Hello, I'm Christy Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only

version we have.

It comes from the British library's radio collection

the recording didn't contain the guest's eight music choices so we've rebuilt

the original show by using discs from the BBC Grammophone library.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website.

The program was originally broadcast in 1980 and the presenter was Roy Plumley. This week our cast away as a scholar, an athlete, and a very successful novelist.

It's Eric Segal.

Eric, could you endure isolation for a long time?

Well, in agreeing to undertake this voyage, I guess I have to,

I'll let you know if I ever get back.

Thank you kindly.

You are a musician. you play the piano.

Very badly.

I studied for a while until I got the sack by my piano teacher who discovered that I couldn't read

notes.

And there's a reason for that, I think. I was always short-sighted as a child, but never

got glasses till I was 12 or 13. By then, I'd been fired by my piano teacher.

Now you have just eight records to represent the whole field of music. Is there any

plan in your choice? Are you choosing nostalgicly or to try to cover that whole

...