As it is an error to imagine that the current disaster in the Catholic Church had its beginning in the social and sexual revolution of the 1960s, so it is clear that the catastrophes currently engulfing the mother country have their roots deep in modern British history. I am just reading the memoirs of the late William F. Deedes, the great 20th century journalist, wrote in his memoirs of his first job in the trade in 1931. He describes the Morning Post as “extremely right wing,” the sort of paper in which the managers of great country estates would advertise for butlers, and which the butler would iron in the morning to lay alongside the breakfast dishes.
The Morning Post, he said, was starting to decline after the First World War after which, he said, “the style of life in this country changed radically”.
“The Labour party was on the horizon. Round a true-blue newspaper of mildly eccentric habits, which declared that it stood foremost for King and Country, shadows gathered.”
Dark shadows indeed.
I 'wasn't successful' at an interview in 1994.
ReplyDelete"Which newspaper do you read?"
"The Telegraph."
"Why?"
"Because the Morning Post ceased publication in 1937."
I've been thinking about when did the asteroid actually hit. I used to think the 1960s, but I am beginning to think it hit at WWI.
ReplyDeleteAnd a second asteroid finished us off a couple of decades later.
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ReplyDeleteAJM
Saw your "Remnant" interview via Rorate Caeli. Brilliant bits of wordplay. Congratulations! I am envious almost to the point of stealing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise when I re-read the 1908 edition of James' The Portrait of a Lady" and Hardy's "The Return of the Native" this summer and found characters who had been influenced by radical Progressive thought. Presumably, it was in James' 1881 edition, also. Who knew? When I read them 25 years ago, I don't remember having seen that influence.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, BTW.