[lit-ideas] Re: Brexit/ Hastings/ Scott James
- From: david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2016 08:55:17 -0700
On Jun 28, 2016, at 6:36 AM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I ordered Dimbleby's "The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the
war," but hesitated a long time over the title. Does Dimbleby include the
USSR in "Allies"? The USSR was not a factor in the "Battle of the Atlantic,"
but without them, drawing off and killing so many German soldiers in the
east, our "D Day" and the subsequent defeat of the Germans in the West might
have turned out very differently. Of course the USSR was dependent on
shipping from America as well as Britain; but I would Dimbleby covers the
eastern front.
All three books consider in much detail the roles of the Soviet Union and ask,
for example, how important were the miserable Arctic convoys. All three books
challenge the idea that the Soviet Union “was dependent on” shipping from the
West. Historians seem determined to modify our understanding of the Second
World War. Max Hastings is particularly clear-eyed about this.
Jonathan Dimbleby is the son of Richard, who vividly described me attending
Churchill’s funeral. I jest. I was at Churchill’s funeral, but Richard
Dimbeleby didn’t remark on the presence of a small boy. R. Dimbleby's
broadcasting career is well-described on Wikipedia: twenty raids as an observer
with bomber command, liberation of Belsen, first live broadcast from the United
Sates via Telstar… As kids we knew him as host of “that boring programme
Panorama,” which dealt with issues we really didn’t understand…the Cuban
Missile Crisis, for example, about which I recall nothing. I wouldn’t be
surprised to learn that adults thought it better we didn’t know our imminent
destruction was possible.
Looking up Max Hastings’ politics—I associate him with the Daily Mail and the
Daily Telegraph and the Conservative party, but that’s apparently too simple—I
find that his mother was Anne Scott-James. There’s an a.k.a. in the Wikipedia
entry, “Lady Lancaster.” I knew her, only as a listener, as a panelist on a
radio programme, “My Word,” one which improved my sense of fun. She was Lady
Lancaster because her second marriage was to Osbert Lancaster, the amusing
writer and illustrator. Wikipedia doesn’t tell me when she was elevated or by
whom.
There’s an entertaining review of her novel, “In the Mink" here:
http://lastyeargirl.blogspot.com/2013/10/last-year-reads-in-mink-by-anne-scott.html
<
http://lastyeargirl.blogspot.com/2013/10/last-year-reads-in-mink-by-anne-scott.html>
At the finish of the review there’s a link to a radio programme, Desert Island
Discs. I couldn’t get it to work.
David Ritchie,
Porltand, Oregon
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