From Our Archive
Articles in from our archive
Results 81 to 90 of 123
Back to Anarchy
- Paul Johnson
- 30 October 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 18 June 1921
This article, which gives such a strong flavour of the anger, anxiety and disillusionment caused by the twin crises of Suez and Hungary, was unsigned when it appeared, but Johnson is credited in the contributors' file. Then aged 28, he had recently returned from a spell as the New Statesman's Paris correspondent; he went on to be one of its most distinguished and flamboyant writers and was editor from
1965-70. In the 1970s he became a Conservative.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
A Dental Inquiry
- C W Saleeby
- 23 October 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 18 June 1921
Caleb Saleeby (1878-1940) was a doctor, a Fabian and one of the best-known medical writers of his day, but at the insistence of the editor, Clifford Sharp, his many contributions to the New Statesman, including this one, appeared under the pseudonym "Lens". Sharp was apparently worried that Saleeby's name was too closely associated with particular causes he had espoused, notably eugenics. So far as teeth were concerned, however, Saleeby’s judgement appears to have been pretty sound.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
Attica – A Judgment on America
- R W Apple
- 10 October 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 1 October 1971
Forty-four people died in the Attica "riot", most of them in the storming of the prison ordered by the New York State governor, Nelson Rockefeller. The prisoners had taken hostages to press their complaints about overcrowding and inhumane conditions. This was one of
a series of commentaries from America that "Johnny" Apple wrote for the New Statesman around this time – the others were mainly about high
politics. A larger-than-life figure, and a pillar of the New York Times staff for 40 years, Apple died this month aged 71.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
Am I an Irishwoman?
- Brigid Brophy
- 09 October 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 5 November 1965
Brophy (1929-95) was a frequent contributor to the New Statesman in this period. Not long ago she would have needed no introduction: a novelist and critic, she was also a campaigner for human rights, animal rights and the rights of authors. For 20 years and more she was continually in the public eye, until in the 1980s she contracted multiple sclerosis. Her reputation may be due a revival. The husband
she mentions is the art historian Sir Michael Levey.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
The Wordster
- Patrick McGeown
- 02 October 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 28 May 1965
It is easy to see how this freelance offering came to be published. Not only is it nicely turned, but it is also guaranteed to leave a lump in the throat of any writer or editor who came into this business the easy way. I can’t be sure what fee McGeown received from the New Statesman – the file simply says "Paid" – but the going rate for something of this length was 15-20 guineas.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
Humbug
- Clifford Sharp
- 25 September 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, March 17 1923
Editors naturally write best about subjects they know well, and sadly Sharp knew rather too much about drink, which a few years later would render him incapable of doing his job. But he was absolutely right about this piece of humbug, as we know well. Despite the efforts of Nancy Astor and the temperance lobby, teenage drinking would not
go away.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
East of Suez
- Maeve Binchy
- 18 September 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 22 May 1970.
This was an early taste for New Statesman readers of what became a bestselling talent. Binchy, 29 at the time, was just beginning to make her name as a journalist at the Irish Times when this appeared, and it seems to have been a one-off - I can't find any other pieces by her in the magazine in the early 1970s. Her first novel would not appear until 1982.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
Thatcherism, logic and the law
- Anthony Blair
- 11 September 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 22 February 1980.
When he wrote this, Tony Blair (for it is he) was a lawyer of 26 and still three years away from becoming an MP. It was one of several articles he contributed on legal themes around this time. The Prior he mentions is Jim, Margaret Thatcher's first employment secretary, and the MacShane is Denis, who was then president of the NUJ and whom you may read on page 17. The ISTC is the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, now called Community.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
The Iranian Connection
- Robin Cook
- 04 September 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 10 December 1976.
This is Robin Cook at his troublemaking best, just two years into his parliamentary career, reducing to a mockery a policy of his own government. He may not have foreseen the ayatollahs but he knew that arming Savak and the Shah was both bad and mad. And 30 years on, Iranian forgiveness is still a very long way off. Cook contributed to the New Statesman over many years. He died last summer.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
Why Picasso?
- John Berger
- 28 August 2006
Taken from the New Statesman archive, 15 May 1954.
It was at the New Statesman that Berger made his reputation, contributing his first article in 1951 at the age of 24 and writing regularly thereafter, as the magazine's art critic and occasionally as a commentator on wider matters, for ten years. Later he wrote for New Society.
Selected by Brian Cathcart
