Malthouse Cottage: The Late 1920s, 1926–28

Abstract

Shortly after Read’s stay in April 1926, Aldington received a telegram from The Times asking his help during the General Strike, which began on 3 May. Stuffing underwear and a book into his army pack, he hitch-hiked to London where he assisted in loading bundles of newspapers into private cars for circulation, and in wrapping individual copies. When each night’s work finished he walked along the Embankment to breakfast at the Authors Club in Whitehall. Immediately after the events he wrote to the American art patron, Crosby Gaige, unequivocally expressing support for the employers, admiring the comportment of the police, the army and the volunteer workers, and also Stanley Baldwin’s ‘great leadership’.¹ The remarks about Baldwin may well have been tongue-in-cheek and the whole statement pitched to what he imagined Gaige wanted to hear. A different perspective is given in Life for Life’s Sake: ‘I suppose I ought really to have been on the other side, for I had no particular liking for Mr. Baldwin and his friends or what they represented.