The Go-Between experience. Among other writers commenting on the book's contemporary context, Paul Binding has pointed out that its famous opening phrase, “The past is a foreign country”, had first been used by Hartley’s friend Lord David Cecil in his inaugural lecture as Goldsmith's Professor in 1949. Ali Smith revisited the observed parallel drawn between the treatment of class and sexuality in "The Go-Between" and in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (1928). D. H. Lawrence’s novel was not allowed unexpurgated circulation in Britain until after "The Go-Between"s appearance, but perhaps, she speculated, Hartley's novel helped prepare the climate for the overturning of the British
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (novel) in fighting for equality and freedom. About the publication of the novel and the release of the film "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" (1973), directed by Ivan Dixon, Greenlee said: Close collaboration between film director Ivan Dixon and screenplay writer Sam Greenlee realised a cinematic representation that did not lose or lessen the strong social analyses and encouragement to revolution in the novel. The political atmosphere of the United States was especially restless in 1969, the year of publication of "The Spook Who Sat by the Door", because the contentious politics for civil rights, for women's rights, and