Rosy Hall is an ESRC-funded PhD student from Oxford University working with the BL’s Spoken English collections. She writes: The phrase ‘San Fairy Ann’ might sound familiar, perhaps conjuring up memories of Paul McCartney’s 1976 song, or Barbara Windsor’s 1965 comedy of the same name. But what does it actually… read more
This week’s selection comes from Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. If you find yourself in East Yorkshire during the summer holidays, be sure to pay a visit to the stunning seabird colonies at Bempton Cliffs. Every year nearly half a million seabirds congregate on the hard chalk… read more
Rosy Hall is an ESRC-funded PhD student from Oxford University working with the BL’s Spoken English collections. She writes: One of the joys of cataloguing the Evolving English WordBank is discovering all the weird and wonderful phrases donated to the British Library by speakers from around the world. Researching their… read more
This week’s selection comes from David Govier, Oral History Archivist. The Second World War saw women take on roles that they had not been expected to undertake before. Women moved from the home into factories, ship yards and pivotal roles in war administration. In one of the earliest recordings used… read more
This week’s selection comes from Lucia Cavorsi, Audio Project Cataloguer. There is no doubt Arturo Toscanini was a one-of-a-kind conductor. Renowned for his mastery, Toscanini was obsessed with the most minute details of a performance. But such a quest for perfection, whose outcome would undoubtedly delight listeners, came at a… read more