13/04/2011

This week Libby Purves is joined by Raghu Dixit, Beata Zatorska, Linda Nolan and Brian Deighton. Raghu Dixit is an Indian crossover musician from Mysore. He founded the Raghu Dixit Project, an open house for musicians and artistes from different genres to come together, collaborate and create a dynamic sound and expression. He is a former Microbiologist and a proficient Indian Classical Dancer and his latest CD is entitled 'Raghu Dixit'. Beata Zatorska was born and raised in Communist Poland in the sixties and seventies by her grandmother, a professional chef. In 1981 she moved to Australia and became a doctor. After twenty years away, she returned to the village in Poland where she was brought up and rediscovered her grandmother's family recipes. Her book 'Rose Petal Jam - Recipes and stories from a summer in Poland' is published by Tabula Books. Linda Nolan is one of the Nolan sisters, originally from Ireland, who are probably best known for their hit song 'I'm in the Mood for Dancing'. Four members of the group, Maureen, Linda, Bernie and Coleen have written their autobiography 'Survivors' which tells of their rise to fame during the seventies and eighties. 'Survivors' is published by Sidgwick and Jackson. Brian Deighton is Head Gardener at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, the 18th-century residence set within 1,000 acres of breathtaking landscape. He and his team have just won the annual Christie's Historic Houses Association's 'Garden of the Year Award'. His pride and joy is the rose garden, which he has tended for thirty years, and remembers the filming of Brideshead Revisited at the house back in the eighties. He is also the voice of the gardening 'Mole' in TV's Creatures Comforts.