peterworsleyalife.docVIP

Peter Worsley: A Life Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane, filmed by Sarah Harrison, at his home on 25th February 1989, using a video 8 camera. [Later additions in 2004 by Peter Worsley in square brackets, and in notes at the end] Part 1: From childhood to Australia (60 mins) Birth, childhood, school 0:28 Born in 1924. Parents and early life. Merseyside. Lower middle class background [were lived in middle-class Wallasey, but father’s business was in proletarian Birkenhead, so I knew a divided society) misery around, old blind men selling matches, proletarians, class injustice, the Orwellian world, a growing sense of injustice Sent to a Catholic school, father a [very tolerant] Catholic 2:30 Catholic discipline at school; physical punishment; Jesuits, storing up merit in heaven, thinks extremely immoral, [see note 1 at end] made me unhappy and physically sick, then went to another marvellous [Protestant, liberal] school and stimulating. So became early aware of two cultures. 4:20 became head boy at Wallasey Grammar school in 1940/1, always aware of democracy and inequality and the rights of minorities because of Catholic background, and sensitized to other cultures. [see note 3 at end] First part of University education and the army 5:10 went to University, partly due to inspiring masters in English and history, ruined for natural sciences [see note 2 at end]. Went to Cambridge to read English [because of my wonderful English teacher] – a Leavisite in 1942. Social criticism of Leavisites by Eliot, Lawrence and Raymond Williams 7:00 the effects of Stalingrad siege. The Red Army stood between us and conquest. A huge influence on me. So it was not long before I joined the Communist Party in Cambridge [since discovered that the Cambridge University Socialist Club had c.1000 members – the biggest in Cambridge]. Not in the spy generation. We were young people who had anti-fascist enthusiasm. Very respectable and patriotic. 8:17 Went into army, straight in