Mary Stewart, Lead Curator of Oral History and Director of National Life Stories, writes:

We are delighted today, 20 August 2025, to wish Professor Paul Thompson an extremely happy 90th birthday. Not only was Paul one of the founding lights of the oral history movement in the UK in the 1960s, in 1987 he set up (with the support of Asa Briggs) the National Life Story Collection: an independent charitable trust designed to spearhead the collection and dissemination of oral history at the British Library. The National Life Story Collection was renamed National Life Stories (NLS) in 2005.

In addition to formulating the idea for NLS, in 1987 Paul also donated to the fledgling charity the proceeds of a sale of a Henry Moore maquette (Working Model For Draped Seated Woman: Figure On Steps). The funds generated have given NLS a brilliant and stable financial base - a remarkable act of generosity and foresight. In this short extract from a long life story interview recorded by Robert Wilkinson in 2012-2016, Paul describes how the Henry Moore came into his possession and his reasons for selling it to benefit the new charity.

Paul Thompson on selling the Henry Moore (BL ref C1149/29)

Download Paul Thompson on selling the Henry Moore transcript

As Director of National Life Stories from 1987 to 1996, Paul was involved in key oral history projects, including The Living Memory of the Jewish Community – one of the first UK projects to record life story testimony with Jewish survivors of the Holocaust - and City Lives – a remarkable project on the history of the financial world of the City of London. In 1995, Paul handed the reins as NLS Director to Rob Perks (my predecessor in this role until his retirement in 2021). Since these pretty humble beginnings, National Life Stories has grown to become the leading oral history fieldwork charity in the UK, with in-depth life story projects run from the Library, an impressive research output, numerous archival partnerships with academic and community researchers across the UK and a thriving nationwide training programme run in conjunction with the Oral History Society. None of this would have been realised without Paul’s initial vision and wonderful generosity.

Paul remains a supportive and active NLS Trustee and his commitment to strengthen the British Library oral history collections has not waned. One notable example is his collection Pioneers of Social Research, comprising 58 life story interviews which are available through the UK Data Service and archived at the British Library (reference C1416). Paul, with co-authors Neli Demireva and Ken Plummer, drew on the 58 in depth interviews to publish Pioneering Social Research: Life stories of a Generation (Policy press, 2022). Neli and Paul wrote a blog about the book and the interviews for the Sound and Vision blog in 2023.  

Paul's wider contribution to the field of oral history in the UK is being celebrated over on the Oral History Society blog.

Many happy returns and thanks Paul!

Guest blog by Megan Thomas (ESRC CASE PhD student and Graduate Impact Assistant) and Dr Jonathan Hogg (Co-I on 'An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans'), University of Liverpool.

The launch of ‘An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’ on the 12th of September at The British Library marks the culmination of a two-year project, funded by the Office For Veterans’ Affairs, that captures the testimony and life stories of over 40 nuclear test veterans. This special event will feature the premiere of our 20-minute project film, The Greatest Force on Earth and introduce the major web resource ‘Voices of British Nuclear Test Veterans’ which was created with the National Life Stories team.

At the heart of the project is the wish to capture the voices of those men who witnessed a series of events that forever changed the world around us. The project team formed close connections with the men who witnessed atomic detonations as part of the British nuclear testing programme in the 1950s and 60s, focusing on the whole lives of the veterans to understand the wider meaning and impact of participating in this Cold War activity. The vivid testimony captured by the project team illuminates the diverse life experiences of nuclear test veterans, and several outputs from the project have been created to promote recognition and awareness of this complex and contested history.

A still from our project film The Greatest Force on Earth, directed by Sasha Snow, showing nuclear test veteran Frank Bools next to a picture of his wife.

When planning the project film with director Sasha Snow we wanted to capture the different ways in which participating in the British nuclear test programme shaped and impacted upon the life of Frank Bools, a veteran who we had interviewed as part of our project. Frank was a Royal Engineer who helped build the main base camp on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1958. We came to realise that the film also mirrored the interview process, capturing both an intimate portrait of Frank but also how talking with him revealed remarkable recollections and anecdotes about his life. The emotive film illuminates the complicated life-long legacy of being a nuclear test veteran and speaks to the universal experiences of love and loss, while also exploring the forces of creation and destruction.

To accompany this unique and original interpretation of nuclear test veteran experience, the project team commissioned comic artist Gareth Sleightholme to create These Atomic Lives. The 20-page comic, which forms part of the educational resources created as part of the project, draws upon nuclear test veteran testimony and contemporary sources materials, such as photographs and radio shows, to offer a snapshot of life abroad working on the nuclear test programme. It also reflects on the inter-generational legacy of Cold War nuclear testing.

A sneak preview from our project comic These Atomic Lives illustrated by Gareth Sleightholme

Of course, the interviews with nuclear test veterans serve as the centrepiece of our project. Terry Hilliard, who served as Squadron Pilot and acting Flight Commander in 76 Squadron during Operation Grapple, flew a ‘sniffer plane’ through a nuclear mushroom cloud to collection radioactive air samples as part of the Grapple Z test series in 1958. He described the moment of detonation in the following clip:

Terry Hilliard describes witnessing Grapple Z

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Terry Hilliard, Squadron Pilot and Primary Sample Sniffer for the third detonation of Grapple Z. Photo © Terry Hilliard, used with permission.

The project team commissioned eight essays based around remarkable clips like this, and they will appear on the project website in September 2025. In her project essay Dr Laura Considine reflects on the challenges faced by veterans as a result of their extraordinary experiences. The interviews illuminate veterans’ conflicting pride in their national service and helping to ensure the policy of nuclear deterrence, alongside ethical concerns for their part in testing the type of bomb that John Morris, who served in the Army during Operation Grapple, described as a ‘monster’.

