Shami Chakrabarti

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti. A pithy and incisive speaker, she is rarely out of the media spotlight and has been voted 'one of our most inspiring political figures'. She joined Liberty the day before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and, as the events unfolded on the television screens, it was, she says, impossible to predict just how much they would shape the civil rights debate in the years that followed. For her, it was not just a matter of philosophical or political principle - her son was born soon after the attacks and his birth, she says, influenced her own feelings: "I understood more what it is to be afraid, what it is to really worry about whether your family are going to be blown up on the underground."

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

Favourite track: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free by Nina Simone Book: To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee Luxury: A private screening room with movies.