Desert Island Discs, Desert Island Discs, Nemone Lethbridge, lawyer and writer

Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs

Nemone Lethbridge, lawyer and writer

February 2, 2025

51 minutes

Available for over a year

Nemone Lethbridge is a barrister who was called to the bar in 1956. One of very few female barristers working at the time, she encountered misogyny and was one of the trailblazers for women working in the legal profession who followed behind her.

At her first Chambers, she wasn’t allowed to share a toilet with her male colleagues and had to use the facilities in a nearby café. It was hard for her to find work and for some time she represented the Kray twins.

After her marriage to a writer, and former convicted criminal was revealed, she was forced to leave the legal profession and they moved to Greece for a number of years where both of them had careers as writers having their work filmed for the BBC.

Nemone returned to the Bar in 1981 and continues to do pro bono work at 92 years old.

She lives in London.

DISC ONE: Go Down, Moses - Paul Robeson

DISC TWO: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - The Choir of King’s College Cambridge

DISC THREE: Scarborough Fair – Simon & Garfunkel

DISC FOUR: I Wanna Go Back to Dixie - Tom Lehrer

DISC FIVE: Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 / Act 3: "Sull’aria ... Che soave zeffiretto"

Performed by Edith Mathis (soprano), Gundula Janowitz (soprano), Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin and conducted by Karl Böhm

DISC SIX: Strose to Stroma sou – Mikis Theodorakis

DISC SEVEN: September Song - Gracie Fields

DISC EIGHT: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147: Chorale. Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Arr. for Piano) (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring) Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Lang Lang

BOOK CHOICE: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

LUXURY ITEM: A doll

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 / Act 3: "Sull’aria ... Che soave zeffiretto". Performed by Edith Mathis (soprano), Gundula Janowitz (soprano), Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin and conducted by Karl Böhm

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor