Prompt – A book about a subject you know nothing about – whilst I know a lot about WW2, I know very little about the BBC and its role in the war.
Medium – Audiobook
About the Book – Edward Stourton writes (and reads the audiobook) about the role of the BBC in WW2, starting from the years before the outbreak of war, and finishing after war is ended in 1945. He tells the story of a range of characters in the BBC, as well as those who were part of the PWE (Political Warfare Executive), which released a different type of propaganda to that released by the BBC. His history, necessarily, is extremely male orientated, but he does discuss the role that some of the more senior women played in the corporation.
My rating – 8/10. I found this book quite hard to get into, and started with the printed book before moving to the audiobook as I just couldn’t get into the book in print. The audio recording was much better, particularly as Edward Stourton’s narration was wonderful – both interesting and calming. I learned a lot of new things from the book – such as the fact that televisions had been around from the 1920s, but all television stations were closed down during the war in favour of radio/wireless stations. The difference between ‘white’ and ‘black’ propaganda was also fascinating. ‘White’ was the propaganda put out by the BBC – the truth, appealing to moderate and left-wing Germans. ‘Black’ was put out by the PWE and included taking over German radio stations with dummy broadcasts and spreading lies and panic.
This was part of the war I knew nothing about and I ended the book wanting to know more and to go into greater depth. I would also love to visit the BBC archives and look at some of the documents that the author discussed, such as letters between such interesting people as TS Eliot and JB Priestley. My criticisms would be the ‘dryness’ of the tome when not read by the author and the lack of information given about the war correspondents. There was a lot about the internal politics of the government and the BBC that while interesting, could have been decreased, whilst the information about those ‘in the field’ could be decreased.
Would I read it again? No to the book, that is already in the charity shop pile for when/if the world re-opens! The audiobook I would definitely listen to again – it is the sort of book which I think needs several reads to fully do it justice.
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