Desert Island Discs: Archive 2011-201511 Tammi 2015

Jo Malone

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the business woman, Jo Malone.

If her name automatically conjures the citrusy scents of lime, basil and mandarin or spicy notes of amber and lavender then you're doubtless one of the customers who flock into the eponymous stores to buy the products that have made her a household name.

Aged nine, she would grind sandlewood and strain juniper at the kitchen table. 17 years later fashionable London flocked to her little salon in Chelsea to be massaged with oils and unguents. In the 1990s the brand went international and the fragrance made her fortune when she sold the business.

If this all sounds like a fragrant little fairy tale, crisply wrapped in a signature black grosgrain bow, it isn't. Severely dyslexic she left school at 14. Her dad was a talented painter but a chronic gambler too, and home life was sometimes hand-to-mouth. Later, and at a time in her life when she should have been enjoying her success and her toddler son, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Finally fully recovered she decided to start again from scratch.

She says, 'I love sharing my story, and I'm not frightened of people seeing the cracks as well as the strengths. I think the things that are sad and difficult are just as important.'

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

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Jaksot(209)

Commander Chris Hadfield

Kirsty Young's castaway is Chris Hadfield.He was the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station and took part in three space missions spending a total of 166 days orbiting the Earth. ...

20 Joulu 201535min

Kylie Minogue

Kirsty Young's castaway is Kylie Minogue.With seven number ones and ten million singles sold in the UK, she is the third-biggest selling female artist in Britain and has sold around 70 million records...

13 Joulu 201535min

Atul Gawande

Kirsty Young's castaway is the surgeon, author and former Reith lecturer, Atul Gawande.A general and endocrine surgeon in Boston, he is professor in both the Department of Health Policy & Management a...

6 Joulu 201534min

Sandi Toksvig

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Sandi Toksvig.Host of BBC Radio 4's News Quiz until June 2015, she is also a writer and comedian and recently entered the world of politics, helping to found the W...

29 Marras 201535min

Gurinder Chadha

Kirsty Young's castaway is filmmaker Gurinder Chadha.Writer, director and producer behind the films Bend it like Beckham, Bhaji on the Beach and Bride and Prejudice, she began her career as a BBC news...

22 Marras 201532min

Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Right Honourable Nicola Sturgeon, MSP.Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the fifth First Minister of Scotland in the devolved era, she is the first woman to...

15 Marras 201534min

Lord Indarjit Singh

Kirsty Young's castaway is the broadcaster and religious leader, Lord Indarjit Singh. Creator of The Sikh Messenger newspaper and co-founder of the Inter Faith Network he also has the distinction of ...

13 Marras 201535min

Marjorie Wallace

Kirsty Young's castaway is the mental health campaigner and Chief Executive of SANE, Marjorie Wallace.After leaving University College London with a psychology and philosophy degree, her first job in ...

1 Marras 201536min