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Howard Jacobson

Writer and Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson joins Kirsty Young to choose his Desert Island Discs.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Howard Jacobson.

After many years of swiping at literary prizes, last October he walked off with the biggest one going, the Man Booker. His book, The Finkler Question, was a study of what it meant to be Jewish in England. It's a subject that has been very near to Howard Jacobson's heart. He says: "My sense of myself has always meant being on the outside. On the outside as a Jew, looking into gentile England, but also on the outside of Jewishness too. I have always felt myself to be on the outside of everything."

Record: You're a Sweetheart
Book: The Oxford Book of English Verse
Luxury: A never ending supply of pressed shirts and trousers

Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 11 Feb 2011 09:00

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Bach's Cantata No.82 – Schlummert ein ihr matten Augen – Close in sleep, O weary eyelids

    Artist: Dame Janet Baker with the Bath Festival Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin

    • Bach: Handel: Solo Cantatas…Baker..
    • EMI classics.
  • Salvatore Cardillo & Ricardo Cordiferro

    Core 'ngrato-Ungrateful Heart

    Artist: Mario Lanza

    • Mario Lanza: For the First Time, that Midnight Kiss.
    • RCA.
  • The Whirlwinds

    Look at Me

    Composer: Petty/Holly/Allison

    • Beat at Abbey Road.
    • EMI.
  • Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

    Stars Fell on Alabama

    Composer: Frank Perkins & Mitchell Parish

    • Ella and Louis.
    • Verve.
  • Yossele Rosenblatt

    Misratze B'Rachamim

    Composer:

    • Jewish Liturgy: Seven Great Cantors.
    • Buda.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Là ci darem la mano (from Don Giovanni)

    Artist: Graziella Sciutti & Eberhard Wachter with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini

    • Don Giovanni.
    • EMI Classics.
  • Franz Schubert

    Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major

    Artist: Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud & Pablo Casals

    • Beethoven/Schubert:Trios Cortot/Thibaud/Casals.
    • EMI.
  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and His Band

      You're a Sweetheart

      Composer: Harold Adamson & Jimmy McHugh

      • Lew Stone & His Band.
      • Decca.
  • Book Choice

    • The Oxford Book of English Verse - Christopher Ricks

  • Luxury Choice

    • Never ending supply of pressed shirts and trousers

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Howard Jacobson

Broadcasts

  • Sun 6 Feb 2011 11:15
  • Sun 6 Feb 2011 11:30
  • Fri 11 Feb 2011 09:00

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