Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
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
peoples war
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
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.”
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
