This is an excellent book which brings together a wealth of experience and expertise in oral history.

Allan Redfern gives lots of examples and lots of pictures (some curiously repeated - a real waste of space) and he shows a range of targets, from relationships with the elderly, understanding of crises in a wider world and the fostering of ethnic consciousness and good relations between different cultures.

He is also good on the tricksy bits about technicalities (“Why did you forget to switch on, Johnny?”) and he gives a lot of space (more than I would need) to proving how well oral history delivers national curriculum targets in history and a range of other subjects.

There is a useful but rather short section on using the testimony, an excellent bibliography, list of sound archives, resources and contacts and addresses (Leicester proves a veritable treasure house - who would have thought it?).