ABSTRACT
I have been asking myself where, in the record of her many achievements, the essence of Margery Perham’s historical significance is to be found. And I have no doubt that it is in the immense effort, maintained through forty years, to address the opinion-forming public in Britain, at monthly or sometimes even fortnightly intervals, on the aspect of public affairs which was also her academic speciality. This was not done for any significant financial reward, much of it not even in response to any positive invitation. Most of it was supplied quite free, in the correspondence columns of the The Times, seizing the opportunities offered by the news of the day, or the opinions of other correspondents. It was gruelling, always interrupting, work which brooked no delay, and usually allowed no time for second thoughts. Yet it was this work which, cumulatively, brought her the public respect which hardly any academic expert enjoys. It is one thing to gather golden reviews for the book which it has taken ten years to write, and quite another to be judged by the opinions hammered out at three in the morning and rushed to the post before breakfast.
