By Dr Hannah Silva, British writer and performer and Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. Paula Varjack selfie. “What you actually do is you use your eyes as a pen,” David J is telling me how he learned to freestyle, “off the dome.” We’re sitting…

Sir Isaac Pitman (The Pitman Collection, University of Bath) By Jonathan Summers, Curator of Classical Music When Isaac Pitman delivered a speech to the Phonographic Association in 1891 one would think it was to an assembled gathering of enthusiasts of Edison’s discovery of sound recording in the form of the…

This week’s selection comes from Steve Cleary, Lead Curator of Literary and Creative Recordings. This week’s recording of the week features A. A. Milne reading from his children’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh. This is a short excerpt from the complete chapter three featured on the disc, ‘in which Pooh and Piglet go…

We’re sad to hear of the death of novelist Andrea Levy who passed away yesterday, aged 62. In 2014, Andrea agreed to make a recording for Authors’ Lives which will be made available to listeners in the weeks to come.

Our last Recording of the Week for 2018 comes from Stephen Cleary, Lead Curator of Literary & Creative Recordings. Actor, singer and writer Norman Beaton (1934-1994) recalls his early career steps in Liverpool, and how the production of his first play, the musical Jack of Spades, came about through a…