There was a building in London which never was.
Yet it is seared on the memories of all who read about it.
It is prophetic, really, considering the Gherkin and the Shard: it is a huge white concrete pyramid. It rises 300 metres into the air; the Shard, currently awaiting its coming out party, is 308 metres tall.
The building that never was is a warren of 3,00o rooms, and that’s just above the ground. And who knows what goes on underneath? Incineration and document carnage of an undetermined scale.
It was constructed in the imagination of George Orwell, and in his novel, 1984, he dubbed it The Ministry of Truth; or Minitrue, in Newspeak.
It is the Ministry at which the book’s hero, Winston Smith, works. And its job is to reconstruct history to suit the purposes of the state, every day, day in, day out.
Apocalyptic, this vision of a ministry set in a city which bears all the marks of London. Yet London had its ministries, its central offices, which were passionately devoted to controlling information, and indeed, propaganda.
The Ministry of Information was brought into being during each of the two world wars. The day after war was declared in 1939 , the MOI’s existence was made public; soon after, the iconic poster ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ emerged from the towering grey-white walls of Senate House, part of the University of London.
It would be a precursor of many communications: posters, public information films, all with a message which urged the people of Britain to endure poverty, hardship and secrecy because of a greater need.
After the war the functions of the Ministry passed to the Central Office of Information.
It seems, from a snatch of a poet’s recollection, that the MOI, and later the COI, cornered the market in poets.
Almost.
The poet recollecting was Natal-born Roy Campbell, a soul who failed his Oxford entrance exams, dabbled in the Bloomsbury set and ate a plate of daffodils with Dylan Thomas.
This last friendship was an enduring one, though it must be owned it was pickled.
The memory in question was included in a book which Campbell wrote about his friend: Dylan Thomas, The Legend and the Poet, (Mercury Books, 1963).
The pair were broke: Thomas had failed his medical for the army, and Campbell was earning just £3 a week as a chief air raid warden.On their uppers, a little desperate, they decided to go on a ‘borrowing raid’.
And where better to go than the Ministry. “Dylan proposed,” writes Campbell, “….to make a vast tour of all the newly-rich poets in their new offices in the Central Office of Information and the Ministry of Information.”
The poets, Campbell alleges sardonically, had plenty to spare: “As they rose from their seats, you could hear the new bank notes crinkling and crackling against their ribs as they moved!” he recalls.
But no-one would give them any money. They stood outside the Ministry, scratching their heads.
And then Campbell had a thought. “What about His Grace?” he asked.
They referred to TS Eliot, who lived in the area.
Dylan was taken aback. “You mean the Archbishop?” he gasped. “”I wouldn’t dare!”
But Campbell urged him on. “Come one: you’ll see'” he said. “He’s not only a saint in his poems; he’s a bloody saint in his life too.”
And he was. The Men from the Ministry might be an inscrutable lot, but the poet round the corner gave the two enough to last until they got their radio jobs: and were able, at last, to pay him back.
So much for those men from the Ministry.
Kate Shrewsday 
we had a radio series called the men from the ministry, i just remember chuckling, though what at now escapes me.
smart chap that South African to know where to go for someone kind
Have you read any of his stuff? http://theformalist.org/archives/148 – full of wide open space but written in iambic pentameter…
A somewhat romanticized view he displayed. The freedoms of Africa in what seems a more English countryside.
Fabulous story. I’ve found a couple of Saints in my life too.
It’s good to have a few saints in your life 🙂
Yes. Yes it is… 🙂
So interesting!
Thanks 🙂
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
That, Lou, was food for thought. The stirring music teamed with the slogans had the most unsettling effect of making the whole thing more acceptable. Oh, our minds, and the tricks they play…
Interesting trivia about the Shard and Campbell!
Just bits and pieces I had lying about, Madhu 🙂
There’s an app (er, blog) for that — http://www.ministry-of-truth.net/ 🙂 These days, I think we could use a few truth-tellers to take up residence in some building or other; maybe get some things back on a more even keel…..
Truth is the most distilled essence of integrity, Karen: I’m not sure a MInistry could emulate it, in truth…
Well, I didn’t know that. You are full of surprises.
As for ‘Men from the Ministry’ it’s repeated occasionally on Radio 4 Extra.
Must listen in, Myfanwy 🙂
What a great story 🙂
Thanks Fiona…these poets have such a bohemian time…
Yes, great story indeed Kate!
I’m wondering now if there’s a northern office for the Ministry of Information… I think I might like to work there…
Alas, due to Mr Cameron’s cost cutting exercise the COI closed in March this year. May it rest in peace.
You are wonderful storyteller Kate!
Dear Kate, Thank you for the Eliot story. I’m not surprised to learn of his care for and generosity toward others. This whole propaganda thing is so prevalent. I once wrote a book for Capstone Press–a Minnesota publisher that publishes books for young people–on the “Boston Massacre” that preceded the Revolutionary War here in the
colonies. (Even what sides call their war is propaganda.) Anyway I tired hard in the writing to show that the famous picture by Revere that appeared in the Boston newspaper at the time was pure propaganda. And I was mightily pleased when a reviewer put a review for the book
on Amazon and mentioned that the book had revealed the use of that incident as propaganda by the colonists. History just keeps repeating itself. Peace.
Looks like something out of that movie Brazil
I sit up straighter and pay attention when I see you’ve done a “Quirks of History” Kate. This was really interesting. Thank you for it.
A friend just gave me a little journal stamped “Keep Calm and Carry On.” I knew it had British origins, but I didn’t know a thing about the Ministry of Information. I really like to think that “the Archbishop” was indeed generous to his poet friends. I enjoy hearing about such talents caught in the act of such ordinary occurrences. Great peek at some interesting people and places, Kate. Debra
Interesting as always. I like Roy Cambell’s poetry, and have known some of his local relatives – one was our family doctor as the Cambells had quite a dynasty of doctors. Roy had some despicable characteristics, though – but shared by most men of the time in their attitude towards women..
One more reason to hold Eliot in high regard. Genius and compassion.