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Desert Island Discs: Flotsam & Jetsam

Desert Island Discs: Flotsam & Jetsam

  • Fascinating facts, figures and miscellany from one of BBC Radio 4’s best-loved programmes

Flotsam & Jetsam is the ultimate trivia book for fans of the popular BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs, and a fascinating introduction for all those who have yet to discover its delights.

Taking the reader through seven decades of wonderful entertainment, here is an absorbing range of facts, figures and miscellany – including who chose what, and why. It also reveals much about the castaways' drives and motivations, their influences and, of course, their lives.

Spanning the early years with the original presenter, Roy Plomley, and the present day, the Desert Island Discs programme has brought its own unique surprises to listeners, some very personal, some humorous, such as Eric Morecambe's choice of a deckchair as his luxury and Ernie Wise's of a deckchair ticket machine.

From Beethoven to the Beatles, from chessboards and chocolate to Jane Austen and Zola, Flotsam & Jetsam is the perfect companion guide to the national treasure that is Desert Island Discs.

Reviews

  • This ultimate trivia book for fans of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs invites the reader to delve into a treasure trove of castaway anecdotes and amusing luxury items... Guaranteed to take readers on a magical journey through the last 70 years of music

    Telegraph Books

  • Thoroughly researched, lively and lighthearted... an artifact - the kind you would take to a desert island

    Big Issue

  • Mitchell Symons is the doyen of trivialists, who has been truffling out absurd facts ever since he wrote all the questions in Trivial Pursuit that weren’t wrong. This book is exhaustive and slightly mad, and my life was appreciably poorer before I owned it. Outstanding

    The Spectator

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About the Author

Mitchell Symons

Mitchell Symons was born in London and educated at Mill Hill School and the LSE, where he studied Law. Since leaving BBC TV, where he was a researcher and then a director, he has worked as a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He was a principal writer of early editions of the board game Trivial Pursuit and has devised many television formats. Currently he writes an award-winning column for the Sunday Express. Mitchell has won the Blue Peter Best Book with Facts Awards twice, for WHY EATING BOGEYS IS GOOD FOR YOU and DO IGLOOS HAVE LOOS?

Mitchell Symons

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