Shortly after interviewing Dr Charlotte Clements, I made the short trip from Euston to Watford and interviewed Mayor Dorothy Thornhill, the town’s first elected Mayor. Interviewing a directly-elected mayor might strike some people as a strange choice for a discussion about hope, but my first experience upon entering Watford Town Hall immediately confirmed my suspicions.

The room was laid out like a doctor’s waiting room with rows of chairs, a play area, and the hundreds of leaflets and posters adorning the walls to distract you and admonish you for your wild and dangerous lifestyle. Except, rather than deal with medical complaints, the whole system was built towards tackling social complaints, such as housing, welfare, anti-social behaviour, or child services. The room was bustling with people and, rather than doctors, a bank of advisors were working their way through the waiting constituents. I don’t think I’m showing a political bias by saying that these services and their accessibility are vital, and it was encouraging to see so much effort being made to accommodate people.

Talking to Dorothy Thornhill over a cup of tea, it was easy to understand why she was elected as the Liberal Democrat Mayor of Watford in 2002, and also why she was subsequently re-elected with a hugely increased majority in 2006. She is an articulate and passionate former secondary school teacher, who is clearly devoted to championing Watford and its residents. Her passion for local democracy and local engagement is one which revolves around a general hope and belief that democracy empowers people. Indeed, her main hope was that she was able to use her role as Mayor to improve peoples’ lives.

Dorothy was first introduced to politics at an early age and this appears to be the key to her ongoing passion for local politics. With her father’s meagre remuneration as a bus driver supporting the family, Dorothy supplemented the family’s income with a paper round. This paper round was brought to an end when Dorothy was sacked, because of the enforcement of a ancient local by-law which banned women from delivering newspapers. Unwilling to accept this sexist limitation of her rights, Dorothy took the issue to her local town hall and successfully repealed the by-law, winning her job back in the process.

Local democracy is a perfect example of how people can hope for better things, and how people can actually improve their lives through action. After a long discussion about the different aspects of her job, I asked Dorothy for her final thoughts on hope. She spoke about her hopes for the future of democracy. Our general loss of faith in politicians – expense scandals being the obvious reason – has affected people’s willingness to engage with local democracy, to vote and to have a say in those decisions which are made by local politicians and which directly affect our lives. Her hope was that faith could be restored in democracy, and that people could be encouraged to get involved and make a difference in their communities.

My first interview was with Dr Charlotte Clements, a second year paediatric specialist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Charlotte wanted to be a doctor since she was 8 years old, and now works in the baby care unit at Chelsea and Westminster. I wanted to talk about what motivated her to become a doctor, what expectations she had about becoming a doctor and how those hopes have changed since she graduated. I also wanted to talk to her about the role hope played in her day to day job caring for babies who are sometimes very sick.

Rereading the interview it’s clear that Charlotte works in a mentally, physically and morally challenging environment. I’m was impressed by the ability and effort of doctors and medical staff to navigate us out of the mess our bodies sometimes get into. What I found most interesting, and what impressed me the most, is that doctors are both determined and able to make impartial, safe and correct judgments in what can be very difficult circumstances. These judgements are often made under great pressure and with conflicting demands on their time. Indeed, this pressure seems to be most severe in Paediatrics. As Charlotte said herself, parents care so much about their children that they cling on to hope against all odds, and sometimes against all medical advice.

Having never had children I find it hard to empathise with the parents Charlotte describes: parents who put all their hope into their child’s wellbeing. I do sympathise, however. In a way, Charlotte’s own hopes reflected those parental hopes, but through the prism of professional objectivity.

I’m currently putting the final work into finishing the transcript of the interview. It’s taken me a lot longer than I first imagined, as I’m using relatively primitive software to play back the recordings (VLC). I’ve two more interviews that I’ve done which need writing up and I’ll update you about these two shortly. I’ve also got another person to interview this week, so I’m progressing well.

I’m quite excited by the people who have said yes so far, but I’ve taken the decision not to announce any interviews until I’ve actually done them. My reasoning behind this is that I don’t want to pressure people, and I also don’t want to look like a fool if people who have agreed subsequently pull out.

