Anxious corporals - Alan Morrison

Anxious Corporals is a celebration of the lost world of the self-educating working-class, from Mr Kipps, Leonard Bast and the Age of Hooper to Workington Man. Taking its title from Arthur Koestler's idea of the culture-thirsty conscript, Morrison recalls the men and women who once sought 'self-improvement' through correspondence courses, adult education, political parties and Pelican paperbacks. It's an essay in verse about education and class, deference and independence, Reason and Reaction, the victory of shopkeeper values and the defeat of the post-war consensus.