Ritchie Calder

Society

The war in East London

• 10 July 2006

Taken from the New Statesman archive, 21 September 1940. This article, so out of tune with the defiant, take-it-on-the-chin tone of much of the rest of the early coverage of the Blitz, caused a sensation when it appeared, and set in motion a campaign for better organisation of the official response to German bombing. It was one of many articles contributed to the New Statesman over more than 20 years by the Scottish journalist and author Ritchie Calder (1906-82), who became Lord Ritchie-Calder. This month is the centenary of his birth. Selected by Brian Cathcart