Record Number: 4549

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'It is equally possible for the same reader to adopt different frames for the same story, relishing it on one level while seeing through the claptrap on another. In his youth Aneurin Bevan enjoyed the Magnet and Gem surreptitiously (his father forbade them) and devoured H. Rider Haggard at the Tredegar Workmen's Institute Library. But during the 'Phoney War' he lambasted the government's stupidly optimistic predictions in precisely the same terms: "Immediately on the outbreak of war, England was given over to the mental level of the Boys' Own Paper and the Magnet..." In 1944 Bevan freely admitted that "William le Queux, John Buchan and Phillips Oppenheim have always been favourites of ours in our off-moments. Part of their charm lies in their juvenile attitude".'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

unknown

Country:

Wales

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Tredegar
specific address: Workmen's Institute Library
other location: Library

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Aneurin Bevan

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

15 Nov 1897

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

miner's son, later Labour politician

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Wales

Country of Experience:

Wales

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

H. Rider Haggard

Title:

[unknown]

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

read in situ
read at Tredegar Workmen's Institute Library

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Source Information:

Record ID:

4549

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

332

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 332, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=4549, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

See Michael Foot, Aneurin Bevan (London, 1962) Vol I, pp. 22, 307, 395