LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Francophone Africa (including North and Sub-Saharan Africa)

The University of Portsmouth has a large up-to-date interdisciplinary collection of books and journals covering all aspects of Francophone Africa.

Papers of the Italian Refugees' Relief Committee

The Italian Refugees' Relief Committee was was set up in 1927 as a non-political humanitarian organisation to raise funds to support those who fled Mussolini's Fascist regime. British immigration regulations of the time did not permit the entry of refugees into Britain, but the British Committee was able to send funds and material aid to their French counterparts, the Comité de Secours aux Réfugiés Politiques Italiens, which supported a large exile community in Paris. The collection contains correspondence on subjects including acceptance or rejection of membership, donations, appeals, Committee meetings and finance. There is also correspondence from the French committee, particularly from Giovanna Berneri (wife of the anarchist anti-Fascist Luigi Camillo Berneri), reporting on visits to refugee families, other activities of the organisation, and finance. The rest of the collection contains copies of appeals and letters sent to the press, pamphlets, reports, accounts and balance sheets, and other miscellaneous items.

Turner Collection of French Revolution pamphlets

The Turner Collection was gathered by Father John Turner (1765-1844), a member of the Community of English Benedictines in France during the Revolution. He was personally involved in events in Paris, taking the Civic Oath, and suffering imprisonment in Sainte-Plagie 1793-5. The collection was preserved in the Community's monastery at Douai until the Community's removal to England in 1903, when it was transferred to Douai Abbey, Woolhampton. It was placed on permanent deposit in the University Library, by the Abbot and Community of Douai, in July 1966. The 275 volumes contain some 8,000 items in all, and concerning the events of mainly 1787-1806.

French Wartime Newspapers Collection

The French Wartime Newspapers collection recounts the progress of the Allied armies in France over a three-week period from the struggle for the Liberation of Paris (August 25th 1944), together with a Victory issue celebrating the end of the War following the full German surrender (May 7th 1945).

Mendelson Collection

The Mendelson Collection is particularly rich in material on French political and economic history, especially of the twentieth century, including works on the rise of fascism, communism and socialism, and post-war conditions in Europe after 1945. French-language material accounts for approximately one-quarter of the collection.