Book Review: Desert Island Discs' best interviews show up the programme's bulletproof nature

Ian Gittins, a music journalist, selects 80 interviews, places the guests in context, transcribes the most absorbing parts of the exchanges, lists their music choices and, occasionally, speaks to castaways about their experience of appearing on the show.

Bono appearing on Desert Island Discs: In 2022, a self-deprecating Bono spoke movingly about how after the sudden death of his mother, Iris, when he was 14, the U2 frontman “wrote songs to get back to her”.

• The Definitive Desert Island Discs 
• Ian Gittins 
• BBC Books, €27.99