TWO Suffolk broadcasters, Ivan Howlett and Nick Patrick have taken the coveted Spoken Word Gold award for the their Radio 4 documentary programme series The Century Speaks.

TWO Suffolk broadcasters, Ivan Howlett and Nick Patrick have taken the coveted Spoken Word Gold award for the their Radio 4 documentary programme series The Century Speaks.

An oral history of life in the 20th century, narrated by Corin Redgrave, the acclaimed series was published as an audio book in the BBC Collection Series – and the audiobook took the non-fiction prize at the Spoken Word Publishing Association Annual Awards at London's Dorchester Hotel.

Ivan, who lives at Swilland, and Nick, from Rumburgh, were presented their awards by Ulrika Jonnson, whose own controversial autobiography, Honest, has also been published as an audio book.

Conceived and run by the BBC to mark the Millennium, The Century Speaks began as Europe's biggest oral history project. More than 5,000 people throughout Britain were interviewed about 20th century life and the original recordings are now in the British Library's National Sound Archive.

From the recordings hundreds of programmes were made for broadcast throughout the BBC Regions – including several made by Ivan and Nick for Radio Suffolk.

They produced eight programmes using the recordings for BBC Radio 4 and six were published on audio book as part of the BBC Collection. That was the CD that won the award.

"We were delighted to get it," said Ivan, former head of BBC Radio Suffolk. "We were up against some very strong entries on the shortlist for the award."

They included Colditz: The Definitive History by Henry Chancellor, who lives at Erwarton, and The English: Portrait of a People by Jeremy Paxman.