The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is John Simpson. Recently honoured by the Royal Television Society as Journalist of the Year, he'll be talking about his life covering foreign affairs for the BBC. In that capacity, he has reported on most of the momentous upheavals of the last few years - from Tiananmen Square to the release of Nelson Mandela, from the fall of Ceausescu to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

More recently, he was one of the very few journalists to stay on in Baghdad when the Allies began their bombardment of Iraq. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his time there, as well as his other - more frightening rather than thrilling - experiences as the BBC's Foreign Affairs Editor.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Il N'y A Plus D'Apres by Juliette Greco