Dr Ruth Westheimer - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is sex therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer.

Born in Germany in the late 1920s, her Jewish family sent her out of the country as the Nazis rose to power. Sent to the safe but lonely confines of a Swiss orphanage, she was never to see her family again. Then, after living in Israel and studying in Paris, she eventually took American citizenship. Then, 10 years ago, she emerged from obscurity to become a national celebrity. As an unemployed college lecturer in her early 50s, her appearances on radio and television, where she handed out explicit but common-sense advice on sex and its problems, brought her fame and fortune. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her early life, her adventures in Paris and Israel and the satisfactions of her present job.

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

Favourite track: There Was A Time by Joel Westheimer
Book: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Luxury: Large box of marrons glacés

Further episodes of Desert Island Discs: Archive 1986-1991

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4

Website of BBC Radio 4