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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Francis O'GormanEdward W Said|title=Forgetfulness: Making Representations of the Modern Culture of AmnesiaIntellectual

|summary=After a glut of books about mindfulness it came as something of a relief to encounter Edward Said's 'Forgetfulness'Representations of the Intellectual', Francis O'Gorman's thinking on why the twenty-first century is losing touch with the past, on why less a strict theory of what intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what is likely - or could they should be made - . Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to happen is so much more important than what has gone beforeother specialists. The book is supremely intelligentInstead, but with he insists on the knowledge worn lightly intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and unpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it's eminently readable, regardless of how you feel about the conclusions he drawsis inconvenient or risky. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1501324691</amazonuk>1804272248

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stuart MaconieAriel Saramandi|title= Long Road From JarrowPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating= 4.5|genre= Travel Politics and Society|summary= I cancelled my In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''Country Walkingrotting'' magazine subscription , a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about a year ago and by the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's column. His down-to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admitgovernmental dysfunction. Let's be honest, though, I picked Each essay in this one up because collection serves as a kind of someone else's reviewdiagnostic, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=1804271616}}{{Frontpage|author=Gregor Hens and Newton Aycliffe. Places I grew up in. Like Maconie I have no connection Jen Calleja (that I know oftranslator) to |title=The City and the World|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In ''The City and the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about it being World'', Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are physical ones. With a whole matrix of events reducible to one word deep affection for the urban landscapes that have shaped his life, Hens reflects on places like AberfanCologne, HillsboroughBerlin, or Orgreave'' then somehow it does become part and Goch on the Lower Rhine with a blend of my history toopersonal memory and thoughtful observation. TangentiallyHis writing, at leasttimes abstract, captures not just architectural features but the 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 into reflections of identity and belonging.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>1804271691

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Raymond WilliamsPaul B Preciado|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950Dysphoria Mundi|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary= From ''It is never too late to embrace the last decades revolutionary optimism of childhood''  Through this hybrid text, consisting of the eighteenth century arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the final words new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of modernismpolitical apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, this book tracks societal changes valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through exploring five key words: industry, democracy, class, art and culturethe tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The meanings whole text is framed against the backdrop of such thingsthe Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, their essencewhen dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, changes or as per their ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use and the era in which their implications were considereddysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>1804271454

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Patrick WestJacqueline Feldman|title= Get Over Yourself: Nietzsche for our timesPrecarious Lease|rating= 13.5|genre= Politics and SocietyBiography|summary= Get Over Yourself considers NietzscheThe title of this novel refers to a French legal term (''s imagined perceptions bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of modern society other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and uses our marginal members of society to explain his philosophy. I(as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, 'm sorry if that sounds vague but it's the best I can do from the blurb live on the back. After reading Get Over Yourself from cover to cover, I am still none margins of the wiser about margins of the purpose of this book. It appears margins''), Le Bloc was subject to be a series the continual threat of personal opinions held together with quotes, eviction and the pressures from above which donoppressed its inhabitants't always appear relevant, lives. We follow Le Bloc from Nietzscheits opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, Chumbawumba and newspaper articlesframed as a tragedy in this book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845409337</amazonuk>1804271403

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jenny LandrethClaire Dederer|title= SwellMonsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating= 53|genre= Politics and Society|summary= I love Jenny's own description of her book as Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This is more than just (I say ''justbiography of the audience''!) in a recollection deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the authorart from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women. Dederer's fight for work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the right to swimpage. That sounds absurd until you start reading about itIn particular, then it becomes serious. Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly the prologue packs a lover of punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the absurddirector Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. Not a lover This model of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's monstrous men''giggles-on-as she calls them, is consistent for the-commute funny''first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472938941</amazonuk>1399715070

