The novelist and journalist Susie Boyt tells Michael Berkeley about her lifelong passions for music, theatre and dancing.

Whether she’s writing black comedies about dysfunctional families or about her intense love of Judy Garland, Susie Boyt is unafraid to address the big questions in all our lives. Her seven novels explore how we can best take care of people, how we can survive life’s inevitable traumas and how we might live alongside the loss of people we love.

Susie chooses pieces by Mozart, Beethoven and Britten as well as music from the ballet Giselle that conjures up the fragility and vulnerability of childhood. Susie’s father was the painter Lucian Freud and we hear a song by the music hall star Gus Elen which recalls the many hours she sat for him in his studio sharing their love of song lyrics.

Producer: Jane Greenwood