Three years ago, I took with me on a speaking trip to Australia and New
Zealand the manuscript of a new handbook on historical character
interpretation. This morning, the review copy arrived on my desk.

The book is Stacy F. Roth's "Past into Present: Effective Techniques for
First-Person Historical Interpretation" (1998, University of North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill & London, ISBN 0-8078-4710-0, paper).

It covers pretty well the waterfront in this interesting form of
interpretation, with chapter headings like "Before interpretation starts:
planning, research and development"; "Developing a character"; "Interpreting
to children"; "Interpreting to audiences with special needs"; and she comes
up to the frontiers of this form of interpretation in "Interpreting special
situations: conflict, controversy and heightened emotion". The book is
filled with practical bits of experience and advice, culled from many
sources.

My own feeling is that it is by far the most useful book on interpretation
I've read since reading Freeman Tilden years ago. While reading the draft, I
was so impressed that I raved about it to my Australian and Kiwi colleagues.
Now, it is actually available.

No one interested in historical character interpretation can afford NOT to
read it.

Harry

Harry Needham
Special Advisor - Programme Development
Canadian War Museum
330 Sussex Drive,
Ottawa, Canada
K1A 0M8
Voice: (819) 776-8612  Fax (819) 776-8623
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