In October this year, the then Mayor of Reading, David Stevens held the second of three recorded talks into the historic circumstances of the friendship between Reading and Düsseldorf. This talk, about the origins of the RDA and the extraordinary life and work of Cllr Phoebe Cusden – the driving force behind the friendship between Reading and Düsseldorf – is now available on Youtube.
The conversation between the David Stevens and Dr Ute Wölfel, Associate Professor at the Department of Languages and Cultures at UoR, focuses on the wider context of Phoebe Cusden’s engagement and her personal background as well as the chain of events that brought the first six children from the ruins of post-war Düsseldorf to the relative security of Reading.
The recording of the final ‘conversation’ in form of the Open Evening held at the Civic Centre on Bridge Street, Reading, on 2 November 2021 is currently being edited and a link to it will be made available here shortly.