Not Your Usual Oral History

Our one thousand conversations sit in the British Library's oral history archive yet they are unique. Holly Gilbert, who catalogues them for the BL, explains why to Fi GLover. Part of a celebration of the delivery of the thousandth conversation to the British Library and examination of the value of this unique archive from the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen, now and in the future.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.