The New Statesman archive

Back in the North

By John Brown

The level of deprivation in northern industrial parts of England during the 1930s is often downplayed by historians today. But this sobering account of life on the dole in the region, written for the New Statesman by a former coal miner, offers a different, more personal perspective. He presents a complex picture – of stoicism, apathy and a lack of radicalism, and a very human focus on the solace of pastimes in a harsh economic climate.

Ordinary people

By Doris Lessing

As a young woman, the novelist and recent Nobel Prize-winner for literature Doris Lessing wrote occasional articles for the New Statesman. In this piece she describes going in search of what D H Lawrence called “ordinary people” during a holiday in Paris, perhaps her favourite city after London. In a few waspish sentences, she conveys vivid and personal impressions of some of those she encountered during her journey and on the Left Bank in 1960

Short talk with a Fascist beast

The Notting Hill race riots, which took place 50 years ago, were the first significant outburst in London against unrestricted black immigration. The American Clancy Sigal, then a young journalist, wrote a revealing account of a casual encounter with a handful of the white youths involved in the attacks. He portrays a group of frustrated young men, the most prominent of whom confesses to being both a Fascist admirer and a fan of the Communist Party.