In the age of Corbyn, is the time right for another Road to Wigan Pier?

It’s no surprise that the Left Book Club is being relaunched now, with the imprimatur of the Labour leader and Ken Livingstone. It began in the anxious 1930s, a decade that has all too many parallels with the current oneAiming to “set the agenda for a new age of political debate”, the Left Book Club was re-launched this week at a meeting at the Conway Hall in London. The Left Book Club last published a book in 1948. Jeremy Corbyn had yet to be born. Nevertheless the Labour leader has generously endorsed the revival as “a terrific and timely idea” that will give “intellectual ballast to the wave of political change sweeping Britain and beyond, encouraging informed and compassionate debate”. He added that he had a large collection of Left Book Club titles, some bought new by his parents and others that he acquired second hand. I speculate that the memory of these books in their plain red or orange covers – their flash upon his inward eye – must have provided Corbyn with a rare pleasurable moment in the past few weeks: the thought of them on his shelves having same kind of heart-filling effect that the daffodils had on Wordsworth.My own collection isn’t so large. In fact, it runs to just one book, Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, and I didn’t inherit it. I bought it 20 or 30 years ago because I liked the idea of having such a fine book in its cheap and original form – seeing the words and photographs as its first readers must have seen them. Published in 1937, the year after... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #original form

Other news stories related to: "In the age of Corbyn, is the time right for another Road to Wigan Pier?"


Nine Eight to publish Bickerdike's 'timely, kaleidoscopic' Britney biography

Nine Eight, Bonnier Books UK's new music imprint, will publish Being Britney: Pieces of a Modern Icon by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike in November 2021, the first book to provide a "sympathetic yet objective re-examination of Britney Spears' cultural impact".  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-19 02:29:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #bonnier #cultural impact #britney spears #music imprint


Flint scoops two climate change titles in time for COP26 summit

Flint Books, an imprint of The History Press, has acquired two "urgent and instructive" titles on sustainability and climate change to publish in time for the COP26 summit in October.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-18 22:17:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #climate change #history press #flint books


Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ahead of her time. ‘Two-Way Mirror’ does justice to her riveting life.

Fiona Sampson’s biography reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #literary fiction


Emerald Publishing founder Dr Keith Howard dies, aged 89

The founder and owner of Emerald Publishing, Dr Keith Howard, has died peacefully at his home at the age of 89. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-14 08:04:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #died peacefully #emerald publishing


HarperNorth acquires journalist Bright's 'timely' debut on regional equality

HarperNorth has acquired a book on regional inequality in the UK by journalist Sam Bright, chief politics and investigations reporter for Byline Times. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-09 10:36:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Author and astrologer Judy Hall dies aged 77

Author and astrologer Judy Hall has died aged 77, her publisher Octopus has announced.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-09 06:06:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Reading Time Rose 21% in Second Half of 2020

The U.S. Department of Labor's American Time Use survey found that the time Americans spent reading daily increased 21% in the May-December period in 2020 over the comparable period in 2019, rising to 34 minutes per day. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #survey found


Open Road Buys U.K.'s Bloodhound Books

Open Road Integrated Media has acquired Bloodhound Books, a U.K.-based publisher of e-books and print titles. Founded in 2014, Bloodhound has a backlist of about 600 fiction titles, and has sold approximately six million copies of its books worldwide. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #million copies #print titles #-based publisher


Nicholas Kristof, Times Columnist, Weighs Bid for Oregon Governor

Mr. Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner known for his coverage of human rights abuses and women’s rights, said friends were trying to recruit him into the race to replace Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-07-19 17:22:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #pulitzer prize #times columnist #nicholas kristof


Lauren Child | 'It felt like a time to write about what we wish for'

Lauren Child's latest story focuses on Christmas in a Clarice Bean story that is full of empathy and hope Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-17 02:08:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #lauren child


Time for tea

I am a regular reader of @PublishingTea. This is a pastime I share with many others. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-16 02:15:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #regular reader


Ruth Ozeki | 'As an artist I have relationships with fictional voices all the time'

"The notion of 'a book' is just a convenient fiction which we books go along with because it serves the needs of the bean counters in publishing, not to mention the ego of the writers. But the reality is far more complex.” So explains “the Book”, one of the narrators of Ruth Ozeki’s fourth novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-09 19:27:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #first novel #sunday times #ruth ozeki


Choi wins £30k Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award

American author Susan Choi has won the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award with her "luminous" story "Flashlight". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-09 16:07:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Kazuo Ishiguro: ‘Some awful things have happened in the last year . . . but these are not uninteresting times’

The Nobel Prize winner talks about the pandemic, his novel “Klara and the Sun,” fatherhood and more. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-06-22 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #kazuo ishiguro


Nielsen to Release Monthly Snapshot of Total TV Time

Nielsen's ongoing quest to measure the fast-changing television landscape will now include a monthly snapshot into how consumers around the country are spending their TV screen time. A new monthly graphic, which Nielsen is calling The Gauge, will offer a window into total TV time, including both... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2021-06-17 21:56:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #nielsen


Shortlist revealed for £30k Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award

The final six stories competing for the £30,000 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award have been revealed, featuring British author Jonathan Gibbs and Scottish writer Rachael Fulton alongside four US writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-06 11:11:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #british author #shortlist revealed


How to watch Charles Yu explore his award-winning novel at the L.A. Times Book Club

National Book Award winner Charles Yu discusses 'Interior Chinatown' with Times film critic Justin Chang at the L.A. Times Book Club Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-05-27 20:58:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #times book #national book award #interior chinatown


Author Tayari Jones on Timing at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair

The author speaks with Emirates Airline Festival of Literature director Ahlam Bolooki, asserting 'You don't have to write every day.' The post Author Tayari Jones on Timing at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-05-26 14:44:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


U.S. Book Show: Indie Bookselling in the Digital Age

A panel of executives from Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, and IndieCommerce discussed ways in which booksellers could use their platforms to take full advantage of the shifts in consumer behavior since the pandemic began. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #pandemic began #consumer behavior #full advantage #digital age #indie bookselling #book show


A Road Trip Across America to Dismantle White Patriarchy

Randa Jarrar’s memoir Love Is An Ex-Country focuses predominantly on the years leading to the 2016 election, a period, which, like now, was characterized by heightened Islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism. Jarrar embarks on a road trip inspired by Tahia... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-05-21 11:00:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #memoir #electric literature #randa jarrar #road trip