2024-07-28
51 分钟BBC sounds music radio podcasts.
Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is the forensic scientist, Professor Patricia Wiltshire.
Her career path is unique, as is her approach at a crime scene.
If you saw her there, eyes closed, apparently lost in thought, you could be forgiven for wondering whether a feat of science or imagination was unfolding before you.
Indeed, she's known for her uncanny ability to use both.
She's a forensic ecologist, using the evidence of plant life from the scene of a crime to reveal the truth of a case, often in astonishing detail.
She trained as a botanist and then worked as an environmental archaeologist, using her skills to help evoke ancient landscapes.
Then in 1994, she got a call asking her to help with a murder investigation that had reached a dead end.
A new chapter began, one which has led her to work with every police force in Britain and helped solve some of the country's most notorious murders.
She says, you've got to be at the cold face if you're going to do the job properly.
Crime scene, mortuary court.
You've got to have fortitude, you've got to have grit, you've got to be able to say, I'm so tired, but I've got to carry on.
Patricia Wiltshire, welcome to Desert Island Discs.
Thank you for having me on your program.
We are delighted to have you, Patricia.
Now, you're a botanist, Patricia, but specifically a palinologist.