I admit it: I like reading books about ageing, life extension, and immortality. These seem to fall into two categories. Some authors expect to live forever because of the vitamin cocktails they drink every morning…Read more…
Myanmar: A challenge for the world’s unions
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) exists to certify that products coming from the world’s forests are produced responsibly. You may never had heard about the FSC, but if you look around your home, you’ll see…Read more…
Review: Some Service to the State, by Aidan McQuade
Aidan McQuade’s first novel, The Undiscovered Country (2020), was a bit of a hybrid — part crime novel, part history of Ireland in the period just after Partition. It was terrific because McQuade is both…Read more…
Review: The Winter Queen, by Boris Akunin
I read this book, the first in the series of 13 novels about the late 19th century Russian detective Erast Fandorin, when it first appeared some twenty years ago. I remember little about the plot,…Read more…
Review: Letter of an Old Bolshevik
This is one of those books where saying who the writer was is contentious. It was initially published anonymously. Later, the exiled Russian Menshevik writer Boris Nicolaevsky was listed as the author. Nicolaevsky always claimed…Read more…
Review: Stalin’s Library – A Dictator and His Books, by Geoffrey Roberts
Geoffrey Roberts is a leading expert on Soviet history and chose a really interesting take on Stalin’s life with this book. His starting principle seems to be that whatever else Stalin was (e.g., a monster)…Read more…
Review: Fake History – 101 Things that Never Happened, by Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse
I heard this author interviewed on the Professor Buzzkill podcast recently and loved what she had to say, especially about medieval Europe. Her book is good and entertaining. But she avoids controversy, not really dealing…Read more…
An American nightmare
I pay attention to politics in a number of countries, some of which I also vote in. I’m an optimist by nature and I see real possibilities for wins by parties I like. For example,…Read more…
Review: Moscow X, by David McCloskey
Earlier this year I read and reviewed “Damascus Station” by former CIA officer David McCloskey. I thought it a competent thriller and enjoyed it. I looked forward to reading the second book in the series,…Read more…
Why I oppose a ceasefire in Gaza
This article is not going to win me any friends. And it may convince no one. But it demands to be written. I oppose the increasingly loud calls here in Britain and around the world…Read more…
Their SWP and ours
The massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 caused genuine shock and horror around the world. There was considerable sympathy for Israel in the wake of the tragedy. But not so for…Read more…
Review: Be Useful: Seven tools for life, by Arnold Schwarzenegger
This book got a surprisingly good review from The Guardian and as one who likes to read the occasional personal productivity / self-help books, I thought – why not give the Terminator a go? Here’s…Read more…
Review: Lenin’s Last Struggle, by Moshe Lewin
Moshe Lewin was certainly one of Lenin’s admirers. Though this short book is anti-totalitarian and sympathetic to Trotsky, it is surprisingly uncritical of Lenin on key issues. But it is clear from reading it that…Read more…
Stalin in London
Stephen May’s Sell Us The Rope is a new novel about the London congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of 1907. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Rosa Luxemburg play leading roles in the story….Read more…
Review: The Seventh Son, by Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Faulks is a brilliant writer. His First World War novel Birdsong might even be a masterpiece. But his most recent book is, sadly, a dud. It’s a near-future science fiction story full of cliches…Read more…
Six thoughts on Gaza and Israel
“I got a head full of ideas, that are drivin’ me insane,” sang Bob Dylan. I know the feeling. It’s been more than a week now, and with an extended family and close friends living…Read more…
Last month, I visited Kyiv. This is what I learned.
Here are all the articles I wrote about my visit to Ukraine, published around the world in socialist and labour publications: Australia: Green Left Weekly Canada: Our Times (link coming soon) Germany: Jungle World Germany:…Read more…
Review: Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, by Ben Macintyre
I often like to say that Ben Macintyre can take any bit of history and turn it into a fascinating story. It’s a gift. But in this case, I think he had a rather easier…Read more…
Hamas attack reveals a battle for the soul of social democracy
The war unleashed by Hamas on Saturday morning has shone a spotlight on political movements across the world. In the movement I consider home — social democracy — some important divisions have come into the…Read more…
Ukraine’s labour movement defiant – and in need of our solidarity
As I walked around Kyiv last month on a beautiful, sunny morning, I began to notice the scaffolding in the city’s squares. I asked Tristan Masat what was going on. Tristan runs the Solidarity Center…Read more…