MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
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What British people really thought
WILL PODMORE listens keenly to the people’s voice expressing support for the USSR and disdain for the political Establishment and the empire
Popular support for the USSR was emphasised by the Arctic convoys, bringing food and munitions to Murmansk from 1941 - 1945. The image shows members of the crew clearing the frozen focsle of HMS INGLEFIELD during convoy duty in Arctic waters; the inset image shows Scottish artist Frederick Donald Blake’s propaganda image for the convoys
[National archives/Admiralty Official Collection/CC]
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers
Three great releases of lost concerts by Duke Ellington Orchestra, John Taylor & Stan Sulzman, and Joe Henderson
To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
Our People’s War: Home Intelligence Reports and the Monitoring of British Morale, June 1941 – December 1944
Jeremy Crang, Bloomsbury, £20
DURING the second world war, the British government conducted a unique experiment in monitoring public opinion, carried out by Home Intelligence, a unit of the Ministry of Information.
The government needed to know what people were thinking in order to know how best to make them think the right way.
Regional intelligence officers created panels of regional “contacts” to gather the raw material from which they compiled their weekly reports on public opinion. These contacts were recruited, on a ratio of one to every 10,000, from among men and women who were “sensible” and “level-headed.”
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