The BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs invites castaways to choose eight pieces of music, a book (in addition to the Bible – or a religious text appropriate to that person's beliefs – and the Complete Works of Shakespeare) and a luxury item that they would take to an imaginary desert island, where they will be marooned indefinitely.
The rules state that the chosen luxury item must not be anything animate or indeed anything that enables the castaway to escape from the island, for instance a radio set, sailing yacht or aeroplane. The choices of book and luxury can sometimes give insight into the guest's life, and the choices of guests from 2011 to 2020.
Desert Island Discs takes two short breaks, in (the northern) spring and summer. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts new programmes for approximately 42 weeks each year on Sunday mornings, usually with a repeat transmission 5 days later. On Remembrance Sunday (in November) the programme is not broadcast but that week's programme gets a single airing in the Friday repeat slot.
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
[1] | ||||
Michelangelo's Pietà[2] | ||||
[3] | ||||
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier | Eau de Soir perfume by Sisley[4] | |||
by Doris Kearns Goodwin | [5] | |||
Oxford Book of English Verse | [6] | |||
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | [7] | |||
Ripley's World by Andy Ripley | [8] | |||
[9] | ||||
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Golf clubs[10] | |||
Dictionary | [11] | |||
Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim | A bronze sculpture by Giles Penny[12] | |||
The Larousse French/English Dictionary | Hot water bottle[13] | |||
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Piano with music[14] | |||
The History of the Colony by Sophie Parkin | Her entire outfit including her Andrew Logan brooch[15] | |||
The complete works of August Wilson | A basic word processor[16] | |||
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | [17] | |||
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy | Grand piano[18] | |||
A tropical recipe book | His own drum kit[19] | |||
Roget's Thesaurus | Mosquito repellent[20] | |||
An anthology of British poetry | Set of golf clubs and balls[21] | |||
The complete works of Isabella Bird | Flute[22] | |||
Luxury mattress and pillow[23] | ||||
The complete works of Saki | [24] | |||
The Complete Prose of Woody Allen | Pen[25] | |||
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | A solar powered digital photo album[26] | |||
The Most of S J Perelman | His blue suede shoe[27] | |||
Puckoon by Spike Milligan | [28] | |||
[29] | ||||
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer | [30] | |||
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | [31] | |||
McLaren SLR sports car with petrol[32] | ||||
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | [33] | |||
The Complete Works of Wole Soyinka | [34] | |||
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope | [35] | |||
Poem of the Day | [36] | |||
The Great Warbow by Robert Hardy and Matthew Strickland | Young Girl in Profile, 1495 – De Predis[37] | |||
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe | A laminated photo of his family[38] | |||
The Talmud | Cricket bat, ball and stumps[39] | |||
Tweezers[40] | ||||
The complete works of Anthony Trollope | Two enormous casks of Château Margaux[41] | |||
Classic Electrodynamics by John David Jackson | [42] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sir | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | [43] | ||
Dame | A special compilation of all of David Attenborough's books | [44] | ||
A big atlas | Watercolour paints and paper[45] | |||
An anthology of poems to include ones by Chinese poet Du Fu | Calligraphy materials[46] | |||
Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life by W B Lord | A piano[47] | |||
Oprah: An Autobiography by Oprah Winfrey | Sex and the City DVD boxset[48] | |||
A guide to learning the piano | A piano[49] | |||
Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking by Pauline Prescott | A Bontempi keyboard[50] | |||
Germinal by Émile Zola | A football[51] | |||
A large anthology of poetry | An endless supply of tea[52] | |||
The Complete Works of Sholem Aleichem | An easy chairman[53] | |||
Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times | Endless supply of leaf tea, teapot, mug and semi-skimmed milk[54] | |||
On the Road by Jack Kerouac | A huge stack of white paper and pencils[55] | |||
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut | [56] | |||
100 Masterpieces of Art | Her clarinet[57] | |||
by Thomas à Kempis | Pen and paper[58] | |||
A book on practical survival | An endless supply of pens and paper[59] | |||
