Rumer Godden

Always an outsider, Rumer Godden seems to have gone against all the mores of her time; from opening a dancing school in Calcutta to living alone with her children in Kashmir.

The writer describes how her rich life in India (under the Raj) and in Britain has influenced her novels.

She says she can't remember a time when she didn't write.

Rumer was first castaway by Roy Plomley in 1975, but returned in 1996 to chat to Sue Lawley.

She died two years later at the age of 90, having published dozens of novels for adults and children, alongside non-fiction and verse.

DISC ONE: Dominic Muldowney - Peacock Spring Music
DISC TWO: Vladimir Horowitz - Robert Schumann's Träumerei (from Scenes from Childhood)
DISC THREE: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - Stormy Weather
DISC FOUR: : Los Frontierizos Orchestra with The Choir Of The Bassilica - Ariel Ramírez's Misa Criolla
DISC FIVE: Philadelphia Orchestra - Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
DISC SIX: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Chorus with The Philharmonia Orchestra - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Porgi, amor (from The Marriage of Figaro)
DISC SEVEN: The Ballet Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Levine - Frédéric Chopin's Les Sylphides
DISC EIGHT: Claudio Arrau - Franz Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Vladimir Horowitz - Robert Schumann's Träumerei (from Scenes from Childhood)
BOOK CHOICE: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry - Edith Sitwell
LUXURY CHOICE: A widow's cruse filled with whisky

Producer Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1996.