Sybil Marshall and Peter Laslett. SYBIL MARSHALL, educationalist and novelist, interviewed 7/04/99 (77 min) recounts her life before, during and after her time at NH as a mature undergraduate. Although she excelled at school, she was unable to get a state scholarship for university. Instead she spent 19 years as a primary school teacher following 'emergency training' at Coventry.
Influential in giving her access to adult education were Henry Morris, David Holbrook and Nan Youngman. She then applied for an Extramural Board bursary and was accepted at New Hall to study English, at ease with both tutors ('not snooty nor condescending') and undergraduates. She reminisces about Cambridge personalities and her experiences of examinations.
Sybil then recalls her achievements after New Hall - developing educational TV programmes for Granada; speaking internationally on primary education; and writing novels set in Cambridgeshire villages 'for ordinary people'. She regrets that the University has never recognised her achievements.
PETER LASLETT, interviewed spring 1999 (42 min), was involved in setting up the College society in favour of the Third Foundation Association. He recalls meetings at Trinity in 1953, where the key figure was Kitson Clark (whose background is later given). Buckingham College was mooted, then rejected, as a name for the proposed college.
He explains Trinity College’s tradition in promoting women’s education, against the contemporary attitude to women, including the frequency of prostitution. He highlights its financial support for several colleges, and describes the financial hierarchy of Cambridge colleges and the 'social status' of different academic disciplines. Opposition to the Third Foundation Association was from individuals rather than institutions. Nevertheless little was done to rid the University of prejudice. Then
PL recalls that Chamberlin, Powell and Bon’s design for the Dome was nicknamed 'The Pill', and muses on student revolt and sexual revolution of the 1960s, including the significance of the contraceptive pill. He supports the movement towards mixed colleges, especially benefiting men, while recognising the benefits to women of a single sex college such as New Hall.