This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

During the Second World War, the Home Intelligence Unit, a branch of the Ministry of Information,

was tasked with monitoring public attitudes on the home front. They compiled confidential reports on the state of popular morale,

which were circulated among decision makers in Whitehall.

These reports offer a fascinating insight into how ordinary people coped with the stresses

of wartime life, their hopes for victory and their fears about what the post-war world might

bring. I'm Angus Wallace and joining me today is Jeremy Crang, Professor of Modern British

History at the University of Edinburgh. Together with his late colleague, Paul Addison, Jeremy has edited

three volumes of these reports, bringing to light the voices and concerns of wartime Britain.

Jeremy, thank you for joining me. I've been reading your latest book,

Our People's War, which is the third of the trilogy, looking at the reports from the

Home Intelligence Unit. I wonder, perhaps our starting point, do you want to surmise how

the volumes, how the three volumes relate to one another? Well, thanks for having me on, I guess.

I mean, during the Second World War, a home intelligence unit

within the Ministry of Information, quite closely monitored public opinion in Britain

and compiled regular reports on morale.

These reports are located in the National Archives at

Q in London. And in 2010, my late colleague Paul Addison and I published a complete set of

these Home Intelligence reports for the period May, September, 1940. And that was under the title of

listing to Britain. And then in 2020, we then published a complete set of the reports for the

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