That said, the first proper interview should take place in the next few days and I’ll post up details then.

In the meantime though, I thought it might be worthwhile writing up a note on the books which I’m reading as background to the project, and to ask for your suggestions.

The first book I’m reading is Josef Pieper’s “Hope and History”. This is a philosophical examination of hope from the perspective of human history. Based on five lectures he gave in Salzburg in 1966, it looks at history with a Christian perspective and sees hope as a faith in divine providence. It’s pretty heavy going but quite illuminating. I’m not particularly religious myself, but hope is such an integral emotion to religion. As part of the project I’m trying to interview people from across Britain’s different religious communities, and this is interesting background reading.

The second book which I’m reading, or rereading to be precise, is Friedrich von Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom”. Frankly, I struggle to agree with much of this book. Essentially it argues that state control ultimately corrupts institutions and leads to a rise of abusive totalitarian regimes. Looking at when the book was written (1944), with Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany involved in WW2, you can understand why he might rail against state intervention. But Hayek’s solution is to call for society to be dragged to the opposite end of the spectrum and for a completely free market to rule. Broadly speaking, I think that choice and free markets are a good thing. But I think that they are based upon faith in the greed of the individual, and lack the compassion or hope which only collective action can deliver. It’s a depressing read, and devoid of progressive hope.

Next on my list of things to read is Rebecca Solnit’s “Hope in the Dark”. It’s a modern history of events across the world, and the role hope played in influencing these events. She covers subjects such as the protests against the war in Iraq and the Zapatista uprising. I’m looking forward to reading it.

If you know of any interesting books which reference hope, or despair, please feel free to suggest them.

First of all thank you to the people who emailed me over the weekend. I’m pleased by the emails and messages on Facebook, and it’s really good to hear other views about my project. I had no idea how people would react to me publicising my progress, but I’m buoyed by the level of response.

Hopefully the Facebook group will enable me to make general requests for help, such as interviewing OAPs or soldiers. In fact, these are two groups who are really important to the project so if you are or know a suitable person in either of these groups then do get in touch.

You can join the Facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=166650088753

I’ve spent the weekend expanding my list of people to contact, firing off emails, and requesting interviews. I don’t think I’m going to put the list of targets online. This is partly because it has actual names on it, but also because it is a work in progress. However, what I’ve found as I’ve developed the list is that they are starting to fall into related categories. This is really exciting for me as it shows the evolution of the idea. These categories might change as I keep working, but some of them such as politics, public sector workers, and charities look like they might yield some interesting interviews.

On the subject of interviews, I’m pleased to say that I have the first two interviews confirmed. As I don’t have time to write more now, I’ll update the site with more information about the interviews shortly.

Hello and welcome to my new blog, which will hopefully document my attempt to record and write an oral history of hope in modern Britain. I’ll post details of who I’m interviewing and put excerpts from these interviews on this blog. If you are interested in getting involved in the project please email me at alexdziedzan (at) hotmail.co.uk

You can find out more information by having a look in the “about” section, but to save you the trouble I’ve rewritten the details below:

I’m looking to interview people across Britain about their own experiences and hopes. These interviews will form an oral history documenting different perspectives of how hope affects and has affected peoples’ lives, and how these hopes have changed and developed over time.

In the course of this project I am interviewing a wide range of society, including: soldiers, politicians, journalists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, economic migrants, Union leaders, prisoners, asylum seekers, victims of crime, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, and many other people who have been and continue to be profoundly affected by hope. If you’ve got a story about hope, or if you know someone who might be interested in getting involved, please send me an email at alexdziedzan (at) hotmail.co.uk

This project is hugely indebted to the work of Studs Terkel. I first came across him when I studied my undergraduate degree in History at Leeds University. His oral histories of America are fascinating insights into different strands of American society. In fact, his book “Hope Dies Last” is the inspiration for my project. It’s an amazing read. I’ve got a copy at home, and you can borrow it if you like.