Discussions on cultural politics, 1942-1965

Ivor Montagu (1904-1984) was best known for his work as a filmmaker, scriptwriter, and producer. He was also a trained naturalist, the founder of the International Table Tennis Federation, president of the Southampton F.C. Supporters’ Club, and an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). 

This collection contains Montagu’s personal, political, and professional papers. Of particular interest is his correspondence with prominent public figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Shaw, and Solly Zuckerman. Montagu’s papers are a useful resource for students and scholars who are interested in the impact of communism on British popular culture and vice-versa.

The collection is accompanied by three contextual essays written by Professor Kevin Morgan, a senior academic at the University of Manchester.

Material largely related to Montagu's time as a correspondent of the Daily Worker, writing about post-war Germany and other political issues in Europe. Visceral in his anti-Nazi attitude, Montagu was sometimes restrained in his militancy by both the legal system, as seen through the Duke of Hamilton's libel action, as well as his own party, who held fluctuating views on the Nazis at the start of the war. The volume also features items on Montagu's own call up to the armed forces and subsequent cancellation. Finally, the volume features discussions and publications of cultural politics in the post-war period.

Correspondence and other material covering poems, quarterly journals, creative writing, films, and celebrity communist sympathisers like Charlie Chaplin.