2005 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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