Paul Thompson is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Essex. He is Founder-Editor of Oral History and Founder of National Life Stories at the British Library. He is a pioneer of oral history in Europe and author of the international classic The Voice of the Past. His other books include The Edwardians and Living the Fishing. He is co-author of Pathways to Social Class and Growing Up in Stepfamilies, and most recently, Jamaican Hands Across the Atlantic.
Joanna Bornat is Emeritus Professor of Oral History at the Open University, UK. She has a longstanding involvement in oral history, nationally and internationally, and has been an editor of the Oral History for many years. She has researched and published on various oral history topics including migration, the family, reminiscence, religion and non belief, and gender together with an interest in the re-use of archived interviews and aspects of community oral history.