The Extraordinary Lives Recordings (Ordinary People Are Extraordinary)

A wonderful recorded conversation with Pat Martin, from Cramlington in Northumberland. It starts with her childhood memories from the East End of London during World War II (including her family's dramatic evacuation, along with all the other families in their street) and her post-evacuation life in rural 1940s England. Her story then takes us through her roles as a nurse and midwife, her missionary work around the public houses of Southern Ireland and Edinburgh, her family life as a mother and wife, and then to her involvement with the establishing of the Church of Nazarene in Cramlington. It is, indeed, the story of a life well lived.                    

Extracts from an officer's diary written in the trenches of World War I, along with extracts of his own personal war poetry. Donald Campbell was an officer with The Gordons and Seaforth Highlanders regiments, and served for over two years in France during the 1st World War. He survived the Great War, though a very changed man because of his experiences. He was also a poet, a playwright and the grandfather I sadly never met.

This is a wonderful recorded conversation with Vera Redden, around her book "Life and Love 'tween the North and South". The inspiration for the book was the discovery by Vera in her attic of a suitcase containing a host of letters exchanged between her mother (Mona) and her father (Jimmy) in the 1930s. Jimmy was a miner here in the North East and Mona was in service in London for a few years - and they wrote to each other nearly every day. The conversation centres around Vera's motivation and inspiration for creating the book, but it also gives us a glimpse of life in England in the 1930s. But, it's all underpinned by a real love story.