Writing It!
The Podcast About Academics & Writing
Displaying 1 Episode of Writing It! with the tag “family history”.
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Episode 52: Letting the primary sources tell the story with Rachel Cockerell
June 16th, 2025 | 27 mins 29 secs
family history, israel zangwill, jewish history
In this episode, we’re talking with writer and historian Rachel Cockerell, author of Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land, about the process of writing a family history that Zadie Smith, Simon Schama, and others have praised. Cockerell tells us about her research and writing process; deciding to take out the narrative voice and letting the primary sources tell the story on their own; and why fiction often serves as a model for the kind of reading experience she hopes to give readers.