Stephen Moss isn’t the first to raise the point about Elisabeth Schwarzkopf choosing seven of her own recordings for Desert Island Discs, nor of Moura Lympany choosing all eight (The key moments of Desert Island Discs, 7 January). There was the suspicion that Schwarzkopf misunderstood what was expected. Arguments will no doubt continue. As for Moura Lympany, she said that she found she was choosing pretty much the same records as for her first appearance, so, to make a change, about the only one available to her, she chose records of her own performances. I always thought that second appearances on the programme were rather pointless. At least for musicians such as Lympany, there was the opportunity for an alternative selection.
Ken Vines
Horrabridge, Devon
• If memory serves, the (joint?) record holder for a guest choosing their own records is John Lee Hooker: all eight.
Roger Gough
Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire
• Elisabeth Schwarzkopf may have chosen seven of her own records when putatively stranded, but at least they were good. When Norman Wisdom appeared on the programme in 2000, five out of eight of his choices were his own, including his favourite one. I can’t imagine a more efficient way of turning a paradisal island into hell.
David Gouldstone
Letchworth, Hertfordshire
• Stephen Moss omitted one unforgettable interview from his review of 75 years of Desert Island Discs. It would require a heart of ice not to have been moved by Dr David Nott’s recollections in June last year of carrying out life-saving surgery under rocket fire and while bombs were dropping around him in various war zones, from Sarajevo to Aleppo. Dr Nott came across as a remarkable individual not just because of his courage and humanitarianism but for his manifest modesty and humility. He has received a number of honours including an OBE but I wondered at the time why he had not been knighted. I still do.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
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