Reader's Digest – The Most Amazing Gardens in Britain and Ireland | Her favourite blue jersey[60] | |||
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou | An artist's workshop[61] | |||
Keepers of the Flame by Ian Hamilton | Paper and coloured pens[62] | |||
Family photo album | Lifetime's supply of toothbrushes and toothpaste[63] | |||
by Arthur Koestler | 3D printer[64] | |||
by Ayn Rand | A pillow her mother made for her[65] | |||
And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos by John Berger | A pillow with the smell of his family[66] | |||
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy | A skipping rope[67] | |||
RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants | [68] | |||
A very large atlas | A customised wheelchair[69] | |||
The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica | [70] | |||
The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm | Lip gloss[71] | |||
Basketball court with hoop and ball[72] | ||||
Tropical Flowering Plants by Kirsten Albrecht Llamas | A luxurious bed[73] | |||
The Joy of Cooking | A spa with whirlpool[74] | |||
A top ten short story collection featuring Mansfield, Maugham, Chekhov and Hemingway | [75] | |||
Never Look Back | An endless supply of Cointreau with ice in a crystal glass[76] | |||
The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoyevsky | Solar-powered ice cream maker[77] | |||
The Golden Bough by James Frazer | Paper, pens and pencils[78] | |||
The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts | A whirligig festooned with flower seeds[79] | |||
The collected poems of Wallace Stevens | An espresso machine[80] | |||
The complete works of Charles Dickens | An endless bar[81] | |||
If This Is a Man by Primo Levi | [82] | |||
An enormous book of logical puzzles | Refrigerated tabernacle[83] | |||
Puckoon by Spike Milligan | Her daughter's teddy bear[84] | |||
Yellow rotating pencil and a book of unlined paper[85] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
The short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald | [86] | |||
The collected works of Charles Dickens | His guitar[87] | |||
Acoustic guitar and a book of instructions[88] | ||||
A never-ending supply of different coloured roses[89] | ||||
The complete works of Charles Dickens | Tea[90] | |||
This Is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco by Garry Mulholland | Alcohol still[91] | |||
City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre | [92] | |||
[93] | ||||
Rankin | Pluto and Persephone by Berini[94] | |||
Arabian Nights | Japanese notebooks and pens[95] | |||
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach | Her mother's bus pass[96] | |||
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou | Her father's milk churn[97] | |||
The Jeeves Omnibus by P G Wodehouse | An endless supply of coffee and a machine to make it with[98] | |||
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors Even, Again | A work of art by Roger Hiorns called "Untitled 2009"[99] | |||
Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More by David Icke | Solar powered vitamix[100] | |||
The Encyclopedia of the Human Brain | Will Tuckett's Pleasure's Progress[101] | |||
Complete illustrated catalogue of the National Gallery | Telescope[102] | |||
The complete works of Jack London | Rope and rack[103] | |||
Alexandra Shulman | Penguin Book of Love Poetry by Jon Stallworthy | An endless supply of Miss Dior Eau du Toilette[104] | ||
23 June 2013 | An encyclopaedia | A double set of throwing knives[105] | ||
30 June 2013 | Oxford English Dictionary | Carbon fibre bicycle[106] | ||
7 July 2013 | The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy | Hot bath every day with Rose Geranium bath essence by Floris[107] | ||
14 July 2013 | The Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson | Solar-powered laptop used solely for playing games[108] | ||
21 July 2013 | The Bhagavad Gita | Stuffed effigy of Noel Gallagher[109] | ||
28 July 2013 | Solar cooker and fridge[110] | |||
4 August 2013 | The Complete Works of Charles Dickens | A lifetime supply of self-firing clay[111] | ||
11 August 2013 | Thesaurus | Reclining chair[112] | ||
22 September 2013 | Goggles[113] | |||
29 September 2013 | A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking | Coffee machine, coffee, fridge, milk and teaspoon[114] | ||
6 October 2013 | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | Solar-powered iPad with all her photos[115] | ||
13 October 2013 | The complete works of F. Scott Fitzgerald | Binoculars[116] | ||
20 October 2013 | The complete works of Thomas Hardy | The Tempest by Giorgione[117] | ||
27 October 2013 | Emma by Jane Austen | A large piano[118] | ||
3 November 2013 | India's Summer by Therese | [119] | ||
15 November 2013 | Romanesque chapel adjacent to Montmajour Abbey in Provence[120] | |||
