Main content

Vincent Cable MP

Kirsty Young's castaway is politician Vincent Cable MP.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman, Vince Cable. He studied economics at Cambridge and had a rich career before entering parliament in 1997. Now, he's become something of a media darling; seen by many as one of the few people able to understand - and make credible suggestions about - the current financial crisis.

In this personal interview, however, politics is largely set aside and instead Vince describes the home-life that shaped him as he grew up and the rich family life he has enjoyed as an adult. His fiercely ambitious father was an activist for the local Conservative party: he was talented, driven and passionate, but also overbearing and unwilling to hear voices of dissent. Vince dismayed his father by dropping his science degree in favour of economics and later outraged him by marrying his first wife, Olympia, who was from Kenya. Despite his father's view that mixed-race marriages 'didn't work', they were married for more than 13 years and raised their three children together before Olympia's death from cancer. After her death, he says, he envisaged a lonely old-age lay ahead - but an unpromising debate about free trade and agriculture brought him together with his second wife. Now he says he wears both his wedding rings together as a tribute to the two happy marriages he has enjoyed, he continues to go dancing every week with his second wife Rachel, as he did with Olympia and he is, he cheerfully confesses, a romantic.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: La Ci Darem La Mano from Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Book: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Luxury: An Aston Martin car.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 23 Jan 2009 09:00

Music Played

  • George Frideric Handel

    And the glory of the Lord (from Messiah)

    Choir: York Celebrations Choir. Conductor: John Warburton.
    • A Choral Festival: York Celebrations Choir.
    • Decca Eclipse.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Am Abend, da es kuehle war (from St Matthew Passion)

    Singer: Paul Vincent.
    • Agnesa and Paul- Give Me Your Hand.
  • Acker Bilk

    Stranger On The Shore

    • Heartbeat.
    • Columbia.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor 'Appassionata' - 3rd movement

    Performer: Claudio Arrau.
    • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos, 8, 23 & 14.
    • Philips.
  • Antonin Dvorak

    O silver moon (from Rusalka)

    Singer: Agnesa Tothova. Orchestra: Prague Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: James Sedares.
    • Agnesa and Paul- Give Me Your Hand.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major - 1st movement

    Orchestra: Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Conductor: Bernard Haitink.
    • Beethoven: 5 Piano Concertos.
    • Sony Classical.
  • Pat Boone

    Love Letters in the Sand

    • Love Letters in the Sand.
    • The Entertainers.
  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

      L脿 ci darem la mano (from Don Giovanni)

      Singer: Paul Vincent, Agnesa Tothova. Orchestra: Prague Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: James Sedares.
      • Agnesa and Paul- Give Me Your Hand.
  • Book Choice

    • A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

  • Luxury Choice

    • An Aston Martin car

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Vince Cable

Broadcasts

  • Sun 18 Jan 2009 11:15
  • Fri 23 Jan 2009 09:00

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast