1914/2022

March 6, 2022 – 11:01 am

I’m watching ITV News, and the word Przemyśl jumps out at me from the bottom of the screen. It is one of the places where Ukranian refugees are being welcomed to Poland. But the name strikes memories, of course. This is not the first time it has been in the news. In the autumn of […]

By George Simmers | Posted in History, politics | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Arnold Bennett at the MOI

March 23, 2019 – 3:40 pm

I’ve just added a new piece to my online ‘Pieces of Longer Writing’. It’s the text of a paper I gave at an Arnold Bennett Society conference in Stoke in 2017, giving an account of Bennett’s work when he was at the Ministry of Information in 1918.

By George Simmers | Posted in novels | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Arnold Bennett, and the English and the French

May 23, 2016 – 1:33 pm

I spent Saturday at the National Archives in Kew, taking a look at, among other things, Arnold Bennett’s activities when in charge of British propaganda to France in 1917-1918. Bennett’s notes and memos are rather impressive – crisp, sensible and decisive – as he deals with a multitude of issues.

By George Simmers | Posted in History, newspapers, novels, propaganda | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments (2)