大象传媒

Sigrid Rausing is a writer, publisher and philanthropist. She鈥檚 the co-founder of Portobello books, the owner of Granta books, and the editor of Granta literary magazine, a role she says she hugely enjoys. It鈥檚 impossible though to talk about her own achievements without mentioning her Swedish family background: her grandfather founded the packaging company Tetra Pak, and his brilliant idea for the invention of waxed cardboard cartons for milk and fruit juice brought him great wealth - and has allowed his grand-daughter to found one of the biggest philanthropic organizations in this country. But the family has been marked by great tragedy too: in 2012, Sigrid鈥檚 sister-in-law Eva died of a drugs overdose and her brother, who was also an addict, was arrested for possession of drugs, and for keeping his wife鈥檚 body at home with him.

In conversation with Michael Berkeley, Sigrid talks about the terrible effect of drug addiction on her family, and the guilt she and everyone around her feels about what happened. She looks back on her early career as an anthropologist, and reflects on the pleasures and challenges of editing a literary magazine. Music choices include Mozart鈥檚 clarinet concerto, Brahms鈥檚 Handel Variations, Liszt鈥檚 transcription of Schubert, and Ella Fitzgerald singing 鈥淎nything Goes鈥�.

A Loftus production for 大象传媒 Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke