Audio Books

Sir John Conant recounts the beginning of his farming career in Rutland in 1949, including the importance of his wife Periwinkle. 
 
Interview with John Conant in 2019, An oral history of farming, land management and conservation in post-war Britain 
 
C1828/10, Track 1 [00:28:21-01:10:24] 
 
Copyright: The British Library Board 

https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories-oral-history-of-farming

Sir John Conant Recounts The Beginning Of His Farming Career In Rutland

In the centenary year of the start of the First World War we ask the question, how much do we really know about World War One? British historian and Editorial Consultant for our new book World War I the Definitive Visual Guide, Richard Overy, tackles this question head on, as well as discussing what caused World War I and whether it could have been avoided. Introduced by Kerensa Creswell-Bryant.

More information about World War I the Definitive Visual History:

UK: http://ow.ly/vG1Tw
US: http://ow.ly/vG3oX
CA: http://ow.ly/zVwYG 
AUS: http://ow.ly/zVxeP 
DE: http://ow.ly/zVxoe 
SA: http://ow.ly/zVxGV 


DK Podcast: How Much do we Really Know About WWI?

As the House Intelligence Committee memo alleging FBI malfeasance in its Russia investigation grabs the headlines, a look back at Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre. The Saturday Night Massacre was the hinge point of the Watergate scandal.  The words coup and Third Reich were thrown around. The events of that weekend in October 1973 marked the beginning of the end of Nixon’s Presidency.  Do they hold a lesson for today?  President Trump has started his term of office exercising power in a similar fashion.  His firing of the acting Attorney General Sally Yates has echoes of the Saturday Night Massacre.  Nixon said, “If the President does it, it’s not illegal.” Trump acts as if he thinks that is the way the world works.  But Nixon found out even his own Republican Party didn’t think that was true.  Will Trump?  This is an essay from my archive and it offers a chance to reflect on how American politics has changed in the more than four decades since the Watergate scandal.

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Episode 9 Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre

John Becker is hot on the trail of Hitler's fatal weakness. The Gestapo is closing in. On foot, by train, even on water, Becker is running and gunning for his life ... and for the world. Hitler's Third Reich is rearming and planning for war. Churchill wants to stop him, but only Becker's report can reverse the British mood of appeasement. Cornered by the Gestapo, desperate to save his German collaborator Maria, Becker has mere days to ward off double disaster....
•	Author: Jeffrey Vanke
•	Narrator: Ian Russell
•	Unabridged
•	Length: 11 hr 4 min
•	ISBN# Digital: 978-1-944169-76-3
•	Audiobook copywright: 12/15/2015
•	Price: $14.99
•	Genre: Fiction
•	Age group: 13 and up


Purchase Full Book

The Berlin Deception - Chapter 1

Originally written and recorded as 'Barrett's Privateers' by Stan Rogers

With permission from Fogarty's Cove Records (http://stanrogers.net/)

Performed live and adapted by British Library Writer-in-Residence Rob Sherman and Nick Henderson (http://twitter.com/NickJHenderson) at the British Library, 8th December 2015 

“In the mid-nineteenth century, arguably the brief 'Golden Age' of vernacular organology aboard British ships, Arkwright's Privateers was one of the most popular 'chanteys', or accompanied work-songs, amongst the general maritime population. Though it did encroach upon naval vessels, it was amongst merchant crews and private ventures that it displayed the greatest tenacity; these vessels were often crewed by Midlands men, whose bravery and Romantic fate this song handles. It is also a prime example of the esteem in which sailors from the county of Derbyshire were held, an almost-mythopoeic pedestal from which they have never descended, not even in the present day.

The tune was likely sung on deck to the simple beat of a drum, most often as a 'hand-over-hand chantey', used in the task of setting the jib and other repetitive hauling tasks. The key evidence of this designation is the call-and-response component of each verse's first line, followed by a repeated refrain which keeps a tight rhythm, allowing for methodic application to the task at hand.

Despite its regional appeal, and its reliance on knowledge of mid-English folklore regarding the 'Derbyshire Sailors' and their adventures, versions of it have been recorded by folklorists up and down both littorals of the Atlantic, even as far south as the Antilles.”

Dr. Mark Tollas, from his introduction to 'Hilo, Boys, Hilo: A New History Of The English Ululation'

Learn more about Rob's British Library residency, 'On My Wife's Back' at http://onmywifesback.tumblr.com/ 

Arkwright's Privateers

orchestra
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
conducted by Jan Latham- Koenig

Faustus I/2

soprano and ensemble
Linda Matthias (soprano)
Cardiff University Ensemble
conducted by John Hopkins
text by Sylvia Plath
Concert Hall, Corbett Rd, Cardiff

4 Songs from Ariel

Where are the current trends in radio and online audio leading? What might radio sound (and look) like on its 2022 centenary? Some leading figures of UK radio come together for a discussion on radio today and tomorrow: Ruth Barnes chairs a panel featuring Matt Deegan (Folder Media/Next Radio conference), Helen Boaden (Director of BBC Radio), Femi Adeyemi (NTS Radio) and journalist/broadcaster Miranda Sawyer. Produced by Rosina Sound & Allanah Chance for the British Library, 16 September 2016.

The Future of Radio

The Copeland-Long restoration of the earliest known recording of computer music, recorded at Alan Turing's Computing Machine Laboratory in Manchester in 1951. Read Copeland and Long's fascinating blog account of the all-night programming session which led to its creation, and Turing's reaction on hearing it the following morning:  http://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2016/09/restoring-the-first-recording-of-computer-music.html

First known recording of computer music, 1951

A short stereo excerpt of a longer 8 channel work. This is a sonic investigation into community and gentrification in the London neighbourhood of Walworth. It has traditionally been a working-class neighbourhood with more recent residents coming from all over the world. The area has been subject to several contentious ‘regeneration’ schemes that have already caused the loss of 1100 socially rented homes of the Heygate Estate.

Elephant Endangered Stereo 1

Sir Tam Dalyell was interviewed by Dean White on 21 September 2012 for the History of Parliament Trust.

In this extract, Tam is asked about the West Lothian question. He explains what the question was, how John Smith reacted to it in the House of Commons and why Enoch Powell gave it its name!

You can listen to the full interview (Reference C1503/38) at the British Library: http://sami.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=ukJBfz9C0Q/WORKS-FILE/293450054/9

Copyright History of Parliament Trust and the British Library Board

Image of the Tam Dalyell sculpture at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery by Damian Entwistle on Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/  
https://www.flickr.com/photos/damiavos/6561911081

Tam Dalyell on how the West Lothian question got its name

Cataloging

One of the last Black Country chainmakers, Lucy Woodall, sings the worksong ‘Chainmaker lad is a masher’ and talks about singing. 

Recorded by Roy Palmer in Old Hill, Dudley, West Midlands, England. There was much iron and coal production in this area of England since the 1600s and chainmaking, centered around towns south of Dudley, was a flourishing business, now defunct. Songs like these are documents of our history and heritage. 

The full-length recording from the Traditional music in England collection is on British Library sounds: 
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Traditional-music-in-England/025M-C1023X0040XX-0100V0#

Chainmaker lad is a masher

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries. We hold over 13 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 57 million patents and 6 million sound recordings. Open to everyone, the Library offers events, temporary exhibitions and a Treasures Gallery that displays over 200 items, including Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible and lyrics by The Beatles.

Tam Dalyell on how the West Lothian question got its name

The British Library

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