Conversations

with Families & Friends

When I was twenty-one, my Mum and Dad gave me a small tape recorder as a birthday present. Some years later, I used it to record a long conversation with my father about his experiences serving with the SAS during the Second World War. It was one of the very few times he ever spoke about it. Mum was there, and Mary joined the conversation. Together they remembered events, questioned one another’s recollections and laughed about moments that had long since passed into family history.

 

Today, all three of them have gone, but their voices remain.

 

We spent no more than an hour or so chatting, yet that recording has become a treasured family possession. Not simply because of the stories our father told, remarkable though they are, but because we can still hear their voices and the sound of their laughter. It preserves something that photographs, letters and even the clearest memories never quite can.

CONVERSATIONS