Beccy Speight

This clip is from a series of 100 life history interviews with environmental campaigners in the UK, 1970-2020. It will feature in a book published by UCL Press in 2026. The full interview, along with the rest of the collection will be searchable on the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue and the interviews will be accessible onsite at the British Library in St Pancras from February 2026. For more information visit www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ohemQuotation:Beccy Speight: Once you’re in the E-NGO sector, I mean others may dispute this, but I certainly felt once I was in the E-NGO sector, the RSPB was it really, you know, because it, it kind of just, it’s so good at what it does. And I just, I, you know, the chance to kind of make a contribution to the RSPB was too tempting to say no to.Barbara Brayshay: And it’s quite, yes, it is, it’s kind of all part of that RSPB really, well and the Woodland Trust as well, all very central to the sort of nature conservation sector.Beccy Speight: Mmm, definitely. And that, so you know getting, getting to the RSPB was for me, you know, continuing that trajectory of just getting closer and closer to where I thought I could make the most difference to the nature crisis that I had sort of gradually become more and more aware of really.Barbara Brayshay: And what do you think were the sort of main drivers there? Was it things like species extinction?Beccy Speight: Yes. Yes. Just, you know, extinctions, watching, you know, habitats and landscapes getting trashed. Being aware of the climate crisis and how that interlinks with the nature crisis. All of that really. Just feeling it was the battle of my lifetime.British Library catalogue number: C2037/63 Project clip number: 231