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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jenny LandrethEdward W Said|title= SwellRepresentations of the Intellectual |rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary= I love JennyEdward Said's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This is more than just (I say ''just''!) a recollection Representations of the authorIntellectual's own encounters with water; it's also is less a history strict theory of women's fight what intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the right comfortable image of the intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to swimother specialists. That sounds absurd until you start reading about itInstead, then it becomes serious. Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of he insists on the absurd. Not intellectual as a lover of book blurbs myselfpublic figure, often awkward, abrasive, and unpopular, I do always seek to give a shout-out who speaks truth to those who get power even when it dead right: in this case I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's ''giggles-on-the-commute funny''is inconvenient or risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472938941</amazonuk>1804272248

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian LevyAriel Saramandi|title= The ExilePortrait of an Island on Fire|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary= An account In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the fate sociopolitical fabric of Al Qaeda and the Bin Laden family since the events of 9/11Mauritius, ''The Exile'' plunges tunneling deep into the murky waters of international terrorism, espionage wounds left by colonialism and politicsslavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Detailed and meticulous, Saramandi describes the book tackles the subject from all angles, providing a panoramic view of the subject and acting to enlighten and inform the reader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858762</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Emily Clarkson|title= Can I Speak to Someone in Charge?|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary=country at one stage as ''Can I Speak to Someone in Charge?'rotting', blogger Emily Clarkson's debut book, is a fierce, witty and laugh-out-loud funny ode to feminism. In a series of open letters, she addresses blunt yet apt metaphor for the issues faced systemic decay brought about by every modern woman, discussing everything from dealing with body hair to being made to feel uncomfortable in the gymmalignant forces of racism, as well as more personal issuespatriarchy, like her experiences of being 'catfished' environmental degradation and sent abuse onlinegovernmental dysfunction. This is Each essay in this collection serves as a vital read for any girl born in kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the 1990s, tackling some very serious social injustices beneath its fun exteriorisland state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471156907</amazonuk>1804271616

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lauren ElkinGregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title=Flaneuse: Women Walk the The City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and Londonthe World

|genre=History Politics and Society|summary=Lauren Elkin is down on suburbs: theyIn ''re places where you canThe City and the World't or shouldn't be seen walking; places where, in fiction, women who transgress boundaries Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are punished (thinking of everything from ''Madame Bovary'' to ''Revolutionary Road'')physical ones. When she imagines to herself what With a deep affection for the female version of urban landscapes that well-known historical figurehave shaped his life, Hens reflects on places like Cologne, Berlin, and Goch on the carefree ''flâneur''Lower Rhine with a blend of personal memory and thoughtful observation. His writing, might beat times abstract, she thinks about women who freely wandered captures not just architectural features but the world's great emotional and mental geographies tied to each location, for example, his perspectives as a child as opposed to as an adult. From Belgium and Germany to Berkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a map of experiences, turning cities without having the more insalubrious connotation into reflections of the word 'streetwalker' applied to themidentity and belonging.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099593378</amazonuk>1804271691

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Saqib NoorPaul B Preciado|title=Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants: Letters from a doctor abroadDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=The letters begin much in ''It is never too late to embrace the fashion revolutionary optimism of any young man away from homechildhood''  Through this hybrid text, perhaps in a quite exciting countryconsisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, writing back to family and friends brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to tell them the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of his experiencespolitical apathy. Rather, it is the sights heproportional, valid response to ''s seen the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the people hetension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present's met. It's just a little different in which Preciado calls ''Surgery on the Shoulders of Giantsdysphoria mundi'' though: Saqib Noor . The whole text is a junior doctorframed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, training when dysphoria began to be an orthopaedic surgeon and over emerge on a period of ten years he visited six countriesglobal scale, not or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a tourist but sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to give medical assistance. They're countries which Noor describes 'use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''fourth world'' - third world with added disaster - and their need is desperate.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1521173192</amazonuk>1804271454

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rebecca AsherJacqueline Feldman|title= Man UpPrecarious Lease|rating= 3.5|genre= Politics and SocietyBiography|summary= When The title of this novel refers to a couple French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of years ago my university introduced compulsory consent workshops along with massive proportions which adopted an option of 'good lad' sessions almost mythical status for boysits inhabitants, all debate broke looseadmirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. ShouldnSomething like a haven for artists and marginal members of society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, 't consent be self-evident for everyone? Would 'I live on the workshops reinforce margins of the stereotype margins of the margins'laddish' boys? Would it all be about pointing fingers at boys ), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and victimizing girls? What about non-binary people? In shortthe pressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, how could these workshops be anything else than framed as a mission doomed to failure?tragedy in this book. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784701807</amazonuk>1804271403

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= John GrindrodClaire Dederer|title= OutskirtsMonsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating= 43|genre =Animals Politics and WildlifeSociety|summary=Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''Outskirtsbiography of the audience'' is an interesting take on in a phenomenon deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the modern age: the introduction old aphorism of separating the green belt of countryside surrounding inner city housing estates. John Grindrod grew up on art from the edge of one such estate artist in the 1960context of contemporary ''s and cancel culture'70'. Dederer'swork is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, as he puts itan artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''I grew up on the last road in London.monstrous men'' Grindrod explores as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the introduction likes of the green beltWoody Allen, Michael Jackson and the various fights Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and developments maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it has gone through over the subsequent decadesso dearly, as environmental and political arguments have affected planning decisions. Within this topic, he has somehow managed to wind around his a personal memories of childhood, producing a memoir with a lot of heartrather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473625025</amazonuk>1399715070

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Carolina de RobertisVirginie Despentes|title= Radical HopeKing Kong Theory|rating= 4|genre= Politics and SocietyAutobiography |summary= On 8th November 2016''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, Donald Trump was elected which can be seen as the 46th President of the United Statesa call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Since then many Americans have been overcome with fearOriginally written in French, worrying about what will become the book is a collection of American society during Trump's administration. Carolina de Robertis was no exception to this fear and essays in response to the newly elected President and his policies she put out which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a call for action. Radical Hope is woman through the outcome complex prism of her varied life: from rape to this callsex work and pornography. De Robertis reached out to fellow writers and activists asking for lettersThough these discussions are intertwined, predominantly letters of lovetheir placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, addressed to the citizens a reflection of today and those of past and future generations in order to help spread hope during times of uncertaintytheir original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349010102</amazonuk>191309734X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew d'Ancona1009473085|title=PostThe Conservative Effect 2010 -Truth: The New War on Truth 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and How to Fight BackTom Egerton (Editors)|rating=3.5

|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'Our own post' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 -truth era is what happens when society relaxes its defence of values that underpin cohesion, namely veracity, honesty and accountability.14 Wasted Years?''. IIf you'm old enough or perhaps naive enough to believe that when making a decision re looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about political votingwhat ''really'' happened on certain occasions, you should be able to rely absolutely on what then this isn't the candidate tells book for you. IIf that's what you've been suspicious re looking for a decade or more, but itI don't think Anthony Seldon's become difficult to ignore the change in political attitudes since Brexit and the election of Donald Trumpbook, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. With regard to the latter, when Trump was challenged on It's a statement he'd made which was subsequently found compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to be incorrect, his response was politics. ''Who cares if I got it wrong?The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. He was able to tap to It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the fading concept state of 'the American Dream' - those Americans who were used to waiting patiently nation when the coalition took over in line and who had found themselves overtaken by ''women2010, immigrants the changes that occurred and public sector workers''the situation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785036874</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stephen MossAlastair Humphreys|title= Wild Kingdom: Bringing Back Britain's WildlifeLocal|rating= 45|genre= Animals and WildlifeTravel |summary= Wildlife Alastair Humphreys has been declining in Britain walked and cycled all over the last few decades; world. And then written about it is an unfortunate by-product of human population growth, which in the modern world has increased significantly. Through For this book Moss suggests a few ways he walked and cycled very close to home and then wrote about it. As he says in which we can start his introduction, the book is an attempt ''to bring back share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. Nature loss, pollution, land use and access, agriculture, the food system, rewilding…'' One of the joys of Britain's wildlife without compromising the human way book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of life: we can co-exist with naturethese things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581639</amazonuk>1785633678

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick CleggEdel Rodriguez|title=PoliticsWorm: Between the ExtremesA Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyGraphic Novels|summary=The political landscape is changing rapidly at the moment. A little more than two years ago we were facing the end of the UKWe's first coalition government since World War II re in childhood, and fully expecting that we would see another're in Cuba. Instead we saw The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Conservative government elected with Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a workable majoritylevel playing field for all. Brexit saw the end Well, those hours-long speeches of one Prime Minister and another elected by a few members his were kind of parliamenttaking his time away. As I write weOur narrator's family weren're facing another general electiont in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, with a Conservative landslide predictedsuccess being frowned upon. In two years we've seen The mother gets the couple jobs with the Liberal Democrats collapse from being part party to ease some of the ruling coalition to a party whose MPs could hold a meeting heat, but in a decent-sized car.this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784704164</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jess PhillipsSarah Wilson|title= EverywomanThis One Wild and Precious Life: One Woman's Truth About Speaking the Truthpath back to connection in a fractured world

|genre= Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''EverywomanWhat is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ' announces itself proudly, with a chapter named 'This! Precisely this.'The Truth about Speaking up' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. Jess Phillips, In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, tells source) she pushes us many times that she is to think about whether we really ''gobbyare'' and living the life we want – the best life that she has a loud voicewe could be living. Her voice does come throughanswer is an unequivocal ''no, clear and urgentwe are not''. Using her journey to Westminster and her experiences in Parliament Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, Phillips teaches the reader the truths I) could be doing more…And she's learned on her journeyeffing furious about the fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786330776</amazonuk>1785633848}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tormod V Burkey1529153050|title=Ethics for a Full World or, Can Animal-Lovers Save the World?Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson

|genre= Animals and WildlifeHumour|summary= Burkey argues that manSeeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, I was nudged towards ''Britain's current practices are outside the realms Best Political Cartoons of nature2022''. He is no longer part of Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the ecosystem, but instead exists above it through his dominating ways. He is himself distanced even further by advancement in technologies, industry, money and all year: the pollution that comes with themcartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. The natural world, Burkey argues, no longer exists for man because he has altered it by such things. Indeed, global warming has caused climate change, which, if it continues, Who can imagine what there will make the world unrecognisable. For the world to become fuller, for it to be a world that seeks to provide for come in the needs of every living thing, then it needs to change. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570856</amazonuk>2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella BlumB0B7289HKQ|title= The Future of Violence - Robots Conversations Across America: A Father and GermsSon, Alzheimer's, Hackers and Drones: Confronting 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the New Age Soul of ThreatAmerica|author=Kari Loya|rating= 4|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=Looking back over this monthKari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, April 2017, the news has been full of terrorist attacks perpetrated by lone individuals. A suicide bombing on the St Petersburg Metro killed 15 people way) wanted to spend some time with his father and injured 64 more. In Stockholm, Sweden, the period between two jobs seemed like a hijacked truck steered into a pedestrian shopping area and department storegood time to do it. Most recently The decision was made to ride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, a shooting in Paris just two days agoVirginia to Astoria, claimed the life Oregon - all 4250 miles of a police officer and injured several others. Whilst it is true that governments have access to impressive, cutting-edge technology in 2015. They had 73 days to combat terrorism, do it is also - slightly less than the recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a fact challenge that these resources are becoming increasingly available to individualsit would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's. At what cost?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445655934</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lynn Knight1739593901|title= 22 Ideas About The Button BoxFuture|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= HistoryScience Fiction|summary= Buttons are the underdogs of the clothing world: dismissed as functional elements ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of clothingflying cars, falling into the same dustbin category we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with zips geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and shoe laces, they tend then forget to return to the book. There's got to be seen as necessary for keeping clothes on, rather than contributors a very compelling hook to stylekeep me engaged. But Lynn Knight is set to prove that Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the opposite is trueworld scape are purely incidental. We So, what did I think nothing of lacing discussions about clothing and feminism with headscarves, bikinis, and underweight models – and buttons deserve a place on the pedestal book of gender discussiontwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, tooI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593092</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paul FlynnJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title= Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years The Book of Gay BritainHope |rating= 5|genre= History Politics and Society |summary=The last 30 years have seen done thing is to read a tidal wave of change sweep book all the country with regards way through before you sit down to how gay people are perceived and acceptedreview it. In 1984I’m making an exception here, the pulsing electronic beats of ''Smalltown Boy'' became an anthem because I don’t want to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading a climate lose any of panic and fear across the nation, and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later thoughexperience of reading this amazing book, the long road I want to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists capture it as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smithit hits me. This And it is the story of Britain's brothers, sons, cousins, fathers and husbandshitting me. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As YouThis beautiful book has me in tears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>024147857X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mark Aylwin Thomas1788360737|title= Blades Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of GrassPostmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating= 4.52|genre= BiographyPolitics and Society|summary= Any book that has me Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in tears at the end has been worth my timea vacuum. It is made by people. Any book Antonio Gramsci stated that has me hoping it will end differently ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the way I know it social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must is worth the readingbe political, even implicitly. Any Alexander Adams in his new book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the world – Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that for all the mistakes made thus far, still being made right now, there art is a common humanity which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that freer when it is worth the writing and the reading and the timeart for art’s sake. Blades The recent trend of Grass is one such bookso-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). It's Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a forgotten story, an unknown story to most peoplemore globalist and progressive regime. It is one that should be told – and reflected uponOr at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Preston1398508632|title=A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the EstablishmentThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde

|genre=True CrimeLifestyle|summary=Jeremy Thorpe It had been on the cards for a while but it was the sort week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of person who was generally liked by otherseating only wild food. He The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was flamboyant and gregarious but could give perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the impression that meeting someone normal sores had made his daybeen exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. He never seemed to forget Wilde had a name and he few advantages: the area around her was witty, charismatic and very charminga known habitat with a variety of terrains. He appeared She had electricity which allowed her to be run a decent man, with views with which I would have agreed on racefridge, capital punishment freezer and membership of the Common Market, as the European Union was then knowndehydrator. For this was the nineteen sixties and Thorpe She had entered Parliament at the age of thirty a car - and by 1967 he would be party leaderfuel. On the surface he Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a man who had everything going for himplan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241973740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Bakewell1529149800|title= At The Existentialist CaféThings You Can Do: Freedom, Being How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Apricot CocktailsSara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre= Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary= You know We begin with a telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do. The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that old saying about judging books by their cover? doing. Ignore it! ''I have found 'm doing the best I can'', said the hummingbird. And that by judging a book by its cover and getting it completely wrong , really, is a great the only way to find yourself committed to reading a book that you'd never have picked in a million years and yetwe will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, somehow, being amazingly glad you didhowever small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)1638485216|title=The Benn DiariesBlack, White, and Gray All Over: The Definitive CollectionA Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Tony Benn must be one ''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has 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 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the most famous diarists US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the modern ageworld. He kept We rarely see pictures of a diary from his schooldays in the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009, five years before his murder taking place but Floyd's deathwas an exception. Benn was also a particularly charismatic politician: since my teens The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I've found myself listening to him believing that I disagreed with what he was saying ll ever forget and then realising that perhaps we weren't so far apart after allthe protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thought. Of course the ideal way to enjoy the diaries would be to read There was a backlash against the individual volumes, beginning with {{amazonurl|isbn=0099497719|title=Years Of Hope: Diaries,Letters and Papers 1940police -1962}}, but that's a lengthy undertaking and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collectionall'' edited tarred by Ruth Winstone gives you the opportunity to sample the best of the diaries in a mere seven hundred or so pagesChauvin brush. Be warned though: there has been a previous }}{{amazonurlFrontpage|isbnauthor=0099634112Matthieu Aikins|title=composite volume}}, also called The Naked Don't Fear the Water|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The Benn DiariesNaked Don't Fear the Water isn' t actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by any means a criticism, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and published in 1996gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. The current volume goes But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to 2009perfectly envisage the environments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786330768</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Henning Mankell1785633074|title= QuicksandStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating= 4.5|genre= AutobiographyHumour|summary= How do you judge a book? Not Members of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by its coverpoliticians, we're told. In my case, often headed by the number of turned down corners or postPrime minister -it-note-marked pages by the time I've finished reading it. Sometimes, by whether I worry about leaving its characters to fend 'primus inter pares'' (that's for themselves while I take a break…or by how much those of it stays with me afterwards or for how long. In this case, it doesnyou who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the 't matter. However, I judge ''Quicksandprime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the judgement comes up driving force behind the samegovernment. This collection We are in the privileged position of vignettes from an ageinghaving access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, possibly dying, writer looking back on his own life is as powerful as it is simple, as easy to read as it is impossible the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to forgetwatch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701564</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anne Glyn-Jones1846276772|title= Morse Code Wrens The End of Station XBias: How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryPolitics and Society|summary= Bletchley Park Anyone who is probably now not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the least secret extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of all the secret ops that went on during World War IIeveryday life. 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 mysteryWhite men will always come first. With most of the participants either departed or at least in The able will come before the departure lounge, the more recollections we can still gather the betterdisabled. What remained secret far longer howeverJobs, promotions, is higher salaries are the work preserve of the telegraphers that served Station X: white man. Even when those posted to who wouldn't pass the Y-stations. There are few medical become a part of them left to tell an organisation it's rare that their talesviews are heard, so I applaud those who finally saw fit (a) to release them from that their life-long bonds concerns are acknowledged. It's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of secrecy and (b) encourage them to write the bias but it down, tell us what it was really like's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845409086</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Donald Naismith1529148251|title=Misfits: A Bradford ApprenticeshipPersonal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel|rating=45

|summary=with all schools removed from their control ''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and established poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as freestanding and though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.'' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of mind. You're not going to read a book of essays or a self-governing academieshelp book. In effect this would (and possibly will) mean that what You're going to read writing which was once a national service, locally administered will become a local service, nationally administeredinspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Donald Naismith is perhaps best known as You might be ''reading'' the former Chief Education Officer of Richmond-upon-Thames, Croydon and then Wandsworth book but his education and formative working years took place in his adopted home city of Bradford. In you need to ''A Bradford Apprenticeshiplisten'' he gives us an affectionate tribute to the city which made him what he is and his thoughts on words as though you're in the education systemlecture theatre. Bradford was once one The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud of the country's leading education authorities and he values the opportunities it gave him to fine tune his thinkingexquisite writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524636118</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Siri Hustvedt0008350388|title= A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex and the MindWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating= 45|genre= Politics and Society |summary= I must confess that ''A Woman Looking'' spoke to me on To be a profound, intimate level. This dark-skinned Black woman is in part due to the apparent similarities between me be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and Siri Hustvedt ultimately less valuable than my light- we are both feminists who love art and also love science skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a world which emphasises that these two passions are mutually exclusivebook by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. What Hustvedt suggests in ''A Woman Looking ''The Bookseller'' is 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled 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 is was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the similarities between these two areas we should emphasise family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and that then a cohesiveplace at New College, inclusive approach towards art and science could help fill the gaps in both disciplinesOxford. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473638895</amazonuk>

There wasn{{Frontpage|author=Richard Brook|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User't much could make me laugh on s Guide to Life|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the morning after the EU referendum but latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this spoof advert on Twitter managed book I'd have skimmed it. Only, found some of it seems that interesting, but it wasn't completely a joke - well apart from the bit about compensation. In ''The Great Brexit Scandalwould not have 'hit home' T J Coles looks at the substantial core of free marketeers in the Conservative party who were determined way that it does now. I believe it came to rid the UK of the Brussels red tape which me not just because I was putting likely to give it a brake on their activities. You might also know these views as favourable review [ ''neoliberalism'full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, an ideology which looks so there is a predisposition towards expecting to deregulate markets and maximise profits. On like the surface that book, even if it doesn't sound bad, until you realise always turn out that the benefit will go to the people who are already in the group which Coles refers to as the way''mega-rich'' and the losers will be working people] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905570813</amazonuk>1800461682

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Erin Moore1787332098|title= That's Not EnglishHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance|rating= 5

|summary=It's not clear who first coined the expression ''divided by a common language'' When we do think about Brits 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 Americansmillions of wild animals stay out there, but as this highly entertaining book demonstrates''somewhere, it isn't our language that divides us. On ' hopefully on the contrary the language simply reflects the divisions that existnext David Attenborough series. We tend '' I was going to watch a lot of TV at homeargue. I mean, but rarely find anything that totally engrosses uscows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat. As a result we tend to talk over a lot of TV. We play games with some of what we watch. One ) and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of those games is spotting anachronismsit. Another is "would she ever have got the job" – particularly fun with crime programmes Essentially that think it's ok for lab techs quote sums up my attitude to have long freeanimals -flowing locks when doing evidence analysis or have Detective Sergeants who frankly wouldn't have passed their CV submissionand I consider myself an animal lover. A long-running one involves spotting If I had to choose between the company of humans and the spread company of British English in American TV showsanimals, I would probably choose the animals. Erin Moore explains whyI insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to stop me but I was initially reluctant. 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 CSIeat cheese, NCISeggs, Law chicken and Order fish and a whole host of other shows will slip in words like wallet, handbag, boot (of a car), pavement…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701912</amazonuk>I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris McIvor1523092734|title=The World is ElsewhereA Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort

|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=As ''She brings a Country Director, Chris McIvor has worked for a number of years at Save the Childrenhug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again. 'The World is Elsewhere' covers his time there and(Alma Derricks, former CMO, his journeys across a number of countries. It Cirque du Soleil RSD) ''To claim space is a beautiful mix to live the life of autobiography choosing unapologetically and travelbravely. It also captures his philosophical thoughts on international aidis to live the life you've always wanted. He reflects on both '' Sometimes the good and reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the bad news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with a very easytwo simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, conversational writing style that makes but discussion at the book truly captivatingmoment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''. I read from cover 've always thought that women need to rise above this, to cover in a single sittingbe people who don't need protection, unusual for a reviewerpeople who claim their own space. Such was the draw as he laid himself bare If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124346</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Anna BikontPolly Barton|title= The Crime and the SilenceFifty Sounds|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryPolitics and Society|summary= Where was your fatherdo I start? Where was your brotherI could start with where Barton herself starts, your mother, your unclewith the question ''Why Japan? These are '' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the questions Anna Bikont struggles to ask during her investigation world hadn't gone into a shocking act of violence committed against the Jewish community in Jedwabne during the summer of 1941melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. The Crime and the Silence weaves together journalsAnd like Barton, interviews and pictures to share I don't know the story of a community torn apart by hatred and intolerance. It is also a moving testament answer to the dedication question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of Bikont, who documents her struggle to find the truth with grace and dignity question in the face of silencefirst essay, rationalisationwhich is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, and even angeramong other things, from members of the Polish community who would rather not stir up the crimes sound of the past''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099592525</amazonuk>1913097501