17 November 2013 | Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë | Bicycle[121] | ||
24 November 2013 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams | Weekly delivery of a Chicken Tikka takeaway[122] | ||
1 December 2013 | Encyclopedia of nature | Thermos mug with tea, milk and sugar[123] | ||
8 December 2013 | Roget's Thesaurus | Sketch book[124] | ||
15 December 2013 | Anthology of poetry | Brynmawr writing desk[125] | ||
22 December 2013 | The Complete Works of Margaret Luce | [126] | ||
29 December 2013 | Ant and Dec | The Collected Works of William Boyd (for Ant) and High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (for Dec) | A blow up chair (for Ant) and tweezers (for Dec)[127] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
A blank book to record his Desert Island findings | A huge pair of speakers[128] | |||
Long Walk to Freedom – her personal copy by Nelson Mandela | Violin in its case with some pieces of sheet music[129] | |||
The Complete Works of Maya Angelou | Large collection of earrings[130] | |||
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens | [131] | |||
A fictional book about cricket statistics | A greenhouse[132] | |||
Oxford Anthology of Poetry | A photograph of all the people she loves[133] | |||
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (for Torvill) and Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Theodor Seuss (for Dean) | Jo Malone moisturizer (for Torvill) and endless supply of coffee and digestive biscuits (for Dean)[134] | |||
SAS Survival Handbook of Survival by John Wiseman | A spear fishing kit[135] | |||
A book containing all the Ordnance Survey maps of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland | A wonderful bath that comes down from the skies[136] | |||
The complete works of Patrick O'Brian | Sailcloth[137] | |||
How to Survive Anything, Anywhere: A Handbook of Survival Skills for Every Scenario and Environment by Chris McNab | [138] | |||
A book of monologues | [139] | |||
Amarone[140] | ||||
A big comprehensive encyclopedia | [141] | |||
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman | [142] | |||
Complete set of Mad magazine | [143] | |||
The Traveller's Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor | [144] | |||
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez | [145] | |||
Arabian Nights | [146] | |||
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown | [147] | |||
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis | [148] | |||
Oxford English Dictionary (all 13 volumes and supplements) | [149] | |||
The Complete Works of George and Ira Gershwin | A piano[150] | |||
1 Volume of Encyclopædia Britannica | Guitar[151] | |||
[152] | ||||
[153] | ||||
[154] | ||||
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin | [155] | |||
Collected Works of Carl Jung | [156] | |||
Female Fortune: Land, Gender and Authority by Jill Liddington | [157] | |||
The Oxford Companion to the Garden by Patrick Taylor | [158] | |||
The Penguin of English Verse | [159] | |||
Lost and Found in Russia by Susan Richards | [160] | |||
Raj Quartet by Paul Scott | [161] | |||
The Moonlandings by Reginald Turnill | [162] | |||
The book of hours | [163] | |||
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | [164] | |||
History of the World by J M Roberts | [165] | |||
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor | [166] | |||
[167] | ||||
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon | [168] | |||
The Searchers by Alan Le May | [169] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
A Teach Yourself Swedish book | Sketchbooks and pencils[170] | |||
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C Morais | Chanel lip gloss[171] | |||
The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford | [172] | |||
The Complete works of Hugo Claus | [173] | |||
The collected works of W B Yeats | [174] | |||
[175] | ||||
The Big Red Book: The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love and Friendship by Rumi | [176] | |||
Das Königsprojekt by Carl Amery | [177] | |||
Julia Samuel | Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry edited by A P Wavell | [178] | ||
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | [179] | |||
West with the Night by Beryl Markham | [180] | |||
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy | A desk with two drawers full of art materials[181] | |||
First Light by Geoffrey Wellum | Two pillows[182] | |||
Slaying the Dragon: How to Turn Your Small Steps to Great Feats by Michael Johnson | Family photo album[183] | |||
Helen Browning | Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela | A David Lomax sculpture of Gaia carrying an ostrich egg behind her back[184] | ||
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand | A cellar full of Cabernet wine and a glass[185] | |||
Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot | A very comfortable four-poster bed with a mackintosh roof[186] | |||
The full 12 volumes of P.S Allen's Latin Letters of Erasmus of Rotterdam | Cooking utensils[187] | |||
The Famous Five Collection by Enid Blyton | A pillow[188] | |||
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot | [189] | |||
The Red and the Black by Stendhal | [190] | |||
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | A family photo album[191] | |||
in London[192] | ||||
On the Road by Jack Kerouac | Guitar and plectrum[193] | |||
Ulysses by James Joyce | Flute[194] | |||
The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers | A bottle of extra virgin olive oil pressed at either Felsina or Fontodi vineyards[195] | |||
The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe | Binoculars[196] | |||
Other Men's Flowers by A P Wavell (audio book read by her daughter Finty Williams) | Cut-outs of all her friends and family[197] | |||
Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran | The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh (for Gran) and his own diaries (for Marks) | A really big drum kit (for Gran) and a collection of Château d'Yquem of his choice from 1900 to 2001, a fridge and Sauternes glasses (for Marks)[198] | ||
The Complete Scores of Bach | Trumpet[199] | |||
The Koran | Pen and paper[200] | |||
Gray's Anatomy, 36th Edition | A big hat[201] | |||
Dr Dogbody's Leg by James Norman Hall | Machete[202] | |||
Lives of the Poets: 1,000 Years of English & American Poetry by Louise Untermeyer | Cocktail cabinet[203] | |||
The Bible | Paper and pens for drawing[204] | |||
The Complete Works of Jane Austen | A coffee machine[205] | |||
Heer Ranjha translation by Professor Christopher Shackle | Home movies of her children[206] | |||
The Ashley Book of Knots | An endless supply of the Daily Mail[207] | |||
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy | Pen and journal[208] | |||
The Outdoor Survival Handbook by Ray Mears | Family photo album[209] | |||
Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers | Acoustic guitar[210] | |||
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett | A sack of bird food[211] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James | Pen and paper[212] | |||
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | Scuba diving equipment[213] | |||
A Collection of Joanna Seldon's short stories and poetry | A yoga and prayer mat[214] | |||
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen | The British Library[215] | |||
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker | DVD Collection of Lectures from The Learning Company[216] | |||
The Assassin's Cloak by Irene and Alan Taylor | Chanel No. 19[217] | |||
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard | Pen and paper[218] | |||
Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas | Family photograph album[219] | |||
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens | Lego with instruction booklets[220] | |||
A box set of Wainwright Walks in the Lake District | A guitar and a set of music[221] | |||
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift | Pen and paper[222] | |||
The Color Purple by Alice Walker | Eye drops[223] | |||
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy | Paper and pen[224] | |||
A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester | A Hermes 3000 manual typewriter and paper[225] | |||
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper | Daily supply of warm, sweet, milky tea[226] | |||
The Collected Works of Rudyard Kipling | A cellar of his favourite wine[227] | |||
The Collected Poems of Seamus Heaney | A champagne fountain[228] | |||
Kallimni 'Arabi Mazboot by Saimia Louis (a course in spoken Arabic) | Fishing rod[229] | |||
The Guinness Book of Records | Pen and paper[230] | |||
A pair of swimming flippers[231] | ||||
The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists by Khaled M. Abou El Fadl | Yorkshire Tea[232] | |||
A kite surfing kit[233] | ||||
None[234] | ||||
A guitar[235] | ||||
An artist's studio[236] | ||||
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations | A sack of nuts[237] | |||
Artist's painting set[238] | ||||
Marmite[239] | ||||
Lavender scented oil[240] | ||||
A guitar previously owned by Bruce Springsteen[241] | ||||
A bilingual edition of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu | A panama hat from Optimo in Chicago[242] | |||
The Iliad by Homer | A photo album of his family[243] | |||
The Complete Works of Robert Burns | Self-filling hipflask of Islay malt whisky[244] | |||
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle | A Rolex watch[245] | |||
Metamorphoses by Ovid | Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara[246] | |||
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth | A lemon tree[247] | |||
