Anxious Corporals is a celebration of the lost world of the
self-educating working-class, from Mr Kipps, Leonard Bast and the Age of
Hooper to Workington Man. Taking its title from Arthur Koestler's idea
of the culture-thirsty conscript, Morrison recalls the men and women who
once sought 'self-improvement' through correspondence courses, adult
education, political parties and Pelican paperbacks. It's an essay in
verse about education and class, deference and independence, Reason and
Reaction, the victory of shopkeeper values and the defeat of the
post-war consensus.