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.
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, writer, broadcaster and gardener. His wife was Vita Sackville-West. Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the youngest son of diplomat Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He spent his boyhood in various places throughout Europe and the Near East and followed his father’s frequent postings, including in St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Madrid, Sofia, and Tangier.[1] He was educated at The Grange School in Folkestone, Kent, followed by Wellington College. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1909 with a third-class degree. Nicolson entered the Foreign Office that same year, after passing second in the competitive exams for the Diplomatic Service and Civil Service.[1]
He wrote a novel, Public Faces (I have a copy, haven’t read it)
“Nicolson is also remembered for his 1932 novel Public Faces, which foreshadowed the nuclear bomb. A fictional account of British national policy in 1939, it tells how Britain’s Secretary of State tries to keep world peace with the Royal Air Force aggressively brandishing rocket aeroplanes and an atomic bomb. In today’s terms, it was a multi-megaton bomb, and the geology of the Persian Gulf played a central role, but on the other hand, the likes of Hitler were not foreseen.”
marchudson.net 