Invitation to tender for five life story interviews for Authors’ Lives

Invitation to tender for five life story interviews for Authors’ Lives

The National Life Stories team is seeking an interviewer to record five life story interviews for Authors’ Lives over the next 12 months

About National Life Stories

National Life Stories records, preserves and makes accessible in-depth oral histories that reflect the diverse nature of our society. Established in 1987, NLS empowers people to tell their stories in their own words and inspires others to listen. As an independent charitable trust within the Oral History department at the British Library, our expertise is oral history fieldwork with a focus on the long life story methodology. For nearly 40 years we have run a series of innovative interviewing programmes funded almost entirely from sponsorship, charitable and individual donations and voluntary effort.

Alongside the British Library’s other oral history holdings, which stretch back to the beginning of the 20th century, National Life Stories recordings form a unique and invaluable record of people’s lives in Britain today. In addition to running our own interviewing programmes, we also conduct commissioned histories that fit our collection aims and work in partnership with a range of projects around the UK.

Authors’ Lives

Authors’ Lives is one of National Life Stories’ flagship projects, launched in 2007 with the aim of producing a comprehensive national collection of biographical interviews with the UK’s writers. To date, 78 writers have recorded their life stories for the collection. Each in-depth interview documents the whole life story of each person and their writing process, capturing in the process a wide range of testimonies about the key figures in an authors’ professional sphere such as writers, agents, editors and publishers; the role of professional and trade associations; changing readership and media trends; the role of book prizes; and the impact of the rise of new technologies on writing careers.

The brief

National Life Stories seeks to engage a freelance oral history interviewer to conduct five life story interviews for the oral history collections at the British Library. The successful candidate will be expected to complete the following list of tasks for all five interviews:

• Liaising with the interviewee to arrange recording sessions (in person at the British Library, in person at another suitable venue, or online)
• Recording the interview (8-12 hours duration)
• Ensuring successful upload and transfer of audio files to NLS Archivists
• Producing timecoded content summaries to British Library templates
• Conducting sensitivity reviews of all recording sessions, in line with GDPR
• Obtaining signed Participation Agreement and Recording Agreements for each interviewee
• Completing British Library Interview Data Sheets
• Ensuring any relevant correspondence with the interviewee is saved for filing in the Library’s administrative records.

Interviewees will be selected from a shortlist compiled by NLS, in conjunction with the NLS management team. NLS will support the successful candidate to issue invitations to interview to the chosen interviewees. NLS will provide mentorship in the life story methodology and any further training as required, but we expect candidates to have previous experience in conducting interviews with authors and/or literary world professionals.

NLS will fund 14 days’ work per interview at £193.40 per day, plus expenses.

The successful candidate will be issued a contract with National Life Stories to conduct interview(s) on a self-employed basis as a contractor to National Life Stories. The successful candidate will take responsibility for their own tax and National Insurance contributions and will invoice each month in arrears for the time worked in that period. The interviewer does not need to be based in London, but will need to be prepared to make some trips to the British Library in St Pancras to attend progress meetings.

Required skills and experience

It is essential that we recruit an experienced interviewer with a background in oral history and knowledge and understanding of the British literary scene. As interviewees may be based anywhere in the UK, prospective candidates must be willing to travel.

Essential

• Proven experience of conducting in-depth interviews with authors and/or literary world professionals.
• Deep knowledge and understanding of contemporary British literature and writing, including fiction, non-fiction, playwriting and/or poetry.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Practical aptitude in using recording equipment.
• Proven familiarity with Word, Excel and email applications, and home-based access to these.
• Able to work under own initiative and as part of a small team.
• Ability to travel, including some overnight stays.

Desirable

• Experience using digital recording equipment and handling digital audio files.
• Knowledge of oral history methodology.
• Experience recording life story oral history interviews.

All applications must be received by 11.59pm on Sunday 4 October 2026.

Interviews are expected to take place via Zoom on Wednesday 14 October 2026.