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson | A games console[248] | |||
The Complete Works of Patrick O'Brian | Stephanotis bath oil with a bath[249] | |||
Guide des vins: Bettane and Desseauve | Test Match Special archive[250] | |||
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins | A bath[251] | |||
Woody Guthrie A Life by Joe Klein | A guitar[252] | |||
A book to learn French | A piano[253] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bauhaus by Hans Wingler | Pen and paper[254] | |||
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Şafak | Darjeeling Tea with a teapot and a bone china mug[255] | |||
Diderot's Encyclopedia | Tatsuo Miyajima’s digital art work, ‘Life’[256] | |||
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend | A solar-powered laptop, not connected to the Internet[257] | |||
On Fire by Francis Mallmann | His England caps[258] | |||
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame | Welsh tea[259] | |||
The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe | Tobacco seeds[260] | |||
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev | A fishing rod and tackle[261] | |||
Book of quotations | Archive of past Sunday papers[262] | |||
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations | A coffee machine[263] | |||
A book of cryptic crosswords | A photograph of her husband[264] | |||
Museum without Walls by André Malraux | Lifetime supply of freshly laundered linen napkins[265] | |||
Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam | A Ratol Mango Tree[266] | |||
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman | A lifetime supply of ketchup[267] | |||
Lying Under the Apple Tree by Alice Munro | Child's art set with paints, crayons and glitter and glue[268] | |||
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien | A solar-powered chess computer[269] | |||
Orlando by Virginia Woolf | A stationery cupboard[270] | |||
Oxford Book of English Verse | Cello[271] | |||
Principles of Orchestration by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov | Piano[272] | |||
The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose | A telescope[273] | |||
Japanese Jailbird by Paul McCartney | A charm bracelet[274] | |||
The Odyssey by Homer | A telescope[275] | |||
"How to Clone Your Dog" | Her deceased dog's hair[276] | |||
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey | A vintage Martin acoustic guitar[277] | |||
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo | A sari[278] | |||
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle | A journal[279] | |||
A star atlas | A pair of binoculars[280] | |||
100 Years of Crystal Palace FC by Nigel Sands | A guitar and songbooks[281] | |||
A big encyclopaedia of plants of the world | Horseradish sauce[282] | |||
A microscope[283] | ||||
His piano[284] | ||||
Paper and pens[285] | ||||
Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof | Vegetable seeds[286] | |||
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë | Coloured pens and paper[287] | |||
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressell | A guitar[288] | |||
Dictionary of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturists by Ray Desmond | Pen and paper[289] | |||
A dictionary of philosophy | A handheld vacuum cleaner[290] | |||
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer | A snorkel and mask[291] | |||
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell | A surfboard[292] | |||
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster | A magnifying glass[293] | |||
Henry VIII: King and Court by Alison Weir | Her piano[294] | |||
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez | A cellar of champagne[295] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut | Nintendo Switch games console[296] | |||
Emma by Jane Austen | Face cream[297] | |||
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway | Paper and pencils[298] | |||
Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov | A telescope[299] | |||
The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams | A tuxedo[300] | |||
Black Shamrocks by Gus Nwanokwu | An orthopaedic pillow[301] | |||
The Selected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges | Projector and collection of old films[302] | |||
A survival guide | Albums of her children[303] | |||
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes | Endless supply of English breakfast tea[304] | |||
The Palm at the End of the Mind by Wallace Stevens | Endless supply of Marmite[305] | |||
The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks | Set of Vietnamese cookery books[306] | |||
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot | Gorgeous underwear[307] | |||
The Complete Works of Proust | Her children's exercise books from school[308] | |||
The Complete Works of Robert Frost | Two cases of champagne[309] | |||
