To see on primetime television the activists who fought for disability rights in the 1990s was a profoundly moving momentBefore we even reach the opening titles of Then Barbara Met Alan – the BBC’s one-off drama depicting the fight for the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which aired on Monday night – Barbara has graffitied “piss on pity” on a bus stop and turned down going for a drink with Alan because, in her words, she’d just end up getting drunk and giving him a blowjob. It is an instruction to the audience from the off to reject their preconceptions: this is not disabled people as you might think.The story of how disabled activists – led by Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth – used direct action to lobby for the UK’s first disability civil rights law is one you’d be forgiven for not having heard before. Disability history is not taught in schools. It is not dramatised for entertainment and is rarely the subject of documentaries; on the odd occasion that the subject is on British screens, it’s likely to have been from the US – as in the 2020 documentary Crip Camp. As a result, I’d wager most of the British public think disability rights were introduced in the 1970s along with other anti-discrimination laws, like those legislating against sex and race prejudice, and came about by benevolent authorities gifting rights to the grateful disabled.Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People – now... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-03-22 06:00:48 UTC ]
Small press And Other Stories will produce no books by men in 2018 in answer to Kamila Shamsie’s call for direct action to beat gender bias in publishingSmall press And Other Stories has answered author Kamila Shamsie’s provocative call for a year of publishing women to redress “gender bias” in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quercus has acquired a book by Guardian columnist and GQ culture writer Lindy West. Shrill will be a “laugh-out-loud portrayal of what it means to become self-aware the hard way, in a popular culture that is hostile to women (especially fat women) and doesn't think women (especially feminists)... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books about the natural world are now huge sellers, tapping into a new appreciation for the countryside and scepticism about material wealthBondage is so last year. Publishers who spent much of the past year in search of the next Fifty Shades of Grey are now seeking to exploit another literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's suggestion that the ebook and paperback revolutions are comparable has sparked scorn, satire and indigationWhen Amazon published their rather extraordinary "Message from the Amazon Books Team" at readersunited.com last week, they got a few things right and a few things wrong. Alongside... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:45 Orion Books imprint Swordfish has acquired two books by Guardian columnist and TV presenter Charlie Brooker, signing the titles through Jo Unwin at Conville & Walsh. Publisher Rowland White bought world rights in all... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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