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian LevyVirginie Despentes|title= The ExileKing Kong Theory|rating= 4|genre= Politics and SocietyAutobiography |summary= An account of the fate of Al Qaeda and the Bin Laden family since the events of 9/11, ''The ExileKing Kong Theory'' plunges into the murky waters of international terrorismis a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, espionage and politicswhich can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Detailed and meticulousOriginally written in French, the book tackles the subject from all angles, providing is a panoramic view collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the subject and acting complex prism of her varied life: from rape to enlighten sex work and inform pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the readerbook can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408858762</amazonuk>191309734X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emily Clarkson1009473085|title= Can I Speak to Someone in Charge?The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't''Can I Speak and that applies to Someone in Charge''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, blogger Emily ClarksonI don't think Anthony Seldon's debut book, is {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a fierce, witty compelling read and laugh-out-loud funny ode should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to feminismpolitics. In ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series of open letters, she addresses which looks at the issues faced by every modern woman, discussing everything from dealing with body hair to being impact a government has made to feel uncomfortable in and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the gym, as well as more personal issues, like her experiences of being 'catfished' and sent abuse onlinemost important. This is book follows the well-established format: a vital read for any girl born series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the 1990s, tackling some very serious social injustices beneath its fun exteriorsituation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471156907</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lauren ElkinAlastair Humphreys|title=Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and LondonLocal|rating=45|genre=History Travel |summary=Lauren Elkin is down on suburbs: they're places where you can't or shouldn't be seen walking; places where, Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the 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 fictionhis introduction, women who transgress boundaries are punished (thinking of everything from ''Madame Bovarythe book is an attempt '' to ''Revolutionary Road'')share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a small map. When she imagines to herself what the female version of that well-known historical figure Nature loss, pollution, the carefree ''flâneur''land use and access, might beagriculture, she thinks about women who freely wandered the worldfood system, rewilding…''s great cities without having One of the more insalubrious connotation joys of the word book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'streetwalkerright or wrong' applied , that every upside is likely to themhave a downside for somebody and that there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099593378</amazonuk>1785633678

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Saqib NoorEdel Rodriguez|title=Surgery on the Shoulders of GiantsWorm: Letters from a doctor abroadA Cuban American Odyssey

|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=The letters begin much We're in the fashion of any young man away from homechildhood, perhaps and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a quite exciting saviour of the country, writing back to family has proven himself a Communist, and friends not done nearly enough to tell them create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his experiences, the sights he's seen and the people he's metwere kind of taking his time away. ItOur narrator's just a little different family weren't in ''Surgery on the Shoulders happiest of Giants'' though: Saqib Noor is a junior doctorplaces here, training an uncle refusing to be an orthopaedic surgeon 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 over a period of ten years he visited six countrieswatched, and not as a tourist but to give medical assistanceliked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. They're countries which Noor describes as ''fourth world'' - third world The mother gets the couple jobs with added disaster - and their need is desperate.the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1521173192</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rebecca AsherSarah Wilson|title= Man UpThis One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating= 3.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary= When a couple of years ago My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my university introduced compulsory consent workshops along with an option of answer is 'good lad' sessions for boys, all debate broke looseThis! Precisely this. Shouldn't consent ' I'm lucky enough to be self-evident for everyone? Would living my one wild and precious life the workshops reinforce way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the stereotype of source) she pushes us to think about whether we really 'laddish' boys? Would it all are'' living the life we want – the best life that we could be about pointing fingers at boys and victimizing girls? What about non-binary people? In shortliving. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, how I) could these workshops be anything else than a mission doomed to failure?doing more…And she's effing furious about the fact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784701807</amazonuk>1785633848

