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Sue Lawley's guest this week is the journalist Anthony Howard. He's worked on The New Statesman, The Observer and The Sunday Times, where as Obituaries Editor, he turned a previously dead-end job into a highly competitive art form. A regular television commentator, he probably inherited his gift for oratory from his father, a parson who gave stirring sermons.

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

Favourite track: The Toasting Song (from La Traviata - Act One) by Giuseppe Verdi\nBook: Dictionary of National Biography\nLuxury: Camp bed