Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive

for rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2007.

My cast away this week is the broadcaster and journalist Andy Kirstie.

His career to date is as distinctive as his delivery and a world of wash with modulated

accents and a balanced perspective he stands out for his passion and plain speaking, combining

an evangelical enthusiasm for world music with a fascination for reporting from the planet's

most unstable places.

He says he's happiest when he's marinated in mosquito repellent and living out of a

rucksack and although he's best known for unearthing unfamiliar tunes and bringing them

to a wider audience, it's his current affairs reporting that's brought him the greatest

acclaim.

Rwanda Barundian Haiti are among the 81 countries he's visited, his front-line dispatches

vividly conveying the true horror of conflict.

So Andy, this professional sort of split personality, does it come from the same place?

Yeah, I think so.

Which is what?

Fascination with the world, I think.

I mean, I did set out to be a journalist when I went off to university in Leeds in 1978

and it all got horribly derailed while I was there by rock and roll.

Well, we'll come to that later.

Let's just stay with the journalist.

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