October 24, 1930 – “Palestine” (Harold Nicholson 2/37)

For a quid I bought a collection of broadcasts Harold Nicholson (see below) gave on the BBC in 1930 and 1931. They are short and dated (in every sense) so I thought I could read and blog them on the anniversary of their first (and presumably last transmission). For the lulz, and to build my writing muscles.

Palestine

A short broadcast, this one, with two “poignants.”

Best sentences-

“I have found Jerusalem the most poignant city in all my wanderings. Here, indeed you have a sense of pilgrimage – a little huddled town upon the hill, the vast square of the Temple rising above the valley with the garden of Gethsemane beyond, the narrow streets following the old alignment, the very pavement there where Pilate exclaimed: “Here is the man”!

Most gob-dropping moment – “I do not wonder that a man, be he Jew or Christian, who journeys to this pregnant poignant city should feel that here, the nucleus of all that is most valuable in our civilisation, that here another civilisation might arise to blend the achievements of the mind and the achievements of the soul.”

er?? Muslims at all? Hello? The Al-Aqsa Mosque? Ring any bells? FFS.

Previous broadcast – October 17th, 1930, Oxford

Next broadcast – October 31st, 1930, Bulb planting

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