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Abdulrazak Gurnah

Michael Berkeley's guest is winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah.

Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021, honouring a career in which he’s written ten novels, and many short stories and essays. He’s an Emeritus Professor at the University of Kent.

He was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of East Africa, and first came to Britain as a refugee at the age of 18, in the aftermath of the Zanzibar Revolution.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he recalled how, even as a young schoolboy, he loved writing stories. He also reflected on how his move to England changed everything: "there", he said, "in my homesickness and amidst the anguish of a stranger’s life… I began to do a different kind of writing. There was a task to be done."

Abdulrazak's musical choices include Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Miles Davis and the Malian kora player, Toumani Diabaté.

Available now

35 minutes

Last on

Sun 5 Nov 2023 12:00

Music Played

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Sympnony No.40 in G Minor K.550_1.Molto Allegro

    Orchestra: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Mackerras.
    • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonies 38 - 41.
    • Linn Records.
    • 1.
  • Sidney Bechet & Claude Luter and his Orchestra

    Petite Fleur

    • Petite Fleur.
    • Vogue.
    • 1.
  • Dmitiri Shostakovich

    Symphony No.7 in C Major Op. 60 The Leningrad

    Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Andris Nelsons.
    • Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 1.
  • Toumani Diabaté

    Kaira

    • Kaira.
    • Hannibal Records.
    • 3.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Song Without Words

    Performer: Sheku Kanneh‐Mason. Performer: Isata Kanneh‐Mason.
    • Song.
    • Decca.
    • 7.
  • Frédéric Chopin

    Nocturne No.4 in F Major Op.15 No.1

    Performer: Martha Argerich.
    • Argerich Plays Chopin.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 8.
  • Miles Davis

    Summertime

    • Porgy and Bess.
    • Columbia.
    • 5.
  • Joaquín Rodrigo

    Concierto de Aranjuez 1: Allegro Con Spirito

    Performer: Miloš Karadaglić. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Yannick Nézet‐Séguin.
    • Aranjuez.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 1.

Broadcast

  • Sun 5 Nov 2023 12:00

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