I have always enjoyed listening to stories retold by those who experienced the reality. Even the least exciting raconteur holds the attention of the listener because their involvement in their own life story is given additional vibrancy and emotion based on actually living it. A visit to Ellis Island in New York is a fascinating way of learning the power of oral history. The curators in the 1970s, realising that collecting first-hand experiences of its first immigrants would soon be lost as they neared the end of their lives, made...