Sylvia, Me and the BBC – The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Friday, 19th July 2024

CamSocTalks – Sylvia, Me and the BBC – The Lost Art of Letter Writing

In 1996 while clearing out his mother’s council flat after her death, Rory Cellan-Jones discovered what amounted to a remarkable archive, thousands of letters and documents telling the story of her life, from the 1930s to a few months before she died.  It was 25 years later, now in the era of WhatsApp, that he returned to the archive to write Ruskin Park, a memoir about his mother and her disastrous love affair with a much younger BBC colleague, the father Cellan-Jones did not meet until he was an adult.  The book would not have been possible to write, and the author would not have learned the full story of how he came to be born if those letters had not been written and kept.  So what will our children find when we die – a Facebook account, some emails stored on a computer with a password that can’t be cracked, a phone with WhatsApp chats more than 14 days old deleted?  And will biographers and historians find a subject’s social media updates quite as revealing as their private letters once were? Rory Cellan-Jones reflects on how his view of his parents was transformed by the experience of reading their letters and asks what we have lost since we stopped putting pen to paper.

About our speaker

Rory Cellan-Jones is the product of a love affair between two BBC colleagues, one of whom went on to become one of the leading TV drama directorsof his time, the other seeing her BBC career stall as she struggled to bring up a child on her own. Rory studied French and German at Jesus from 1977 to 1981 and then had a 40 year career as a BBC journalist, the last 15 years as Technology Correspondent.  He now writes a Substack newsletter Always On focussing on health and technology and is involved in a number of podcasts, notably Movers and Shakers which is about living with Parkinson’s.

The Evening

Guests should arrive from 6.30pm to meet for a drink and get comfortable before we move to the lecture room for the talk and discussion starting at 7pm sharp. The talk will be finished by 8pm at which point we can move back to the quiet bar area for drinks and more chat. There will be a cash bar before and after the talk.

The Venue

The Orchard, Level 8, 1 Great Cumberland Place, London, W1H 7AL Marble Arch Tube – 1 minBond Street Cross Rail – 9 mins

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Cambridge Society of London Transfer and Refund Policy

i) At least 14 calendar days before the event: We will provide full refunds (minus any booking/transaction fees, which are nonrefundable). Alternatively, if you have found a suitable replacement, we can change the name on the ticket on the understanding that you will reclaim the ticket price from them separately.

ii) Between 4 and 14 calendar days before the event: Our arrangements with our hosts are always finalised 4 calendar days before each event. With more than 4 calendar days’ notice we can still change the name to someone named by you on the understanding that you will reclaim the ticket price from them separately. Alternatively, we MIGHT be able to sell it to someone else; there is no guarantee of that but we will do our best and then refund you if successful.

iii) Less than 4 calendar days: We regret that we cannot offer refunds if given less than 4 calendar days’ notice.