Recording of the week: Dungeons and Dragons’ curious renaissance

This week’s selection comes from Jowan Collier, Preservation Assistant. I have a confession. Every week or so, a few friends and I gather in a small living room to play Dungeons and Dragons. Or as the Dungeon Master’s mother puts it, “to roll dice and pretend”. My character’s name is…

‘We had to get out’: 80 years since the Kindertransport

The Kindertransport 80 years on, as told through oral histories.

Choosing to stand: what makes women run for Parliament?

100 years of women MPs as told through the History of Parliament Oral History Project.

In the depths of a wasp nest

Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds writes: The Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) gets a pretty bad rap. We’re all in love with bees but, when it comes to wasps, we’re not so enamoured. To be fair, they don’t help themselves. They fall into your pint, pester you at…

Recording of the week: Sheila Girling describes fellow painter, Helen Frankenthaler

This week’s selection comes from Camille Johnston, Oral History Assistant Archivist. To celebrate the launch of Voices of art we’re listening to artist Sheila Girling’s (1924-2015) description of fellow painter, Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011). Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist artist. Girling gives a detailed illustration of Frankenthaler’s gestural and…