Category: Book reviews
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The Good, the Bad and the Greedy
Go on, ban more things! Bad News for Labour Someone tried to launch a book at Waterstones in Brighton during the 2019 Labour conference. The shop cancelled the launch. That was all I knew about the book at the time but, as soon as I got home, I marched into my local indie bookshop and […]
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Under-rated heroes and forgotten wives
Happy anniversary, Gustav and Isobel Holst A guest post by author Philippa Tudor Fame and fleeting, modest fortune Aspiring but not-yet-famous composer Gustav von Holst and Isobel Harrison were married on 22 June 1901. It was a quiet wedding in Fulham Register Office (a former workhouse), witnessed by Isobel’s brother and Gustav’s aunt, who had […]
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The original mistake?
Has it ever occurred to anyone that the founding of the Labour Party might have been a mistake from the start? I have spent a large part of my political time over the last decade on campaigns arguing for workers’ rights and women’s rights. The Labour Party has been, to put it generously, a fair-weather […]
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The vital message hidden in those songs
Tonight you’re mine completely… Why were there so many girl groups in the 1960s singing about lost babies? It most definitely is not nostalgia for past boyfriends that makes my heart shiver when I hear those songs, and I know many women who can remember the ‘50s and ‘60s would agree. Social media brings political […]
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Book signing at Thaxted
What is the best way of launching a new biography in Covid-19 times? As 26 March 2022 would have been the birthday of Isobel Holst (born in 1876), singing in the Dulwich Choral Society concert on that day, with a programme featuring works by her husband Gustav and daughter Imogen, as well as by their […]
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Help! They’re getting away!
I posted this on Facebook earlier, and I had this feeling there was something I’d forgotten… … in the comments, someone mentioned the ‘dead cat’ strategy – you know, what do you do when a meeting’s not going the way you want? You throw a dead cat on the table, and everyone’s so shocked, and […]
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Where is ‘the West’ on a ball?
‘The West’ is one of the many charged words the media are using, words that feed into social media conversations about what’s going on in Ukraine, and what we should do about it. This morning, I saw a post from a bloke who’s off to join in the war and ‘fight for the West’ and […]
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What kind of country tolerates police seizing people’s books?
Yep, it happened. It happened in Wales. As one woman put it to me recently, surely that’s a red line for everyone. This was a gathering in support of a woman who was arrested, detained for ten hours, and has been messed about ever since. The police searched her house, and took a book they […]
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UBI or bust
A few years ago now, we in Hastings had a visit from Guy Standing, talking about various aspects of the New Economics. One of the ideas that interested me was UBI (universal basic income). I see it doing the rounds again now. Our own borough council have recently been taking steps to get involved, with […]
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The beginning of a lifetime’s work?
A guest post by Philippa Tudor I first encountered Holst’s music through singing his beautiful 8-part Ave Maria as a teenager, and knew that he had taught at James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich – where I live – but I never got round to discovering more until 2012, when I ordered a secondhand copy […]
Kay Green 