C. E. M. Joad - Rise and Fall

Rise and Fall

As Joad had become so well known, he was invited to give after-dinner speeches, open bazaars and even advertise tea. He also sold more books than ever before. He stood as a Labour candidate at a by-election in November 1946 for the Combined Scottish Universities constituency (although he lost). Joad hid his anxiety, and his pacifism had not survived the war. Even Socialism was unsatisfying when he saw the vast evil the war had brought. His career was more successful than ever before, and he became a common subject of discussion in both public and private society. But he also had many enemies, and they were to have the last laugh.

Joad once boasted in print that “I cheat the railway company whenever I can.” In April 1948, Joad was convicted of travelling on a Waterloo-Exeter train without a valid ticket, he was a frequent fare dodger, possibly obsessively so. Joad failed to give a satisfactory excuse. This made front-page headlines in the national newspapers, and the fine of £2 (£54 as of 2012) destroyed all hopes of a peerage and resulted in his dismissal from the BBC. The humiliation of this had a severe effect on his health, and he soon became bed-confined at his home in Hampstead. Joad renounced his agnostic ways and turned to the Christianity, the Church of England, which is evident in his book The Recovery of Belief published in 1952 after the train ticket affair.