Today Frances has a guest, her friend Dr Emma Cleobury, whose parents were both Olympic athletes - Sylvia Cheeseman and John Disley.
There is plenty of chat about running, marathons, King's College Oxford, the Cutty Sark and Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
John Disley and Chris Brasher founded the London Marathon in 1981, and Emma was there at the finish, as a volunteer, as a 'spindler' and 'plucker'
Frances reads Vera's 1908 letter, a first hand account of the finish of the London Olympics marathon at White City and Emma has plenty of marathon anecdotes.
Frances and Emma recorded a video chat between Australia and the UK; this is the audio from that recording, so apologies that the audio is not as good as usual. You can watch the video, on the Machell Cox Letters YouTube channel, in 2 parts, at this link.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfFVcOvI9WjcCEN1BjLPV3g
Frances thinks the noisy bird who screeched during Vera's letter was a butcherbird.
Intro - 00:00
David Machell Cox - 6:02
Corpus Christi College Cambridge - 7:22
King's College Cambridge - 11:24
Ten siblings, family tree - 20:30
1908 Marathon - 22:00
Sylvia Cheeseman - 23:35
John Disley - 27:18
1981 London Marathon - 27:57
Bendigo (Victoria, Australia) and the Whitechapel Bell Foundry - 33:00
The Cutty Sark - 35:20
1908 London Marathon - 37:25
Vera's 1908 marathon letter - 39:18
You can contact Frances by email - machellcoxletters@gmail.com
or X/Twitter - @CoxLetters
or Blue Sky - @Coxletters.bsky.social
All content is subject to copyright and belongs to Frances Thompson and the Bodleian Library.