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Grindrod1785633457|title= OutskirtsCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating= 45|genre =Animals and WildlifeTravel|summary=''Outskirts'' is an interesting take on Clive Wilkinson has a phenomenon history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the modern age: the introduction idea of exploring the green belt edges of countryside surrounding inner city housing estates. John Grindrod grew up on the edge of one such estate England in the 1960's and '70's, as he puts it, ''I grew up on the last road in Londonan electric car was not totally outrageous.'' Grindrod explores the introduction of the green beltIn fact, and the various fights and developments it has gone through over the subsequent decades, as environmental should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and political arguments have affected planning decisions. Within this topichis wife, he has somehow managed to wind around his personal memories of childhoodJoan, producing a memoir with a lot of heart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473625025</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Carolina de Robertis1529153050|title= Radical HopeBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating= 4|genre= Politics and SocietyHumour|summary= On 8th November 2016Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, Donald Trump I was elected as the 46th President nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of the United States2022''. Since then many Americans Sharp eyes will have been overcome with fear, worrying about what will become of American society during Trumpnoted that we's administration. Carolina de Robertis was no exception to this fear and in response to re not yet through the newly elected President and his policies she put out a call for action. Radical Hope is year: the outcome cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to this call31 August 2022. De Robertis reached out to fellow writers and activists asking for letters, predominantly letters of love, addressed Who can imagine what there will be to come in the citizens of today and those of past and future generations in order to help spread hope during times of uncertainty.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349010102</amazonuk>2023 edition?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew d'AnconaB0B7289HKQ|title=Post-TruthConversations Across America: The New War on Truth A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and How to Fight Back300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Kari Loya|rating=3.54|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=''Our own post-truth era is what happens when society relaxes its defence of values Kari (that underpin cohesionrhymes with ‘sorry’, namely veracity, honesty by the way) wanted to spend some time with his father and accountabilitythe period between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it.'' I'm old enough or perhaps naive enough The decision was made to believe that when making a decision about political votingride the Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, you should be able Virginia to rely absolutely on what the candidate tells you. I've been suspicious for a decade or moreAstoria, but Oregon - all 4250 miles of it's become difficult to ignore the change - in political attitudes since Brexit and the election of Donald Trump2015. With regard They had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the latter, when Trump was challenged on recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a statement he'd made which was subsequently found to challenge that it would be incorrect, his response was ''Who cares if I got for most people who considered taking it wrong?'' on. He Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was able to tap to the fading concept of 'the American Dream' suffering from early- those Americans who were used to waiting patiently in line and who had found themselves overtaken by ''women, immigrants and public sector workers'stage Alzheimer's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785036874</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stephen Moss1739593901|title= Wild Kingdom: Bringing Back Britain's Wildlife22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= Animals and WildlifeScience Fiction|summary= Wildlife has been declining in Britain over the last few decades; it is an unfortunate by''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-product vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of human population growth, which in confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the modern world has increased significantlybook. Through this book Moss suggests There's got to be a few ways in which we can start very compelling hook to bring back some of Britainkeep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's wildlife without compromising the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human way beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of life: we can coa book of twenty-exist with naturetwo science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581639</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick CleggJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=Politics: Between the ExtremesThe Book of Hope |rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The political landscape done thing is changing rapidly at to read a book all the momentway through before you sit down to review it. A little more than two years ago we were facing the end I’m making an exception here, because I don’t want to lose any of the UK's first coalition government since World War II and fully expecting that we would see another. Instead we saw a Conservative government elected with a workable majority. Brexit saw the end experience of one Prime Minister and another elected by a few members of parliamentreading this amazing book, I want to capture it as it hits me. As I write we're facing another general election, with a Conservative landslide predictedAnd it is hitting me. In two years we've seen the Liberal Democrats collapse from being part of the ruling coalition to a party whose MPs could hold a meeting This beautiful book has me in a decent-sized cartears.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784704164</amazonuk>024147857X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jess Phillips1788360737|title= EverywomanArtivism: One Woman's Truth About Speaking The Battle for Museums in the TruthEra of Postmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating=3.52

|summary=''Everywoman'' announces itself proudly, with Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a chapter named ''The Truth about Speaking up''vacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the social environment in which he develops’’. Jess PhillipsTherefore, all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, tells us many times Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that she art is freer when it is ''gobby'' art for art’s sake. The recent trend of so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and that she has progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398508632|title=The Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=It had been on the cards for a loud voicewhile but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. Her voice does come through The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, clear in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and urgenta pandemic. Using Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her journey to Westminster run a fridge, freezer and her experiences in Parliamentdehydrator. She had a car - and fuel. Most importantly, Phillips teaches the reader the truths shehad shelter: this was not a plan to ''live''s learned on her journeywild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330776</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tormod V Burkey1529149800|title=Ethics for a Full World or, Things You Can Animal-Lovers Save the World?Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre= Animals Home and WildlifeFamily|summary= Burkey argues that man's current practices are outside We begin with a telling story. All the birds and animals fled when the realms forest fire took hold and most of naturethem stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do. He is no longer part The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the ecosystemfire. The animals laughed: what good was that doing. ''I'm doing the best I can'', but instead exists above it through his dominating wayssaid the hummingbird. He And that, really, is himself distanced even further the only way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by advancement in technologieseach of us doing what we can, however small that might be.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1638485216|title=Black, industryWhite, money and all the pollution that comes Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with themcharacter. Period.'' ''One more body just wouldn't matter''.  The natural worldmurder of George Floyd, Burkey arguesa forty-six-year-old black man, no longer exists for man because he has altered it on 25 May 2020 by such things. IndeedDerek Chauvin, global warming has caused climate changea forty-four-year-old police officer, which, if it continues, will make in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world unrecognisable. For We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the world to become fuller, for it to be protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a world that seeks to provide for backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the needs of every living thing, then it needs to changeChauvin brush. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570856</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella BlumMatthieu Aikins|title= The Future of Violence - Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones: Confronting Naked Don't Fear the New Age of ThreatWater|rating= 4.5

