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Radio 4,11 Oct 2026,59 mins

Ann Patchett, writer

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Ann Patchett is an American writer. She is the author of ten novels, several works of non-fiction and three children鈥檚 books. Her breakout hit, Bel Canto, won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Women鈥檚 Prize for Fiction in 2002. It was her first bestseller and made her name around the world. Ann was born in Los Angeles in 1963, the youngest of two daughters to Frank and Jeanne Patchett. Her parents divorced when she was just four, and her mother moved Ann and her sister to Nashville where she eventually married her second husband. Ann鈥檚 stories are often about family and are sometimes inspired by her own experience of growing up with her biological parents, two stepfathers, a stepmother and numerous siblings. She says, 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 the products of our parents鈥� happy marriages; we were the flotsam of their divorces.鈥� Ann started publishing journalism and short stories in the 1980s. Her debut novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, followed in 1992, but it wasn鈥檛 until her fourth, Bel Canto, which came out in 2001, that she began to make a name for herself. She is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden and has been honoured by the Library of Congress. She owns a bookshop in her hometown of Nashville where she lives with her husband, Karl, and their dog, Nemo. DISC ONE: Burning Down the House - Talking Heads DISC TWO: Annie鈥檚 Song - John Denver DISC THREE: I Get a Kick out of You - Bobby Short DISC FOUR: Rainy Night House - Joni Mitchell DISC FIVE: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria. Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Glenn Gould DISC SIX: Aria From "La Wally". Composed by Alfredo Catalini and performed by Wilhelmenia Fernandez (soprano) and London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Cosma DISC SEVEN: Saint-Sa毛ns: Le carnaval des animaux, R. 125: VII. Aquarium. Composed by Camille Saint-Sa毛ns and performed by Alfons Kontarsky, Aloys Kontarsky (piano) and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karl B枚hm DISC EIGHT: Dvo艡谩k: Rusalka, Op. 114, Act I: O Silver Moon / Song to the Moon. Performed by Ren茅e Fleming, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti BOOK CHOICE: Middlemarch by George Eliot LUXURY ITEM: Notebooks and pens CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988: Aria. Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Glenn Gould Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Christine Pawlowsky

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