For the record: Jonathan Freedland on his sister’s farewell Desert Island Discs | Life and style | The Guardian

A beloved sister's last request -- to be "interviewed" by her brother about the music she would want to take with her to a desert island, for a recording that her daughters could listen to after she was gone.



"I decided the only way I could begin to handle this encounter was professionally, to approach it as a radio interview. Fiona had told me what pieces she had chosen and I came with them lined up, ready to play. I worked out what areas to cover and when. I suppose I knew I was distancing myself from what was really happening.

We sat in her living room. Or, rather, I sat. She lay on a couch, legs outstretched, her head supported by cushions, a microphone clipped to her top. At intervals we would stop. She would sip a glass of water, I would go off to microwave the small thermal beanbags she would put by her neck to ease the pain. It was constant and severe by then, but she was not to be deterred. An accomplished lawyer, specialising, as it happened, in medical issues, she revealed herself that day as a natural broadcaster: she was fluent, funny and completely engaging. Nothing was written down, but she knew exactly what she wanted to say."



For the record: Jonathan Freedland on his sister’s farewell Desert Island Discs | Life and style | The Guardian: