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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Raymond WilliamsAlastair Humphreys|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950Local|rating= 45|genre= Politics and SocietyTravel |summary= From Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the last decades of the eighteenth century world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the final words of modernism, this book tracks societal changes through is an attempt ''to share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring five key words: industrya small map. Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, democracyagriculture, classthe food system, art and culture. The meanings rewilding…'' One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of such these thingswas that there are no easy answers, their essenceno single 'right or wrong', changes as per their use that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and the era in which their implications were consideredthat there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>1785633678

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Patrick WestEdel Rodriguez|title= Get Over YourselfWorm: Nietzsche for our timesA Cuban American Odyssey|rating= 14|genre= Politics and SocietyGraphic Novels|summary= Get Over Yourself considers NietzscheWe're in childhood, and we's imagined perceptions re in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of modern society the country, has proven himself a Communist, and uses our society not done nearly enough to explain create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his philosophytime away. I Our narrator'm sorry if that sounds vague but its family weren's t in the best I can do from happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the blurb on good soldier the back. After reading Get Over Yourself from cover country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to coversome minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, I am still none success being frowned upon. The mother gets the wiser about couple jobs with the purpose of this book. It appears party to be a series ease some of personal opinions held together with quotesthe heat, which don't always appear relevantbut in this sultry island country, from Nietzsche, Chumbawumba and newspaper articles.it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845409337</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jenny LandrethSarah Wilson|title= SwellThis One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating= 3.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary= I love JennyMy favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''s own description of her book as a waterbiography What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This line so much because my answer is more than just (I say ''just''This!) a recollection of the author Precisely this.'s own encounters with water; it's also a history of women I's fight for m lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the right way I want to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes seriousSarah Wilson is equally lucky. Not too serious In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the absurdbest life that we could be living. Not a lover of book blurbs myself Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case Iwe are not''m definitely with Alexandra Heminsley. Don's t care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she'giggles-on-s effing furious about the-commute funny''fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472938941</amazonuk>1785633848

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy1785633457|title= The ExileCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating= 45|genre= Politics and SocietyTravel|summary= An account Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the fate idea of Al Qaeda and exploring the Bin Laden family since the events edges of 9/11England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, ''The Exile'' plunges into the murky waters of international terrorism, espionage and politics. Detailed it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and meticuloushis wife, the book tackles the subject from all anglesJoan, providing a panoramic view of the subject and acting to enlighten and inform the reader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858762</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emily Clarkson1529153050|title= Can I Speak to Someone in Charge?|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary=''Can I Speak to Someone in Charge?'', blogger Emily ClarksonBritain's debut book, is a fierce, witty and laugh-out-loud funny ode to feminism. In a series of open letters, she addresses the issues faced by every modern woman, discussing everything from dealing with body hair to being made to feel uncomfortable in the gym, as well as more personal issues, like her experiences of being 'catfished' and sent abuse online. This is a vital read for any girl born in the 1990s, tackling some very serious social injustices beneath its fun exterior.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471156907</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewBest Political Cartoons 2022|author=Lauren Elkin|title=Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and LondonTim Benson

|genre=History Humour|summary=Lauren Elkin Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is down on suburbs: theycoming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards 're places where you can't or shouldnBritain't be seen walking; places where, in fiction, women who transgress boundaries are punished (thinking s Best Political Cartoons of everything from ''Madame Bovary2022'' to ''Revolutionary Road''). When she imagines to herself what the female version of Sharp eyes will have noted that well-known historical figure, the carefree we''flâneur'', might be, she thinks about women who freely wandered re not yet through the world's great cities without having year: the more insalubrious connotation of the word 'streetwalker' applied cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to them31 August 2022.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593378</amazonuk> Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Saqib NoorB0B7289HKQ|title=Surgery on Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Shoulders Soul of Giants: Letters from a doctor abroadAmerica|author=Kari Loya

|genre=AutobiographyTravel|summary=The letters begin much in Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the fashion of any young man away from home, perhaps in a quite exciting country, writing back way) wanted to family and friends to tell them of spend some time with his experiences, the sights he's seen father and the people he's metperiod between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. It's just a little different in ''Surgery on The decision was made to ride the Shoulders of Giants'' though: Saqib Noor is a junior doctorTrans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, training Virginia to be an orthopaedic surgeon and over a period Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of ten years he visited six countries, not as a tourist but to give medical assistanceit - in 2015. They're countries had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which Noor describes pointed this up as more of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer''fourth world'' - third world with added disaster - and their need is desperates.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1521173192</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rebecca Asher1739593901|title= Man Up22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary= When ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of years ago my university introduced compulsory consent workshops along with an option of confessions to make. I'good ladm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There' sessions for boys, all debate broke looses got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Shouldn Then there's science fiction: far too often it't consent be selfs the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-evident for everyone? Would building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the workshops reinforce technology and the stereotype world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of 'laddish' boys? Would it all be about pointing fingers at boys and victimizing girls? What about nontwenty-binary peopletwo science fiction short stories? In short Well, how could these workshops be anything else than a mission doomed to failure?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701807</amazonuk>I loved it.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= John GrindrodJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title= OutskirtsThe Book of Hope |rating= 45|genre =Animals Politics and WildlifeSociety |summary=''Outskirts'' The done thing is an interesting take on to read a phenomenon of book all the modern age: the introduction way through before you sit down to review it. I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the green belt experience of countryside surrounding inner city housing estates. John Grindrod grew up on the edge of one such estate in the 1960's and '70'sreading this amazing book, I want to capture it as he puts it, ''I grew up on the last road in Londonhits me.'' Grindrod explores the introduction of the green belt, and the various fights and developments And it has gone through over the subsequent decades, as environmental and political arguments have affected planning decisionsis hitting me. Within this topic, he This beautiful book has somehow managed to wind around his personal memories of childhood, producing a memoir with a lot of heartme in tears.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473625025</amazonuk>024147857X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Carolina de Robertis1788360737|title= Radical HopeArtivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating= 42

|summary= On 8th November 2016, Donald Trump was elected as Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a vacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the 46th President of the United Statessocial environment in which he develops’’. Since then many Americans have been overcome with fearTherefore, all art must be political, worrying about what will become of American society during Trump's administrationeven implicitly. Carolina de Robertis was no exception to this fear and Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in response to the newly elected President and his policies she put out a call Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for actionart’s sake. Radical Hope is the outcome The recent trend of so-called artivism has caused artists to this callbecome more overtly political (read: left wing). De Robertis reached out to fellow writers Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and activists asking for letters, predominantly letters of love, addressed media elites hoping to the citizens of today create a more globalist and those of past and future generations in order to help spread hope during times of uncertaintyprogressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349010102</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew d'Ancona1398508632|title=Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight BackWilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=''Our own postIt had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-truth era is what happens when society relaxes its defence long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of values that underpin cohesionNovember, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, namely veracityin a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, honesty Brexit and accountabilitya pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains.'' I'm old enough or perhaps naive enough She had electricity which allowed her to believe that when making run a decision about political votingfridge, you should be able to rely absolutely on what the candidate tells youfreezer and dehydrator. I've been suspicious for She had a decade or morecar - and fuel. Most importantly, but itshe had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live''s become difficult wild just to live off its produce.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529149800|title=Things You Can Do: How to ignore Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows|rating=4|genre=Home and Family|summary=We begin with a telling story. All the change in political attitudes since Brexit birds and animals fled when the election forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of Donald Trumpanything they could do. With regard The tiny hummingbird flew to the latter, when Trump river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was challenged on a statement hethat doing. 'd made which was subsequently found to be incorrect, his response was 'I'Who cares if m doing the best I got it wrong?can'' , said the hummingbird. He was able to tap to And that, really, is the only way that we will solve the fading concept problem of 'the American Dream' - those Americans who were used to waiting patiently in line and who had found themselves overtaken climate change – by ''womeneach of us doing what we can, immigrants and public sector workers''however small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785036874</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stephen Moss1638485216|title= Wild KingdomBlack, White, and Gray All Over: Bringing Back BritainA Black Man's WildlifeOdyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating= 45|genre= Animals and WildlifeAutobiography|summary= Wildlife ''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has been declining in Britain over the last few decades; it is an unfortunate everything to do with character. Period.'' ''One more body just wouldn't matter''. The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 byDerek Chauvin, a forty-four-product of human population growthyear-old police officer, which in the modern US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world has increased significantly. Through this book Moss suggests We rarely see pictures of a few ways in which we can start to bring back some murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of BritainChauvin kneeling on George's wildlife without compromising neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the human way of lifepolice - and not just in Minneapolis: we can co-exist with naturewhatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581639</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick CleggMatthieu Aikins|title=Politics: Between The Naked Don't Fear the ExtremesWater

|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The political landscape is changing rapidly at the moment. A little more than two years ago we were facing the end of Naked Don't Fear the UKWater isn's first coalition government since World War II and fully expecting that we would see anothert actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. Instead we saw This is not by any means a criticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Conservative government elected with Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a workable majorityvast and at times painful journey. Brexit saw the end of one Prime Minister There are tense moments and another elected by a few members gripping accounts of parliamentborder crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. As I write weBut it're facing another general election, s written with a Conservative landslide predicted. In two years we've seen haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the Liberal Democrats collapse from being part of reader to perfectly envisage the ruling coalition to a party whose MPs could hold a meeting in a decent-sized carenvironments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784704164</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jess Phillips1785633074|title= Everywoman: One Woman's Truth About Speaking the TruthStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=34.5|genre= Politics and SocietyHumour|summary=Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the ''Everywomanprimus inter pares'' announces itself proudly, with a chapter named (that''The Truth about Speaking up''. Jess Phillips, s for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, tells us many times reality is that she is the ''gobbyprime'' and that she has a loud voicemovers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. Her voice does come through We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, clear and urgentthe man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. Using her journey to Westminster and her experiences in Parliament, Phillips teaches You might not know the reader name now but he will certainly be the truths she's learned on her journeyman to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330776</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tormod V Burkey1846276772|title=Ethics for a Full World or, Can Animal-Lovers Save the World?The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell|rating=4.5|genre= Animals Politics and WildlifeSociety|summary= Burkey argues Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that manthey may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's current practices are outside the realms of nature. He is no longer simply a part of the ecosystem, but instead exists above it through his dominating wayseveryday life. He is himself distanced even further by advancement in technologies, industry, money and all the pollution that comes with them White men will always come first. The natural world, Burkey argues, no longer exists for man because he has altered it by such thingsable will come before the disabled. Indeed Jobs, global warming has caused climate changepromotions, which, if it continues, will make higher salaries are the preserve of the world unrecognisablewhite man. For Even when those who wouldn't pass the world to medical become fullera part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, for it to be a world that seeks to provide their concerns are acknowledged. It's personally appalling and degrading for the needs individuals on the receiving end of every living thing, then the bias but it needs to change's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570856</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum1529148251|title= The Future of Violence - Robots and Germs, Hackers and DronesMisfits: Confronting the New Age of ThreatA Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel|rating= 45

|summary=Looking back over this month''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, April 2017malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling the news has been full truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.'' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of terrorist attacks perpetrated by lone individualsmind. A suicide bombing on the St Petersburg Metro killed 15 people and injured 64 more. In Stockholm, Sweden, You're not going to read a hijacked truck steered into book of essays or a pedestrian shopping area and department storeself-help book. Most recently, a shooting in Paris just two days ago, claimed You're going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the life of a police officer and injured several othersEdinburgh TV Festival. Whilst it is true that governments have access You might be ''reading'' the book but you need to impressive, cutting-edge technology ''listen'' to combat terrorism, it is also the words as though you're in the lecture theatre. The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a fact that these resources are becoming increasingly available to individualscloud of exquisite writing. At what cost?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445655934</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lynn Knight0008350388|title= The Button BoxWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating= 45|genre= HistoryPolitics and Society|summary= Buttons are the underdogs of the clothing world: dismissed as functional elements of clothing, falling into the same dustbin category with zips and shoe laces, they tend ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as necessary for keeping clothes onless desirable, rather less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than contributors my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to styleTalk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. But Lynn Knight is set '' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to prove that the opposite is trueUK from Kenya when she was five years old. We think nothing of lacing discussions about clothing Her sisters were seven and feminism nine. It was her mother who came first, with headscarvesher father joining them later. The family was hard-working, bikinisprincipled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and underweight models – and buttons deserve then a place on the pedestal of gender discussionat New College, tooOxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593092</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paul FlynnRichard Brook|title= Good As YouUnderstanding Human Nature: From Prejudice A User's Guide to Pride - 30 Years of Gay BritainLife|rating= 4.5|genre= History Lifestyle|summary=The last 30 years have seen I am a tidal wave of change sweep the country with regards to how gay people are perceived firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and acceptedsometimes books choose us. In 1984my case, the pulsing electronic beats this is one of ''Smalltown Boy'' became an anthem to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading a climate of panic and fear across the nation, and marginalising a community who were already ostracisedlatter. 30 years later thoughNot so very long ago, the long road to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts if I had come across this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists as Kyliebook I'd have skimmed it, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smith. This is the story found some of Britain's brothersit interesting, sons, cousins, fathers and husbands. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (but it would not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and have 'hit home' in the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As You. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mark Aylwin Thomas|title= Blades of Grass|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Any book way that has me in tears at the end has been worth my timeit does now. Any book that has me hoping I believe it will end differently came to the way me not just because I know was likely to give it must is worth the readinga favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. Any book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope in the world – that for all the mistakes made thus far, still being made right nowpeople chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a common humanity which ultimatelypredisposition towards expecting to like the book, eventually, must do some good even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – that but also because it is worth the writing and the reading and the time. Blades of Grass is one such a book. It's a forgotten storyI needed to read, an unknown story to most people. It is one that should be told – and reflected uponright now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>1800461682

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Preston1787332098|title=A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and How to Love Animals in a Murder Plot at the Heart of the EstablishmentHuman-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance

|genre=True CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Jeremy Thorpe was ''When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and so on. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the sort of person who next David Attenborough series.'' I was generally liked by othersgoing to argue. He was flamboyant I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and gregarious I much prefer my elephants in the wild but could give then I realised that I was quibbling for the impression that meeting someone had made his daysake of it. He never seemed Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to forget a name animals - and he was witty, charismatic and very charmingI consider myself an animal lover. He appeared If I had to be a decent manchoose between the company of humans and the company of animals, with views with which I would have agreed on race, capital punishment and membership of the Common Market, as probably choose the European Union was then knownanimals. For I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to stop me but I was the nineteen sixties initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, chicken and Thorpe had entered Parliament at the age of thirty fish and by 1967 he would be party leaderI needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. On I suspected that making the surface he was a man who had everything going for himdecision would not be comfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241973740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Bakewell1523092734|title= At The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails|rating=4|genre= Politics and Society|summary= You know that old saying about judging books by their cover? Ignore it! I have found that by judging a book by its cover and getting it completely wrong is a great way to find yourself committed A Women's Guide to reading a book that you'd never have picked in a million years and yet, somehow, being amazingly glad you did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewClaiming Space|author=Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)|title=The Benn Diaries: The Definitive CollectionEliza Van Cort

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Tony Benn must be one of ''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD) ''To claim space is to live the most famous diarists life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to live the modern agelife you've always wanted. He kept '' Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a diary from his schooldays time when violence against women is much in the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009news, five years before his death. Benn was also a particularly charismatic politician: since my teens I've found myself listening 'A Women's Guide to him believing that I disagreed with what he was saying and then realising that perhaps we werenClaiming Space''t so far apart after allby Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thought. Of course the ideal way Now - to enjoy the diaries would be clear - this book is not a 'how to read the individual volumes, beginning disable your attacker with {{amazonurl|isbn=0099497719|title=Years Of Hopetwo simple jabs' manual: Diaries,Letters and Papers 1940-1962}}it's something far more effective, but thatdiscussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be 's a lengthy undertaking and 'protected'The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collection'. I' edited by Ruth Winstone gives you the opportunity ve always thought that women need to sample the best of the diaries in a mere seven hundred or so pages. Be warned though: there has been a previous {{amazonurl|isbn=0099634112|title=composite volume}}rise above this, also called to be people who don''The Benn Diaries'' and published in 1996t need protection, people who claim their own space. The current volume goes If all women did this, those few men who are violent to 2009women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330768</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Henning MankellPolly Barton|title= Quicksand|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= How do you judge a book? Not by its cover, we're told. In my case, often by the number of turned down corners or post-it-note-marked pages by the time I've finished reading it. Sometimes, by whether I worry about leaving its characters to fend for themselves while I take a break…or by how much of it stays with me afterwards or for how long. In this case, it doesn't matter. However, I judge ''Quicksand'' the judgement comes up the same. This collection of vignettes from an ageing, possibly dying, writer looking back on his own life is as powerful as it is simple, as easy to read as it is impossible to forget.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701564</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anne Glyn-Jones|title= Morse Code Wrens of Station XFifty Sounds|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Bletchley Park is probably now the least secret of all the secret ops that went on during World War II. I for one am pleased about that: technology has moved on so far that there can't be anything that happened back then on the communications front that is worth continuing to shroud in mystery. With most of the participants either departed or at least in the departure lounge, the more recollections we can still gather the better. What remained secret far longer however, is the work of the telegraphers that served Station X: those posted to the Y-stations. There are few of them left to tell their tales, so I applaud those who finally saw fit (a) to release them from their life-long bonds of secrecy and (b) encourage them to write it down, tell us what it was really like.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845409086</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Donald Naismith|title=A Bradford Apprenticeship|rating=4

|summary=Where do I start? I could start with all schools removed from their control where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and established as freestanding and selfif the world hadn't gone into melt-governing academiesdown I would have visited by now. In effect I may get there later this would (and possibly will) mean that what was once a national serviceyear, locally administered will become a local servicebut I am not hopeful. And like Barton, nationally administered. Donald Naismith is perhaps best known as I don't know the answer to the former Chief Education Officer of Richmond-upon-Thames, Croydon and then Wandsworth but his education and formative working years took place in his adopted home city of Bradford. In question ''A Bradford Apprenticeshipwhy Japan?'' he gives us an affectionate tribute to She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the city first essay, which made him what he is and his thoughts on the education system. Bradford was once one sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of the country's leading education authorities and he values the opportunities it gave him 'every party where you have to fine tune his thinkingintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524636118</amazonuk>1913097501

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Siri HustvedtStephen Fabes|title= A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex and the MindSigns of Life|rating= 45|genre= Politics and Society Travel|summary= I must confess that ''A Woman Looking'' spoke to me was brought up on a profoundmaps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, intimate levelI didn't inherit what Dr. This is in part due Stephen Fabes clearly had which was the guts to simply go out and do it. I also didn't inherit the apparent similarities between me kind of steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and Siri Hustvedt - we are both feminists who love art and also love science in a world which emphasises basic practicality that would have meant that these two passions are mutually exclusive. What Hustvedt suggests in I would have survived if I had been gifted with the requisite 'bottle'A Woman Looking'. In order words I' is that it is m not the similarities between these two areas we should emphasise sort of person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and not come home for six years. Fabes did precisely that a cohesive, inclusive approach towards art and science could help fill the gaps in both disciplines. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473638895</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=T J Coles1504321383|title=The Great Brexit Swindle: Why the Mega-Rich Single, Again, and Again, and Free Market Fanatics Conspired to Force Britain from the European UnionAgain|author=Louisa Pateman|rating=34.5|genre=Business and FinanceAutobiography|summary=''Have you been mis-sold Brexit by posh men in sharp suits promising you free healthcare? You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. If so, You are not complete until you might be entitled to compensation...find a man''.

There wasn't much could make me laugh on the morning after the EU referendum but this spoof advert on Twitter managed itThis was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. Only, it seems that it It wasn't completely a joke - well apart from the bit about compensation. In ''The Great Brexit Scandal'' T J Coles looks at unkind: it was simply the substantial core of free marketeers adults in the Conservative party who were determined to rid the UK of the Brussels red tape which was putting a brake on their activities. You might also know these views her life advising her as ''neoliberalism'', an ideology which looks to deregulate markets and maximise profitswhat they thought would be best for her. On It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the surface that doesngirl (she't sound bad, until you realise that the benefit will go to s usually fairly young) is rescued by the people handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are already in the group which Coles refers lucky enough to as the be brought up ''mega-richwithout'' and the losers expectation that they will be working peoplemarry and have children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570813</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Erin Moore|title= That's Not English|rating= 5|genre=Politics and Society|summary= It's not clear who first coined the expression ''divided by was a common language'' about Brits belief and Americans, but as this highly entertaining book demonstrates, it isnwould be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''t our language that divides us. On the contrary the language simply reflects the divisions that exist. We tend to watch a lot of TV at home, but rarely find anything that totally engrosses us. As a result we tend to talk over belief is a lot of TV. We play games with some of what we watch. One of those games is spotting anachronisms. Another is "would she ever have got the job" – particularly fun with crime programmes that think itchoice's ok for lab techs to have long free-flowing locks when doing evidence analysis or have Detective Sergeants who frankly wouldn't have passed their CV submission. A long-running one involves spotting the spread of British English in American TV shows. Erin Moore explains why. Not directly, indeed I'm not sure she even makes the connection – but the fact that there are a lot more Brits in the higher echelons of US TV-making might just explain why CSI, NCIS, Law and Order and a whole host of other shows will slip in words like wallet, handbag, boot (of a car), pavement…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701912</amazonuk>