Moby-Dick

desert is.landest. 1942

Find a castaway Most requested Browse the archive About Report a fault

Tuning in…

desert is.land

“And if you could take only one…” — a semantic wireless tuned to the Desert Island Discs archive.

The listing

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Most requested
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Transmission

Broadcasting since 1942
Long wave 198 kHz
An unofficial archive companion
Report a fault

Not affiliated with the BBC · Built for the love of the long wave · Made by Daniel Hails

Moby-Dick — Book · desert is.land

desert is.landest. 1942

Find a castaway Most requested Browse the archive About Report a fault

Book

7 episodes

Chosen over the decades

Total castaways

2010s

Peak decade

Decades seen

Castaways who chose this

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
J G Ballard
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Nile Rodgers
Patricia Highsmith
Penelope Lively
Roger Deakins

Sir Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins on feeling most confident with his eye to the eyepiece
Castaway · 26 July 2026Lauren Laverne
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda on being called out by a song in Rent aged 17
Castaway · 6 October 2019Lauren Laverne

desert is.land

“And if you could take only one…” — a semantic wireless tuned to the Desert Island Discs archive.

The listing

Find a castaway
Most requested
Browse the archive
About

Transmission

Broadcasting since 1942
Long wave 198 kHz
An unofficial archive companion
Report a fault

Not affiliated with the BBC · Built for the love of the long wave · Made by Daniel Hails

15°58′S 093°35′W

Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers on saving his father's life at age seven

Castaway · 14 October 2018Lauren Laverne

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

07°03′S 022°43′W

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on making peppermint creams aged eight

Castaway · 26 July 2009Kirsty Young

J G Ballard

15°54′S 082°23′W

J G Ballard

J G Ballard on waiting 40 years to write his autobiography

Castaway · 2 February 1992Sue Lawley

Penelope Lively

23°24′S 035°07′W

Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively on being told by her publisher she hadn't won the Booker Prize

Castaway · 17 September 1989Sue Lawley

Patricia Highsmith

05°49′S 059°44′W

Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith on the 300-page novel she abandoned at 23

Castaway · 21 April 1979Roy Plomley

Sir Roger Deakins

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Nile Rodgers

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

J G Ballard

Penelope Lively

Patricia Highsmith