Charles Parker died 30 years ago, in December 1980, but his legacy lives on…

Here are some memories of Charles. If you have any, please send them for inclusion in this web page.

“He had a real way of getting people to open up by almost becoming one of them and was quite eccentric at times in some of the things he’d come out with to do so…. He never talked down to anybody – and when he put the recordings together they came across as so natural.” – Melanie, granddaughter of John Axon

“I was still at school and never thought I’d hear a word from him – and then in the post was a great envelope full of scripts – and a lovely letter from Charles – the gist of which was that a letter like mine made his work worthwhile.” – Andrew Johnston, broadcaster

“My first encounter of Charles was as an after-dinner speaker at a dinner in hall when I was a student at Birmingham University in the early sixties.  I can vividly remember him telling us how much more powerful than I don’t know is the Geordie I divver naa, but little else from that evening.  However, it must have made a deep impression on me, since I committed to spending every Wednesday afternoon thereafter working in his study helping to catalogue his book collection and transcribing tape recordings.. and I still feel his inspirational influence today.” – Pam Bishop, musician