|summary=Looking back over this monthIt's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the Water isn't actually fiction, April 2017, the news has been full of terrorist attacks perpetrated because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by lone individuals. A suicide bombing on the St Petersburg Metro killed 15 people and injured 64 more. In Stockholm, Swedenany means a criticism, but rather a hijacked truck steered into testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a pedestrian shopping area and department store. Most recently, Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a shooting in Paris just two days ago, claimed the life of refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a police officer vast and injured several othersat times painful journey. Whilst it is true that governments have access to impressive, cutting-There are tense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge technology to combat terrorism, the whole way through. But it is also 's written with a fact haunting and almost lyrical quality that these resources are becoming increasingly available allows the reader to individualsperfectly envisage the environments and people described. At what cost?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445655934</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lynn Knight1785633074|title= The Button BoxStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryHumour|summary= Buttons are the underdogs Members of Parliament like us to believe that the clothing world: dismissed as functional elements of clothingcountry is run by politicians, falling into headed by the same dustbin category with zips Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you who are Eton and shoe laces, they tend to be seen as necessary for keeping clothes on, rather than contributors to style. But Lynn Knight Oxbridge educated) but the reality is set to prove that the opposite is true''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. We think nothing are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of lacing discussions about clothing and feminism with headscarvesRafe Hubris, bikinis, and underweight models – and buttons deserve a place on the pedestal man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of gender discussion, too2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593092</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Paul Flynn1846276772|title= Good As YouThe End of Bias: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay BritainHow We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell|rating= 4.5|genre= History Politics and Society|summary=The last 30 years have seen a tidal wave of change sweep Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the country with regards extent to how gay people are perceived and accepted. In 1984, the pulsing electronic beats of which they suffer from it: it''Smalltown Boy'' became an anthem to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading s simply a climate part of panic and fear across everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the nationdisabled. Jobs, and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later thoughpromotions, higher salaries are the long road to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion preserve of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smithwhite man. This is Even when those who wouldn't pass the story medical become a part of Britainan organisation it's brothersrare that their views are heard, sons, cousins, fathers and husbandsthat their concerns are acknowledged. Of public outrage It's personally appalling and personal loss, degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of the (bias but it's not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and just the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As Youindividuals who are negatively impacted. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mark Aylwin Thomas1529148251|title= Blades of GrassMisfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela Coel|rating= 4.5|genre= BiographyPolitics and Society|summary= Any book that has me in tears at the end has been worth my time. ''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? Any book that has me hoping it will end differently to It's as though I were telling the way I know truth whilst simultaneously running away from it must is worth the .'' Before you start reading''Misfits'' you need to be in a certain frame of mind. Any You're not going to read a 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 now, there is of essays or a common humanity self-help book. You're going to read writing which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that is worth was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the writing and television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. You might be ''reading and '' the time. Blades of Grass is one such book. Itbut you need to ''listen''s a forgotten story, an unknown story to most peoplethe words as though you're in the lecture theatre. It is one that should The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be told – and reflected uponcarried on a cloud of exquisite writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Preston0008350388|title=A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the EstablishmentWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba

