Hello I'm Krusty 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 1987 and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. If our castaway needed the money, which he doesn't, he could sell his life story to Hollywood for a blockbusting miniseries.

It supports the theory that often truth is more exotic than fiction.

He was born in Czechoslovakia, the son of a peasant farmer, was commissioned in the British Army and decorated for bravery.

He became a member of Parliament, possibly the only chairman of the House of Commons Catering Subcommittee to speak nine languages.

Today he's recognised as one of our most formidable businessmen.

It's been said of him, in business terms he's a big league player,

with the resources and the bravado to walk where angels fear to tread.

Here's Robert Maxwell.

Have you ever been tempted to write this remarkable life story of yours?

I have been tempted and induced and I'm still hoping to get

it done. I'm a very happy person. I have a large family, my wife and I have been married, happily married for

42 years. We have seven children. We're very proud of them. Yes, there would be a happy book and I hope if I get it written

that it will be of both value and amusement to lots of people who I hope will read it.

When you look back on your life though you must actually, because it is an extraordinary story,

you must at times even you disbelieve that it actually happened.

That is certainly true, but I'm so busy that I do not have the time in recent years to look back at anything.

All I've got time for is to deal with the issues of the day and plan forward a little to get things down.

Well now we're giving you time off on the Desert Ireland, So you're going to have to look back for a while.

What about the music, you see, because all you're out on this Desert Island are your record.

So now let me first ask you, has music played at a large part in your life?

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