An A-Level maths book (and pencil) | Red hair dye[310] | |||
Rabbit Angstrom by John Updike | Giant slipper foot massager[311] | |||
Hogarth, A Life and a World by Jenny Uglow | Endless supply of blended Scotch[312] | |||
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges | A planetarium[313] | |||
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger | Running shoes[314] | |||
Hatter's Castle by A. J. Cronin | Luxurious underwear[315] | |||
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy | Surfboard[316] | |||
An encyclopedia of shells | A tailor's thimble[317] | |||
Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss | Scrapbook of photos of her family[318] | |||
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Lipstick[319] | |||
Anthology of twentieth and twenty first century poetry written by women | Bath with 3 taps – hot water, cold water and wine[320] | |||
The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose: From William Caxton to P.G. Wodehouse by Frank Muir | A medicine cabinet including mosquito repellent[321] | |||
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | A slide projector with all the photos she's ever taken of her loved ones[322] | |||
Teach yourself Ukrainian book | His garden shed with tools in it[323] | |||
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling | An oven[324] | |||
An Anthology of World Poetry edited by Mark Van Doren | Two packs of playing cards[325] | |||
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville | His Hitmaker guitar and an amp[326] | |||
The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman, Matthew Sands and Robert Leighton | His wife's grand piano[327] | |||
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne | Her own feather pillow[328] | |||
Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants by Ahmed Fayaz | A Machete and a Crocus bag[329] | |||
Scorn by Matthew Parris | Recliner armchair[330] | |||
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Lipstick[331] | |||
The Collected Poems and Letters of Emily Dickinson | A 500-year-old, mature oak tree[332] | |||
White Heat by Marco Pierre White | A shaving kit[333] | |||
Recording the Beatles by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew | Piano[334] | |||
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar | One of her mother's handmade quilts[335] | |||
Argos catalogue | Foam roller[336] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
An A-Z London Street Atlas | A stretch of road over Hay Bluff between Hay-on-Wye and Abergavenny[337] | |||
Halliwell’s Film Guide | The back catalogue of The Archers[338] | |||
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway | Pen and paper[339] | |||
Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans | Pen and paper[340] | |||
My Secret History by Paul Theroux | His own pillow[341] | |||
The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy | Endless supply of floral scented soaps[342] | |||
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning | Pen and paper[343] | |||
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Proust | A machine to help her learn to sing[344] | |||
All of Jeremy Clarkson’s books | A bottle of wine[345] | |||
Poem for the Day with a Foreword by Wendy Cope | A bath – sometimes filled with hot water, sometimes cold water and sometimes champagne[346] | |||
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding | A pressure cooker[347] | |||
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier | Saxophone[348] | |||
Animal Farm by George Orwell | Tea-making facilities[349] | |||
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust | 40,000 piece jigsaw puzzle[350] | |||
Andy Warhol Polaroids by Richard B. Woodward | Makeup[351] | |||
The Collected Works of Carl Jung | Leica camera[352] | |||
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy | An endless supply of self-ironing Japanese shirts[353] | |||
Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Volumes 4 and 5 (known as the Women’s anthology) | A snorkel[354] | |||
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch | Desalinating bottle[355] | |||
The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski | Carpenter’s tool set (so she can build her own veranda)[356] | |||
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle | Six cases of Scharzhofberger Kabinett, a Riesling wine from the Saar Basin[357] | |||
The Book of Joy | A bed[358] | |||
A Bear Grylls’ Survival Guide | A knife[359] | |||
Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans | A boulder of opium twice the size of his head[360] | |||
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee | Bubble bath[361] | |||
Oxford Book of English Poetry | A photo of his wife[362] | |||
Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World's Food Plants | Her own pillow[363] | |||
