6 Poems to ponder on National Poetry Day
From William Wordsworth to Stevie Smith, generations of English poets have been inspired by place.Read more
The MiniDisc revival starts here (maybe)
Sony launched the first MiniDisc players and recorders in 1992. MiniDiscs were small (around 2¾” square) floppy-disk-style cartridges with an 80-minute recording capacity, intended to supplant the tape cassette format. Some major-artist commercial albums were issued as pre-recorded MiniDiscs, and the Library has a few examples of these in its…
Behind the Scenes of the Man Booker: a National Life Stories film
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize, here at National Life Stories, we thought it would be a good moment to delve into our Oral History collections to see what we could find out about its history.
Recording of the week: Dennis Brutus
This week’s selection comes from Stephen Cleary, Lead Curator of Literary & Creative Recordings. In this archive recording from the African Writers Club collection, South African poet and anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus reads the introductory poem from his debut volume Sirens Knuckles Boots. At the time of the book’s publication…
Recording of the week: Ancient Evenings
This week's selection comes from Stephen Cleary, Lead Curator of Literary & Creative Recordings.
It is now 10 years since the death of Norman Mailer, one of the best-known and most widely read US authors of the post-war period. This week's recording features Mailer in discussion with Melvyn Bragg at the ICA. London, in 1983. Mailer's epic novel of ancient Egypt, Ancient Evenings, had been published just a few days previously. Mailer discourses on the 'class system' of Ancient Egypt, among related subjects. It didn't pay to be poor in those days either, apparently.
Norman Mailer and Melvyn Bragg in conversation (C95/55)
This recording comes from a substantial collection of talks and discussions held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London between 1982-1993.
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