Over 350 conversations between friends and family members from people across the UK have been made available this week on the British Library Sounds website. These conversations were recorded as part of the Listening Project, a partnership between the British Library and the BBC, and cover all kinds of topics relating to family relationships, friendship, personal memories, triumphs, tragedies and intimate and everyday life. They offer a unique insight into the lives of people across the country and will be preserved for future generations at the Library. Importantly, they can be listened to by anyone via the website.

Holly Gilbert, who works on the project at the British Library has written a more detailed blog post about the collection here. She describes how the conversations detail narratives of different people's lives which range from 'coming out' stories, to experiences of war, to life in unusual careers such as that of a polar explorer.

A full press release about the project can be found here on our press and policy pages.