When the International Military Tribunal convened at Nuremberg shortly after the end of the Second World War, one of the many objects of its attention were the Storm Divisions (Sturm-Abteilungen, SA) of the Nazi movement. The SA, the prosecution alleged, had been a criminal organisation involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The story reveals the extent to which British society in the 1920s clung to certain beliefs about women and language. One of these prejudices, fiercely held, was that a ‘respectable’ woman was incapable of allowing a dirty word to sully her mouth. Another was that women who did swear were beyond the pale, and therefore capable of anything.
We hate to be brought face to face with the fact that Western soldiers, poorly led and operating in a climate of endemic racial contempt, are capable of acting as appallingly as the Germans who murdered Jews and other captives in the Second World War.
Alan Bennett reads from his 2017 diary, in which he finds his métier at last.
Listen to Lucy Prebble describing her encounter with Harvey Weinstein.
Amia Srinivasan explores the paradoxical nature of octopus lives and the difficulties humans have in understanding them.
Diane Williams reads her story ‘Oh, Darling I'm in the Garden’
Rosemary Hill reads her piece on the letters of Ida John.
Andrew O’Hagan reads the Daily Mail.
Karma Nabulsi reads her piece on the British government’s Prevent programme.
Listen to Julian Barnes read his diary on Georges Simenon and Brexit.
Iain Sinclair delivers his lecture on ‘The Last London’ at the British Museum.
Mary Beard delivers her lecture 'Women in Power' at the British Museum.
Alan Bennett reads from his 2016 diary, in which he wonders what ’memes‘ are and goes to Venice.
Frederick Seidel reads his poem ‘In Late December’.