In this week's Desert Island Discs, one of the most eminent English poets of this century, Sir Stephen Spender, talks to Sue Lawley about his radical and often flamboyant past, and his friendships with such notable literary figures as Christopher Isherwood, WH Auden and Virginia Woolfe.

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

Favourite track: String Quartet in A Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven