Telling Tales With Technology

The books and articles written by Bernard Leach have been as important as his pots in spreading his vision of an aesthetic which unites art, work and life. A few television programmes and films have also contributed to his stature as an unrivaled teacher and mentor within the world of studio pottery. Less well known are his many radio broadcasts, taped interviews and lectures, some of which are preserved in the University of Wales, Aberystwyth’s, Ceramic Archive. By giving due attention to this oral history, the response to this major figure within twentieth century crafts can be greatly enhanced. Jeffrey Jones commented that listening to taped interviews was a very different experience to reading a book by the same person. The listener feels more like an eavesdropper into a conversation not intended for their use. He demonstrated by using part of a taped interview with Bernard Leach from 1976 made as a preparation for a television programme, and so not intended for distribution. The tape revealed Leach's unflinching honesty about his son, David Leach, and in so doing revealed much of himself and his own ideals. One tape of a lecture given to the Crafts Potters Association in 1965 was an insight into a particular period with the respectful audience and Leach in the role of the orator/entertainer as he described in minute detail the production of an oriental brush. The tapes are fascinating in that their context and even the quality of the recordings fix Leach within his own time in a way that the printed word often fails to do.