Making A Historian with Carl Chinn
6/25/202639 min
In this solo episode of Our Lives, Our Stories, Carl Chinn answered a question he has been asked all his life: what makes a historian? For years his answer was the books, the historical novels he read as a a child, from Robin Hood, William Tell and King Arthur to the writing of Rosemary Sutcliff and Henry Treece, which carried him from the Dark Ages to the Vikings, the Crusades and the mountains of the Caucasus.
But looking back, Carl knows the real answer lies with his family. He remembers the Sunday afternoons of his childhood, the storytellers on both sides, his grandad Perry, struck down by multiple sclerosis, and his grandad Chinn, one of the old Contemptibles of 1914. He recalls his nan Lil Perry, the eldest of twelve who never had a childhood, and the old Brummagem words, clammed and wench, that carried a whole way of life. Through them, he found the hardships of the strong women in his family, the stories that led to his first books on poverty, the hated workhouse from which the NHS would one day emerge.
This is a reflection on memory, dialect, belonging and why these stories matter, ending with Carl's heartfelt plea. His generation, he says, is the last who can tell you why the workhouse was hated and why the NHS is so loved. So grab hold of your oldest relatives and record their memories.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsCarl Chinn· Host0:01
Hello there, I'm Carl Chin, and welcome to Our Lives, Our Stories. And in this episode, I'll be revealing more about my life and my story. In particular, I'll be delving into the influences in my childhood and youth that made me a historian. If somebody had asked me probably 30 odd years ago, when I was in my late 20s and early 30s, what made you a historian? My answer would have been pretty clear. And I've always said that from the moment I could open my mouth, I talked history. And I always read history books. In particular, I read historical novels. I've got a couple here with me that are influential. This isn't quite a novel, this one. It's the stories of Robin Hood. And I must have bought this at a school fete or fair when I was 8, 9, 10, because it was published in 1912. And I was fascinated by Robin Hood as a kid. And part of that fascination arose because Robin Hood was also on the TV. So I was reading stories at a very young age, eight, nine. about Robin Hood, but he was also in a series of children's TV programs. It wasn't just Robin Hood that was involved in TV programs. There was the Swiss hero, William Tell. And the story was that when the Swiss