Rosemary Sutcliff, the famous novelist, talked about her life and work and chose eight records to take to the mythical desert island of Desert Island Discs on October 1st 1983. Interviewed by Roy Plomley, she said she chose her music just “because she loved it”. Her first choice was Dvorak’s New World Symphony, played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Istvan Kertesz. (Choice Two tomorrow!)Regular readers might like to try to guess her luxury and the book she chose … as in the programme I will reveal it after all her choices. I used to have a tape of the programme but it is ‘lost’ in my attic: I have re-discovered the information thanks to the internet, this blog and Mary Kalemkerian, the Head Of Programmes at BBC Radio 7.
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ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 
I remember listening to that programme! At the time, I was interesting in classical music, but I didn’t know much about it – and I didn’t want to buy records ‘on spec’ and find that I didn’t like them. My solution to this was to listen to Desert Island Discs so I could hear extracts, and I remember especially wanting to listen to Rosemary Sutcliff’s choices. After all, if I liked her books, I’d be sure to like her taste in music! The Lark Ascending has been on my personal Desert Island Discs list ever since.
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Thank you for recalling this: Rosemary would have been surprised I suspect – but delighted – about the influence in your case at least of her musical tastes!
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She had great taste! I love the Symphony from the New World — it’s an amazing, versatile piece.
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