Philip Fowke (photo © Jonathan Summers) By Jonathan Summers, Curator of Classical Music One of our great British pianists, Philip Fowke performed and broadcast on BBC radio and television from the late 1970s for more than two decades. He also made studio recordings for EMI, CRD, Naxos, Chandos, Dutton and…

This week’s selection comes from Jonnie Robinson, Lead Curator of Spoken English. Chatting today to our local fishmonger (Grimsby born and bred) I was reminded of a wonderful expression, back of Doig’s, submitted by a contributor from Grimsby (b.1939) to the Library’s Evolving English WordBank. Listen to a contribution on…

A scene from Viennese life; a Gypsy-concert in the Wurstelprater park’, Illustrirte Zeitung, 4 October 1873 Guest blog by Edison Fellow Dr Jon Banks former Senior Lecturer in Music at Anglia Ruskin University This project, generously supported by a British Library Edison Fellowship, brings together traditional accounts of one of…

This week’s post comes from Cheryl Tipp, Wildlife and Environmental Sounds Curator. Above: Photo of a Tawny Owl by Jon Pauling. From Pixabay. As autumn gets underway, the characteristic hoot of the Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) will soon be heard in woodlands across Britain. It is at this time that…

This week’s post comes from Steve Cleary, Lead Curator, Literary and Creative Recordings. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma (‘Great-souled’) Gandhi, led India’s campaign to rid itself of British rule. In October 1931, during his fifth and final visit to London, Gandhi was invited by the Columbia Gramophone Company…