Desert Island Discs 2025

Above (l-r): preparing for a 140 km ride in subzero temperatures in 1978 after Andy Newby's first wedding, in Nottingham Road; Les Paul giving some tips on how to hold a (Gibson Les Paul) guitar, old git walking in the Drakensberg foothills with son-in-law, Andrew Lyon.

In early 2025 I ended up with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). This is, for old blokes in their 70s, pretty much guaranteed to be fatal. We tried to let people know discreetly but our bush telegraph didn't include the lovely Lizzie and Ray from three houses down. We'd always greeted them in passing and stopped for a friendly chat when we were all on foot but it didn't progress past some friendly banter.

​Shan relates how they finally got to know: "One of the things I most dreaded after Mark's diagnosis was encountering someone on the street and them cheerily enquiring after our health (mine and Mark's). Having to explain his illness was like revisiting the shock of his diagnosis. To prevent this, I asked our friends in Faringdon to spread the word that Mark had leukaemia. And then I bumped into Lizzie who cheerily asked the very thing I had dreaded. Poor Lizzie was understandably shocked and asked if she could visit Mark."

The next thing, Lizzie asked if she could pop around. A time was arranged and she came bearing a script for a version of a Desert Island Discs[1] she and Ray had done for a friend of hers. If I was willing, they'd like to do the same thing for me.

Well, I was more than willing ... I was honoured and Ray, a long term musician (more recently in his spare time) inveigled his comrade in arms, Pete, who has a studio, to help with the recording.

The broadcast is now as ready as it will ever be without endless tinkering and nitpicking and Shan and I are really chuffed.

So, I'm going to give my blog readers the link so that they can listen to it, too.

​This will open a new window that you can close when you're finished.
​It will also allow you to grab a coffee between Part 1 and Part 2 of the programme.

Listen to my DESERT ISLAND DISKS

Above (I-r, top-bottom): Pete with Ray in the background; Lizzie; Ray; Pete, Tash, Ray, Lizzie, c'est moi, Shan.

​But, before you do, there are a couple of refinements:

• We spoke of Chris Hain; I'm pretty sure we meant Peter Hain​ but there's a small chance it could be Chris Hani. I never met nor spoke to Chris Hani, unfortunately, but I did have one or two calls with Peter Hain. 
• The Rolling Stones concert was the one on the 4th July 1990. It conflicted with the World Cup Semi Final in Turin between West Germany v England which ended up 1-1 after extra time. West Germany won 4-3 on penalties!
• I moved to Wimbledon not Richmond
• Books requested
  • ​My guaranteed book would be
    • Bernard Crick - George Orwell (Eric Blair): A Life
  • If I was allowed to swap the Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, I'd go for
    • Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
    • William Boyd - The New Confessions.
• ​My luxury item for the Desert Island would be a top of the range Swiss Army knife.
• My bottom line single disc would be All Along the Watchtower.

Above (l-r): Shan and me at some ball or the other in 1988; Shan & Kate in 1993; Niamh makes it three generations in 2025.

Finally, huge thanks to Tim Cave for helping with a platform to access the actual programme.

Endnotes:

1. Desert Island Discs is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on the 29th of January, 1942. You can check out some of the recently broadcast programmes at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr.