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This message has been sent through the MASSOBS discussion list. Remember, clicking 'reply' sends your message to the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jessica To add to yours and James' comments, Exmoor Village was a sore point for the inhabitants of Luccombe who felt betrayed by MO to the point of approaching a solicitor in Ilfracombe to take on the case for deformation; Harrisson's response was to drop another observer into the village to record the unhappiness the book had caused. I wonder if the Betjeman poem was in response to this bad feeling? Best Russell Roberts ________________________________ From: A discussion and announcement list for the Mass-Observation community [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jessica Scantlebury [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 11:01 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [MASSOBS] Mass Observation Publications This message has been sent through the MASSOBS discussion list. Remember, clicking 'reply' sends your message to the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Simon, I didn't hear the poem on Radio 4. Can you remember the day/programme it was on? I do remember a discussion about this poem on this e-mail list a couple of years ago. James Hinton provided some context to poem. Please see below. Best wishes, Jessica Further to Jessica’s note: The Betjeman verse is from a poem called The Dear Old Village, first published in Harpers Bazaar in July/August 1947 with an editorial note: ‘In our innocence we asked John Betjeman, a contented country gentleman (we thought), to write us a panegyric on rural life. This brilliant but savage satire is what we got.’ You can find the full text in Google Books, by googling the title. MO’s study of village life, Exmore Village, had been published in April 1947. James Hinton On 9 February 2010 10:23, Jessica Scantlebury <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: This message has been sent through the MASSOBS discussion list. Remember, clicking 'reply' sends your message to the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear all, We have just been alerted to this verse in the John Betjeman poem, 'The Dear Old Village' Go to the Inn on any Friday night And listen to them while they're getting tight At the expense of him who stands them drinks, The Mass-Observer with the Hillman Minx. (Unwitting he of all the knowing winks) The more he circulates the bitter ales The longer and the taller grow the tales. "Ah! this is England," thinks he, "rich and pure As tilth and loam and wains and horse-manure, Slow -- yes. But sociologically sound." "Landlord!" he cries, the same again all round!" Has anyone else noticed any references to Mass Observation in literature? I remember a Mass Observer in The Confidential Agent by Graham Greene. Best wishes, Jessica Scantlebury ________________________________ From: A discussion and announcement list for the Mass-Observation community [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Simon Garfield [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 13 March 2013 10:39 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [MASSOBS] Mass Observation Publications This message has been sent through the MASSOBS discussion list. Remember, clicking 'reply' sends your message to the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks Jessica. These are clearly two MOA landmarks, and I'm very much looking forward to reading the Hinton book. From the communications I've already had, it looks set to become the indispensable definitive account. And there is clearly something in the air: I wonder how many other jiscmailers heard the Betjeman poem The Dear Old Village, with that cynical reference to a mass observer buying drinks in a pub, broadcast on a Radio 4 programme a few days ago? Simon On 13 Mar 2013, at 10:07, Jessica Scantlebury <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: This message has been sent through the MASSOBS discussion list. Remember, clicking 'reply' sends your message to the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Jiscmailers, We are very pleased to report that two important publications using material from the Mass Observation Archive are about to be released: MASS OBSERVATION ONLINE UPDATE III Our colleagues at Adam Matthews Digital have just published the latest update to Mass Observation Online, which includes the following material: Diaries, Men and Women, 1946-1950 Directives, Men and Women, 1946-1947 Topic Collections: Propaganda and Morale, 1939-1944 Conscientious Objection and Pacifism, 1939-1944 Press, 1938-42 Police, Law and Invasion Preparations, 1939-1941 Reconstruction, 1941-1942 Coal Mining, 1938-1948 Industry, 1940-1955 Sexual Behaviour, 1939-1950 Health, 1939-1947 Family Planning, 1944-1949 Live Entertainment, 1938-1948 Sport, 1939-1947 Holidays, 1937-1951 For more details visit: http://www.amdigital.co.uk/m-collections/collection/mass-observation-iii The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949 by James Hinton Oxford University Press are publishing the first full–scale history of Mass Observation; The Mass Observers: A History 1937-1949 by James Hinton. The publication captures the early years of the social research organisation, which set out to document the attitudes, opinions, and every-day lives of the British people. James Hinton has previously used the Archive in his acclaimed publication Nine Wartime Lives, which demonstrated how the Mass Observation diaries could be used to shed light on broader historical issues. In this publication, Hinton has written a wonderfully vivid and evocative account which does justice not only to the founders whose tempestuous relationship dominated the early years of Mass Observation, but also to the dozens of creative and imaginative, and until now largely unknown, young enthusiasts whose contributed to Mass Observation. This long-awaited and deeply researched history revises much of the existing knowledge of Mass Observation and opens up new and important perspectives on the organisation. You can purchase the book from the 14th March from here<http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0199671044/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=2506&creative=9298&creativeASIN=0199671044&link_code=as3&tag=massobser-21>. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Alternatively, send the following command to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> leave massobs -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Alternatively, send the following command to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> leave massobs -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Alternatively, send the following command to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> leave massobs -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list email [log in to unmask] Alternatively, send the following command to [log in to unmask] leave massobs --