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 1988 and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is a monk. 47 years ago he took the vows of poverty, chastity and

obedience, but humility has not prevented him from becoming a public figure fighting for that in which he believes.

Working as a missionary in South Africa he developed a fierce hatred of apartheid and his

campaign for its destruction has been his life's work. But not only Africa has been

touched by his passionate dislike of injustice. Here in Britain he served the

cause of the poor and the unemployed. He is the former Bishop of Stepney and the

president of the anti-apartate movement, Trevor Huddleston. Bishop, a

desert island, presumably holds few threats for a man who has little need of creature comforts and has always

lived alone?

I don't know that it's true to say I have little need of creature comforts, I always enjoy

them when they're there, but also I suppose it's not quite true to say I've lived

alone because I belong to a community and a lot of my life has been within

community. But I think it's very important to understand the difference between being lonely and being

alone.

And I'm not at all afraid of being alone.

In fact, today I only thank God when I can get back to my little area of a flat at St David's Piccadilly and be alone after all the hustle and so

forth.

But you'd presumably miss good conversation?

Yes, I would miss that very much indeed. No doubt. I mean I love being with people and I certainly enjoy listening as well as talking.

But would you miss, I wonder, a cause to fight a campaign to wage?

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