Main content

David Mitchell

Michael Berkeley's guest is the writer David Mitchell.

David Mitchell is the author of nine time-traversing, genre-bending novels. His first, Ghostwritten, was published 25 years ago, and his third, Cloud Atlas, made his name around the world, and later became a Hollywood film. It follows six interlocking lives in an ambitious narrative that circles the globe and travels through time from 19th-century New Zealand to a post-apocalyptic future in Hawaii 鈥 and back again.

Closer to home, he drew on his own childhood in Worcestershire in his coming-of-age tale Black Swan Green, about a teenager attempting to overcome a stammer and negotiate playground hierarchies, all against the backdrop of the Falklands War.

His most recent novel, Utopia Avenue, charts the rise of an imaginary rock band in the late 1960s.

David's musical choices include Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov, Sibelius and Hildegard von Bingen.

Available now

52 minutes

Last on

Sun 7 Apr 2024 12:00

Music Played

  • Jean Sibelius

    Andante festivo

    Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Osmo V盲nsk盲.
    • Snofrid - Cantatas and Orchestral Works.
    • BIS.
    • 9.
  • Felix R枚sch

    In Memory Of A Honey Bee

    Performer: Matija Strni拧a. Ensemble: Mond毛na Quartet.
    • Fragmente.
    • SilentGreen Records.
    • 4.
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    The Flight of the Bumble Bee

    Performer: Adam Gyorgy. Music Arranger: Sergey Rachmaninov.
    • Karmatronic Sound Mgmt, LLC.
  • Anon.

    Hanacpachap cussicuinin

    Singer: Grace Davidson. Ensemble: Ex Cathedra. Conductor: Jeffrey Skidmore.
    • Moon, Sun & All Things: Baroque Music from Latin America 2.
    • Hyperion.
    • 1.
  • Mark O鈥機onnor

    Appalachia Waltz

    Performer: Yo鈥怸o Ma.
    • Essential Yo-Yo Ma.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 6.
  • Johnny Flynn

    The Water

    Singer: Johnny Flynn. Singer: Laura Marling.
    • Been Listening.
    • Transgressive.
    • 7.
  • Ana茂s Mitchell

    Wedding Song (Hadestown)

    Ensemble: Original Broadcast Cast.
    • Hadestown (Original Broadway Cast Recording).
    • Sing It Again Records.
    • 4.
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck

    M茅lodie de Gluck

    Performer: James Rhodes. Music Arranger: Giovanni Sgambati.
    • James Rhodes: Five.
    • SIGNUM.
    • 13.
  • Bill Evans

    Peace Piece

    Performer: Bill Evans.
    • Everybody Digs Bill Evans.
    • Riverside.
    • 7.
  • Claude Debussy

    De l'aube 脿 midi sur la mer (La Mer)

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Fran莽ois鈥怷avier Roth.
    • Debussy: La mer, Pr茅lude 脿 l'apr猫s-midi d'un faune 鈥 Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole.
    • Lso Live.
    • 6.
  • Benjamin Britten

    Corpus Christi Carol

    Composer: Jeff Buckley. Performer: Jeff Buckley.
    • Grace.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 8.
  • Hildegard von Bingen

    Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit

    Ensemble: Ensemble for Medieval Music.
    • deutsche harmonia mundi.

Broadcast

  • Sun 7 Apr 2024 12:00

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

For Private Passions, Jools Holland revealed his piano history to Michael Berkeley.

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield鈥檚 Private Passions

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield鈥檚 Private Passions

Harry doesn't usually give interviews 鈥 but he couldn't say no to Michael Berkeley.

Archive Unlocked: Two Decades of Private Passions

Michael Berkeley introduces memorable interviews from Private Passions' archives.

Podcast