大象传媒

Mark Tully ponders the significance of mementos, not just of the past, but the future too. From military trophies to reminders of our own mortality, he examines the objects we imbue with personal meaning.

Mark observes in the programme that mementos keep the past alive in the present and are preserved for the future - so they are important links through time.

Featuring literature from Joseph Conrad, W.B. Yeats and John Donne; and music by Nat King Cole, Arvo Part and the Band of the Blues and Royals, among others, the programme celebrates the comfort we can gain from inanimate artefacts, and the capability they possess to 'speak' across generations.

But Mark also observes that Mementos can be a trap, too, encouraging us to live too much in the past - to indulge our previous sorrows and losses.

Perhaps no institutions preserve their mementos more lovingly than the military, and the programme features an interview with military historian, Squadron Leader Rana Chhina who shows Mark his family mementos of campaigns in India and Pakistan - mementos which mean so much to him, his family and his comrades.

And Mark, himself, shares with us a memento which means much to him and which epitomises the power of mementos to bind us to each other and to the past, present and future.

Readers: Jonjo O'Neill and Adjoa Andoh

Producer: Adam Fowler
A Unique production for 大象传媒 Radio 4