Jo Fairley, businesswoman
Jo Fairley, businesswoman, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury she would to take with her if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.
Jo Fairley is a businesswoman and writer. She co-founded the Green & Black鈥檚 chocolate company with Craig Sams, her husband, and has launched several other successful ventures since then.
Jo did not enjoy school, left at 16 with six O-levels and learned shorthand and typing at a secretarial college. She got a job with a magazine publisher and worked her way up through the features department to become the UK鈥檚 youngest magazine editor at the age of 23.
Her move into chocolate came when she happened to try a couple of squares of a sample sitting on the desk of her future husband, Craig Sams, a health foods entrepreneur. Jo decided that it was the best she had ever tasted. She bought two tonnes of chocolate for 拢20,000, using all of the proceeds from the flat she had just sold. She and Craig launched Green & Black鈥檚 in 1991 and sold the company to Cadbury鈥檚 in 2005.
BOOK CHOICE: Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World's Food Plants by National Geographic
LUXURY ITEM: Her own pillow
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Wanna Be Like You by Louis Prima
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Next
Music Played
-
The Orb
Little Fluffy Clouds
- The Orb鈥檚 Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld.
- Big Life.
- 1.
-
The Garifuna Collective
奥谩迟颈苍补
- 奥谩迟颈苍补.
- Cumbancha.
- 1.
-
Louis Prima
I Wanna Be Like You
- Classic Disney: Volume 3.
- Disney.
- 14.
-
Frank Sinatra
Fly Me to the Moon
- My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra.
- Warner Music UK.
- 13.
-
Carly Simon
You're So Vain
- No Secrets.
- Elektra.
- 3.
-
Madonna
La Isla Bonita
- True Blue.
- Warner Bros.
- 7.
-
George Michael
Careless Whisper
- Make it Big.
- Epic.
- 8.
-
Richard Wagner
Liebestod
Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Otto Klemperer.- Klemperer Conducts Wagner.
- EMI.
- 6.
Broadcasts
- Sun 11 Aug 2019 11:1591热爆 Radio 4
- Fri 16 Aug 2019 09:0091热爆 Radio 4
Listen to over 2,000 programmes
Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.
Articles
Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.
Podcast
-
Desert Island Discs
Castaway guests share the soundtrack of their lives.