|genre=True CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Jeremy Thorpe was the sort ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of person who was generally liked colour while only 7% study a book by othersa woman. '' He ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was flamboyant five years old. Her sisters were seven and gregarious but could give the impression that meeting someone had made his daynine. He never seemed to forget a name and he It was wittyher mother who came first, charismatic and very charmingwith her father joining them later. He appeared to be a decent manThe family was hard-working, with views with which I principled and determined that their children would have agreed on race, capital punishment and membership the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of the Common Market, as the European Union anything: it was then knownsimply carefully harvested. For this When Otegha was ten the nineteen sixties and Thorpe had entered Parliament at the age of thirty and by 1967 he would be party leaderfamily acquired a car. On the surface he was For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a man who had everything going for himplace at New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241973740</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah BakewellRichard Brook|title= At The Existentialist CaféUnderstanding Human Nature: Freedom, Being and Apricot CocktailsA User's Guide to Life|rating=4.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary= You know I am a firm believer that old saying about judging sometimes we choose books by their cover? , and sometimes books choose us. Ignore it! In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I 'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way that by judging it does now. I believe it came to me not just because I was likely to give it a book by its cover and favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting it completely wrong them randomly, so there is a great way predisposition towards expecting to find yourself committed to reading a like the book , even if it doesn't always turn out that youway''d never have picked in ] – but also because it is a million years and yet, somehowbook I needed to read, being amazingly glad you didright now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>1800461682

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)1787332098|title=The Benn Diaries: The Definitive CollectionHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Tony Benn must be one ''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 most famous diarists of the modern agenext David Attenborough series.'' I was going to argue. He kept a diary from his schooldays in the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009I mean, five years before his deathcows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat. Benn was also a particularly charismatic politician: since ..) and I much prefer my teens elephants in the wild but then I've found myself listening to him believing realised that I disagreed with what he was saying and then realising that perhaps we weren't so far apart after allquibbling for the sake of it. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thoughtEssentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. Of course If I had to choose between the ideal way to enjoy company of humans and the diaries company of animals, I would be to read probably choose the individual volumes, beginning with {{amazonurl|isbn=0099497719|title=Years Of Hope: Diaries,Letters and Papers 1940-1962}}, but animals. I insisted that's a lengthy undertaking and ''The Benn DiariesI read this book: The Definitive Collection'' edited by Ruth Winstone gives you the opportunity no one was trying to sample the best of the diaries in a mere seven hundred or so pagesstop me but I was initially reluctant. Be warned though: there has been a previous {{amazonurl|isbn=0099634112|title=composite volume}}I eat cheese, eggs, also called ''The Benn Diaries'' chicken and fish and published in 1996I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. The current volume goes to 2009I suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330768</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Henning Mankell1523092734|title= QuicksandA Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort|rating= 5|genre= AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary= How do you judge ''She brings a book? Not by its coverhug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, weCirque du Soleil RSD) ''re toldTo claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. In my case, often by It is to live the number of turned down corners or post-it-note-marked pages by the time Ilife you've finished reading italways wanted. '' Sometimesthe reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by whether I worry about leaving its characters Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to fend for themselves while I take be clear - this book is not a break…or by 'how much of it stays to disable your attacker with me afterwards or for how long. In this case, two simple jabs' manual: it doesn't matter. Howevers something far more effective, I judge but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''Quicksandprotected'' the judgement comes up the same. This collection of vignettes from an ageingI've always thought that women need to rise above this, possibly dyingto be people who don't need protection, writer looking back on his people who claim their own life is as powerful as it is simplespace. If all women did this, as those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to read as it is impossible be used to forgetprove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701564</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Anne Glyn-JonesPolly Barton|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 where Barton herself starts, with all schools removed from their control 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 of the countrysound 's leading education authorities and he values the opportunities it gave him to fine tune his thinking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524636118</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Siri Hustvedt|title= A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex and the Mind|rating= 4|genre= Politics and Society |summary= I must confess that 'giro'A Woman Looking'' spoke to me on a profound– which she describes as being, among other things, intimate level. This is in part due to the apparent similarities between me and Siri Hustvedt - we are both feminists who love art and also love science in a world which emphasises that these two passions are mutually exclusive. What Hustvedt suggests in sound of ''A Woman Lookingevery party where you have to introduce yourself'' is that it is the similarities between these two areas we should emphasise and that a cohesive, inclusive approach towards art and science could help fill the gaps in both disciplines. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473638895</amazonuk>1913097501