ABSTRACT
The publication of Iona Opie’s book, The people in the playground , in 1993 started me off again. While she and Peter were writing their joint books, Iona had remained in close contact with school children, visiting her local school playground regularly from 1970 to 1983. The United Kingdom Literacy Association annual conferences gave me the opportunity to give seminar presentations. The link with the Opies’ work continued as students were encouraged to support their analysis of the data they had recorded by first referring to the now more numerous Opie publications. Warner writes this game: a great deal of the material the Opies print is fun as well as funny; it’s canny, rude, silly but quick-witted, playfully springing acoustic surprises that can’t help but bring a chuckle. Meeting many of the project team involved in this exciting enterprise allowed me to see the twenty-first century development using digital media to conserve and develop the Opies’ archive of sound recordings.