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki | A recording studio[364] | |||
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway | A photo album[365] | |||
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville | Coffee[366] | |||
A DIY book | A pen and paper[367] | |||
Oxford Book of English Short Stories | A selection of seeds[368] | |||
The Omni-americans: Black Experience And American Culture by Albert Murray | A multi-burner barbecue grill[369] | |||
Asterix and the Roman Agent by René Goscinny with illustrations by Albert Uderzo | A black Ball Pentol pen[370] | |||
1984 by George Orwell | Business card holder with photo of her children[371] | |||
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach | His own pillow[372] | |||
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Mask, snorkel and a neoprene vest[373] | |||
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley | A polaroid camera with unlimited film[374] | |||
The collected works of Adrian John Desmond | A mask, snorkel, flippers and underwater camera[375] | |||
London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew | A hot water bottle[376] | |||
Roger's Profanisaurus by Viz and Roger Mellie | A piano[377] |
Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene | Vegetables[378] | |||
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole | A photo album[379] | |||
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela | A photo album[380] | |||
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust | High thread-count cotton sheets[381] | |||
Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje | A genie in a lamp which would only work within the confines of the island[382] | |||
A dictionary | A potting shed, gardening tools and seeds[383] | |||
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon | A seven iron golf club and golf balls[384] | |||
Dancing with Demons: The Authorised Biography of Dusty Springfield by Penny Valentine and Vicki Wickham | A Martin acoustic guitar[385] | |||
Physics text books | The back catalogue of In Our Time / the voice of Melvyn Bragg[386] | |||
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, with the Tenniel illustrations | Sketchbooks and pens[387] | |||
The Norton Anthology of Poetry | Pencils and paper[388] | |||
Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse | A grand piano[389] | |||
In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky | A sewing kit[390] | |||
The Oxford English Dictionary | A tennis ball[391] | |||
Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde | A necklace[392] | |||
A book of poetry by Ivor Cutler | An espresso machine[393] | |||
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama | A trampoline[394] | |||
A Game of Thrones - The complete boxset of all 7 books (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin | Solar powered electric carving knife[395] | |||
Lord of the Flies by William Golding | An acoustic guitar[396] | |||
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas | A pair of binoculars[397] | |||
The Complete Works of Spike Milligan | The Victoria and Albert Museum[398] | |||
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | A magical tree[399] | |||
A statistics textbook | A pair of skis[400] | |||
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller | A saxophone[401] | |||
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway | A solar-powered word processor[402] | |||
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez | A guitar[403] | |||
Vickery’s Folk Flora: an A-Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants by Roy Vickery | A full set of flower and vegetable seeds[404] | |||
The Norton Anthology of Poetry | A hologram of her husband[405] | |||
The Masnavi I Ma'navi of Rumi: Complete by Jalalu-'d-din Muhammad Rumi | Bendicks Bittermints[406] | |||
Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar | A photograph of her children[407] | |||
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama | A neck rest[408] | |||
A book of poetry | A grand piano[409] | |||
Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks | Butter[410] | |||
A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Asiri | Painting set and easel[411] | |||
A book of Chinese characters (Kanji) | A complete archive of Desert Island Discs[412] | |||
A very detailed Atlas | A football[413] | |||
A ball[414] | ||||
A bed with an unlimited supply of white linen sheets[415] | ||||
Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry by A. P. Wavell | A cricket bowling machine[416] | |||
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury | A loaf of bread[417] | |||
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë | A Gibson acoustic guitar[418] | |||
A book by Agatha Christie | A jigsaw puzzle[419] |