Welcome to Douglas Murray’s column, “Things Worth Remembering,” in which he presents great speeches from famous orators we should commit to heart. Scroll down to listen to Douglas reflect on a passage from Alan Bennett’s play, Forty Years On, about living in the shadow of war.
As we approach the new year, I would like to go back not to a speech by a politician but to something written many decades ago by the playwright Alan Bennett. It whispers something that many of us living still in relative peace and prosperity might hear, if we listen closely enough.
I have a slightly complicated relationship with Bennett’s body of work (at 90, he is still writing). Some of the plays that are most celebrated, particularly The History Boys, I find slightly icky. At the same time, some of the plays that are now rarely performed are, I think, masterpieces. And this new year, a speech comes back to me from his very first play, Forty Years On.
