Life in the archives

There are many histories locked away, stacked, catalogued and archived. How does an author go about uncovering them? Through archival exploration, the researcher and writer of All Rise: South Africa 1910–1948, Richard Conyngham, as well as the editor, historian and author of The Lighthouse of Stalingrad, Iain MacGregor, have unearthed significant stories from history that are often overlooked.

Michelle Tisdel, a social anthropologist and research librarian at the National Library of Norway, speaks to both authors about their process of retrieval, the motivation for their research and how they uncovered the stories.