Guest blog by Rosa Kurowska Kyffin, interviewer for National Life Stories. Akyaaba Addai-Sebo standing in front of the King’s Library at the British Library, St Pancras. Earlier this summer the British Library recorded a life story interview with Akyaaba Addai-Sebo for the National Life Stories oral history collection Leaders of…

In the Spoken English department we love dialects in all their varieties. Dialects are made up of accent, grammatical forms and vocabulary, and are often specific to or associated with a particular geographical location. As populations change, so do dialects, and therefore many people might think of these as a…

Mahomed’s Baths from 1826. Alamy. The NHS as we know it today has been built – and continues to be sustained – by migrant contributions. South Asians have played a major role in this. But did you know that we can place South Asians in the medical profession in Britain…

Postcard of Pitcairn Island post office, dating to the 1940s. Public domain. I’ve chosen this recording of the week to celebrate World Post day, which marks the anniversary of the creation of the Universal Postal Union. The Union was established to create and maintain a postal system for the free…

What can you see and hear on the upper ground floor of the Library? If you find yourself by the gallery outside the King’s Library, you will discover our Listening Desk, a cross between a gramophone horn, a desk, and a touch screen. This sound sculpture, and others around the…