Letter from America by Alistair Cooke: The Early Years (1940s, 1950s and 1960s‪)‬ BBC Radio 4

I have just found this and it has hit me like a ton of bricks. Cooke was beyond compare when I first heard him oh so many years ago and this brings it all back. Never, ever, have I heard anyone describe so perfectly that strange and magical place on the other side of the Atlantic. This should be required listening for everyone. Er, wow.

I grew up listening to Alastair Cooke’s Letters because my father enjoyed them, and for me, the accuracy and political significance of his material, certainly decades later, is hardly the point.

The power for me lies in the way that unique voice, described so well by many reviewers, gentle, intelligent, dry, humorous, warm, conjures up a time now lost that I can just touch through the memory of my father, whether it is Christmas in Vermont, Golf at Augusta, Summers on Long Island, or scenes from New York and San Francisco half a century ago.

They were days of great upheaval and social change, but nevertheless there was a shared certainty I think that everything could be solved and that things were ultimately going to work out once the dust settled.

That certainty is no longer there, at least for me, but it is so marvellous to listen to Mr Cooke and for a few moments occupy a place of fundamental sanity and quiet warmth, which were hallmarks of my own father’s character, and keep the chaos, fear, and venom for a little while out of your head.

Mr Cooke’s letters continue to work their magic long after the days of their political significance have gone, and this is a testament to the greatness of his output.

Thank You, Mr Cooke.

Goodnight.

Erudite, educated, light hearted, polite, intelligent, naive, well spoken, with a touch of over sentimentality, that he wouldn’t have used if reporting to his fellow Britians.
The type of Englishman who quietly disappeared during the twentieth century, replaced by a people who have forgotten who they are, or are punished for remembering. In some ways Alistair represents the best of us, but in another he’s a privileged establishment figure.

It would have been impossible for any president to have fulfilled the potential expected of them in the monetary system adopted by the Western World, when banks have the power to create endless money out of thin air as debt. Doesn’t matter who’s in the white house, when you give that much power to the Fed. Banks, and a debt based system are the enemy of liberty.