Keridwyn Dovey

He was an American oral historian and radio broadcaster.

He had a show for a long time.

And I think this book came out in 1974.

He was trying to capture the experience for ordinary Americans of daily work.

So I think he wrote, you know, about book binders and firemen and...

you know, all kinds of professions, whether they were living a life of the mind or not, or using their bodies in their work.

And yeah, it's a wonderful sort of portrait of that time in America.

And my dad was inspired by that book to then write a similar one when we were in South Africa in the early 80s.

He wrote a book called Working in South Africa, where

He and his education students interviewed all these people in different jobs.

Again, quite dentists and farmers and farm labourers and there's even a cabaret dancer in there.

And in their own words, sort of presents them making sense of what their daily work feels like and then what it means.

So, yeah, there is something about those narratives.

I also find them so hopeful because each time I wrote one of these, I would come away feeling happier and more proud of being human, which sounds like a weird thing to say.

But when you see what people can do and often, you know, things aren't going their way, but they kind of stick at something.

over a lifetime and even when they're getting no recognition for it and no feedback even that what they're doing is interesting or useful to anyone, to have that ability to just keep on keeping on, which, you know, obviously that's the nature of being alive and being human, but

I find it really moving.

And also that we just don't know where our lives are going.

None of us do.

And so to watch and see the twists and turns in people's lives and careers.