You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.

My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.

The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.

With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping

you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together

by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,

check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2009.

Music My castaway this week is the illustrator Jan Piankovsky.

He's published more than a hundred books over the past 40 years and delighted

generations of parents and children. His work has been described as violently colourful. It's inventive

and often macabre. Childhood terrors are realised in Gothic scenes. Witches are a constant presence

and his haunted house was a pioneering pop-up book.

Born a few years before the Second World War, his childhood was spent in Poland, Bavaria, Vienna and Italy,

before he reached Britain more than 60 years ago. He's been here ever since. But the folk traditions

of Central Europe can still be seen in his work.

Let's talk for a moment about one of your most famous witches, Meg, from I mentioned the Meg and

Mogg books that people have loved for so many years. She was inspired by a real person, is that right?

I think she was. Where we lived during the war was in the Reich. I mean, it was technically Germany.

And my father ran a farm there, and my mother was always working. And she was terribly anxious that I shouldn't get TB.

So I had milk from the cow, but it had to be boiled, and I really didn't like it,

...