Desert Island Discs: Archive: 2016-201824 Jun 2018

Martina Cole

Martina Cole is a British crime writer, known to her fans as the Queen of Crime.

Martina has written 24 novels, 15 of which have topped the original fiction sales charts - more than any other author. She has sold more than 16 million books around the world, and her work has been translated into 29 languages. She also works in prisons, leading reading schemes and writing workshops for prisoners.

Martina grew up in Essex, the youngest of five children born to Irish parents. She was expelled from her convent school at 15 for reading a book by Harold Robbins. She married at 16, divorced at 17 and then had a baby at the age of 18. She wrote stories and scripts in her spare time to amuse herself, whilst taking on a series of low-paid jobs, including cleaning, waitressing, stacking shelves and leafletting.

At the age of 31, she re-discovered one of her early attempts at a novel, and decided to send it to an agent. She chose Darley Anderson from the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook because she liked the sound of the name. He quickly contacted her and told her she would be a star. He was right: she received an advance of £150,000, then a record for a first time novelist. She has written a best-selling crime novel almost every year ever since.

Presenter: Kirsty Young Producer: Sarah Taylor.

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Episoder(126)

John Timpson

Kirsty Young's castaway is the businessman, John Timpson.He is chairman of his eponymous high street retailers and the business is in his blood: started by his great-grandfather in 1865 it is now run ...

27 Mar 201635min

Gloria Steinem

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer, feminist & activist, Gloria Steinem.At the forefront of the second wave of feminism, she came to prominence after publishing an article entitled "After Black Pow...

20 Mar 201636min

Yinka Shonibare

Kirsty Young's castaway is the artist Yinka Shonibare MBE.His work has populated museums around the globe, with a vivid, subversive and often tragi-comic presence; exploring themes of cultural identit...

13 Mar 201633min

Dr Dame Sue Ion

Kirsty Young's castaway is the engineer and nuclear scientist Dr Dame Sue Ion.The first woman to be awarded the highly prestigious President's Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering, she has worked...

6 Mar 201634min

Hugh Bonneville

Kirsty Young's castaway is Hugh Bonneville.Known around the world for his portrayal of Lord Grantham in ITV's hugely popular Downton Abbey, he made British audiences laugh with his portrayal of the ha...

28 Feb 201636min

Dame Zaha Hadid

Kirsty Young's castaway is the architect, Dame Zaha Hadid.The first woman to be awarded architecture's highest honour, the Pritzker Prize, she designed the Aquatic Centre for London 2012, Glasgow's Ri...

21 Feb 201634min

Ben Saunders

Kirsty Young's castaway is the polar adventurer Ben Saunders. In his own words he "specialises in dragging heavy things around cold places".He's one of only three people to have skied solo to The Nort...

14 Feb 201635min

Professor Dame Carol Black

Kirsty Young's castaway is Professor Dame Carol Black.She is Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, and is a special adviser to the Department of Health and Public Health England. She is also Chair ...

7 Feb 201637min