Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell

Author: BBC Radio 4 April 18, 2004 Duration: 35:22

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Britain's most popular writer of historical fiction Bernard Cornwell. His work has sold more than five million copies in nine languages. His most famous character is the rifleman Richard Sharpe - an embittered, slightly villainous career soldier whose fortunes are followed through the late 18th century and early 19th. Cornwell's journey to writing was a long one. He was born in 1944 the illegitimate son of an English woman and Canadian airman. His mother was forced to give him up for adoption when he was a few weeks old and, after a short spell in an orphanage, he was brought up by an Essex couple who were members of the religious group The Peculiar People.

He trained first to be a teacher and then joined the BBC as a researcher on Nationwide. He had a successful career in television but, when he met the woman he wanted to marry, he had to leave it all to join her in America. Refused a Green Card, he reassured her that he would support them both by writing historical novels - an ambition he'd held for years but had yet to realize. On the strength of the first book, he was offered a contract for an entire series and, eventually, his character Richard Sharpe was brought to life by Sean Bean.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Flower duet from Lakme by Delibes Book: A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys Luxury: My boat - but not to escape


The Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005 podcast opens a unique window into a pivotal era, drawing from the BBC Radio 4 archives. This isn't just a collection of interviews about music; it's a deeply personal exploration of life, ambition, and memory through the voices of the early 21st century. Each episode presents a guest from this period-be they an artist, a politician, a scientist, or an activist-facing the program's enduring and revealing premise: selecting the eight pieces of music they would take if stranded alone. The conversation that unfolds around these choices is where the magic happens. The host gently guides them from their selections into stories of childhood influences, career-defining moments, personal triumphs, and profound losses. You'll hear the crackle of a vinyl record lead into a confession, or a symphony cue a tale of resilience. Listening to this podcast feels like uncovering a time capsule of cultural and emotional history, where a pop song can explain a political stance and a classical adagio can frame a love story. It’s an intimate study of character and a testament to how the soundtrack of our lives shapes our identity. These archived conversations, preserved in this podcast, remain compelling because they bypass the superficial, using music as the key to unlock genuine human experience.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005
Podcast Episodes
Bill Cullen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:36
This week, Sue Lawley's castaway is the Irish businessman and writer Bill Cullen. He was one of 14 children born to William Cullen and Mary Darcy. His childhood, in the tenement slums of inner-city Dublin was one of extr…
Herbert Kretzmer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:55
This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the journalist and songwriter Herbert Kretzmer. Born in South Africa in 1925, he came to Europe after World War II. For a while he lived in Paris, playing piano in a bar. He rubbed shou…
Nigella Lawson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:13
This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the broadcaster, cook, mother and domestic goddess Nigella Lawson. She came from a privileged background - her father, the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson, her mother the so…
Nick Hornby [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:30
This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the internationally successful author Nick Hornby. Originally from suburban Maidenhead, his obsession with football, as chronicled in the autobiographical Fever Pitch, began after his p…
Bryn Terfel [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:15
This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. Still only in his 30s, he's sung at the world's biggest opera houses and can pick and choose where he works and the productions he wants to star in.…
Barbara Taylor Bradford [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:35
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the popular novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford. Born in Upper Armley, Leeds, by the age of 16 Barbara had graduated from the typing pool and was a cub reporter in the newsroom of the York…
Daniel Libeskind [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:12
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the architect Daniel Libeskind. Daniel Libeskind's parents were Polish Jews. Daniel himself was a prodigiously talented musician, but the family couldn't afford the attention a piano wo…
Bishop John Sentamu [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:23
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is The Bishop of Birmingham, John Sentamu. When John Sentamu was born, the sixth of 13 children, near Kampala in Uganda in 1949, he was so small the local bishop was called in to baptise h…
Mark Tully [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:18
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the veteran broadcaster Mark Tully. Born in Calcutta and with ancestors who were involved in the Indian Mutiny, he has a love of India in his bones and has made his career reporting it.…
Vittorio Radice [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:32
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Vittorio Radice. Born in 1957 and brought up near Lake Como, Radice is the son of a furniture retailer. He surprised himself and his family by studying agriculture at Milan University,…