John Morris on creating 'a monster'

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Dr Chris Hill’s interview with the late Ken McGinley, who described in detail his role in the establishment of the British Nuclear Test Veteran Association (BNTVA) in 1983, is six hours long and stands as a significant record of both Ken’s involvement in the nuclear testing programme and the reasons why test veterans spent years campaigning for justice and recognition. In one clip from Ken’s interview, which is featured in Dr Fiona Bowler’s essay on campaigning, we are told about the origins of the BNTVA.

Ken McGinley recalls the origins of the BNTVA

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Ken McGinley speaking at a press conference in Japan. Photo © BNTVA Museum, used with permission.

We are proud that this project helps ensure that the stories of nuclear test veterans are heard, and that the interviews will be stored for future generations at The British Library. We have already reached out to new audiences, and a recent School Citizen Assembly event in Liverpool demonstrated the power of bringing nuclear test veterans and other stakeholders face-to-face with young people.

Funded by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, ‘An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’ was led by Dr Chris Hill (PI) from The University of South Wales and Dr Jonathan Hogg (Co-I) from the University of Liverpool, in partnership with The British Library. The project team would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the nuclear test veterans that were part of this project.

Tickets are available now for Veterans Voices: Legacies of Britain's Nuclear Testing Programme, the launch event at the British Library on 12 September 2025.

Bluegill, a high altitude detonation over Christmas Island during Operation Dominic. Photo by National Defense Agency. Public domain, via the US National Records and Archives Administration.

 

Guest blog post by Dr Anna Cole, Heritage Lead, Rape Crisis England and Wales with input from Dr Ellie Whittingdale, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University.

The Rape Crisis movement emerged in the UK just over 50 years ago, in the early 1970s. It can be contextualised within broader histories of liberation activism at the time and rose in large part from consciousness-raising women’s circles of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Talking and listening to one another in this way, women realised the endemic nature of sexual violence in society and began to raise public awareness of the issue, while also building from scratch the first support services for survivors.

Photo courtesy of Anna Cole. 

A recently completed ground-breaking national oral ‘herstory’ project records life stories from across the Rape Crisis network. Rape Crisis: Herstories and Futures of the Movement was created with National Life Stories at the British Library in collaboration with Rape Crisis England and Wales, a national feminist charity working to end child sexual abuse, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University. All oral herstory interviews are now complete and a new oral history archive is soon to be lodged with the British Library Sound Archive in perpetuity. The archive will be publicly available in early 2027.

Photo courtesy of Anna Cole. 

The sound archive is made up of life-story interviews and group interviews with over 35 women from across the rape crisis movement. A sampling frame was devised with input from current Rape Crisis centre members through an active Heritage Peer Space. Interviewees were selected based on five key axes: region, age, role, ethnic identity, and whether remaining within or now left the movement. Today’s stark statistics speak to the ongoing necessity for this work, the still too often hidden nature of sexual violence in our society, and the ongoing challenges in the criminal justice system to effectively address it: 71,227 rapes were recorded by police in 2024, and by the end of that year charges had been brought in just 2.7% of these cases.  And these figures only account for cases reported to the police; statistics collated by Rape Crisis England and Wales indicate that the majority of instances of rape or sexual assault are never formally reported. 

Photo courtesy of Anna Cole.

‘Herstory: 50 Years of Rape Crisis’ is a new four-part podcast series which has drawn its themes and stories from the testimony recorded in the ‘oral herstory’ project’. The four episodes trace the heritage of the Rape Crisis movement in England and Wales — as remembered by the women who built, shaped, and lived it. Activists, founders, staff, volunteers, and survivors come together to share moments, memories, and reflections. What unfolds is not a complete history, but a deeply felt, personal - and political - one, a window into the movement’s roots, its evolution, and the futures these women imagine. This first national oral ‘herstory’ of the Rape Crisis movement project was made possible by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the generous support of National Lottery players.

Episode 1: The Dream

In the 1970s and 1980s, a generation of women dared to speak the unspeakable and demanded a better life for women. This episode follows the birth of the Rape Crisis movement in Britain. Founders, volunteers, and current staff reflect on the feminist ideals that drove these women, and the tension between activism and survival as they built a service from scratch, in the face of silence and stigma.

Episode 2: Along the Way

As the movement matured, so did its internal and external challenges. In this episode, women reflect on the struggle to stay rooted in feminist values while navigating power structures, limited resources, and growing demand. They speak candidly about what true inclusivity means, the emotional toll, and the ongoing pressure of managing long waiting lists.

Episode 3: Holding the Line

Today, Rape Crisis centres fight for survival amid austerity and competitive tendering. Workers talk about burnout, underfunding, and why survivor-centred care is still worth fighting for, even as efforts to professionalise the service bring both benefits and tensions. The shift away from relying on volunteers — once the backbone of the movement — is felt deeply across the sector.

Episode 4: What Now?

What’s next? From social enterprises to policy change, women explore new ways to sustain the movement. This episode highlights the role of Rape Crisis England & Wales as the national body seeking to support member centres and campaign for lasting change — and why ending sexual violence remains the ultimate goal.

'Herstory: 50 years of Rape Crisis' is a four-part podcast series by producers Riham Moussa and Mary Holditch for Rape Crisis: Herstories and Futures of the Movement.

Listen on the Rape Crisis website

Listen on Acast 

Visit the Rape Crisis England and Wales website for more information.