Private Passions

Michael Berkeley's guest is the writer and broadcaster Sarah Dunant, a former presenter of BBC2's The Late Show. She is now enjoying a successful career as a novelist, and her latest book completes a trilogy of novels set in Renaissance Italy. Set in a Ferrarese convent, Sacred Hearts explores the plight of girls from noble families who were forced to become nuns. Sarah's choices include a piece of sacred music of the type that would have been heard in such convents, chamber works by Bach and Schubert and songs by Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen.