Attic Papers

Delia's Attic Papers consist of a cardboard box full of about twenty manilla folders, each of which contains her letters, handwritten notes and scores regarding the music she produced from 1962 to 1975.

The papers were found in her attic after she died in 2001 and were given to Mark Ayres who, in 2006, gave them on permanent loan, together with the Attic Tapes to David Butler at the University of Manchester. His department was given a high-quality flatbed scanner to digitize them but this seems not to have happened.

Contents

There are three catalogues of them:

• Mark Ayres' Initial Catalogue of Delia's attic tapes and papers lists the folders as DD279-280 and DD282-DD333.
• Martin Guy's 2010 photosnaps of them number the individual sides as DD123456.
• The John Rylands Library's catalogue numbers them GB 133 DDA/1/... but as yet there is no easy way to convert between the DD123456 and DDA/1/2/3/4/5 numbering schemes.

Availability

• The paper originals are at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester in the UK. You can view them by visiting the John Rylands library in Manchester, UK in person. "Access to these collections are by prior arrangement only and users should note that the collection is subject to copyright restrictions. If you would like to use the Delia Derbyshire Archive please contact the curator, Dr Janette Martin (email: janette.martin[at]manchester.ac.uk)."
• Floating round the internet there are
  • A 610MB collection of 137 high-definition scans, known as "the 'medialink' library", scanned in September 2008.
  • A 309MB collection of 1170 fuzzy phone-camera snaps, covering almost everything in the box, taken in April 2010 and included in this wiki.