Category Archives: education

My review of “Staging Life The Story of the Manchester Playwrights” by John Harding

Posted on September 15, 2018 by

  Manchester used to  have its own municipal theatre, the Library Theatre based in Central Library and its southern sister at the Forum in Wythenshawe. In those days going to the theatre was more democratic. For many Mancunian school children … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, drama, education, feminism, Manchester, Socialism, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

My review of “A Most Unladylike Occupation” Lisa Wright

Posted on September 8, 2018 by

  Lucy Deane was one of the first female Factory Inspectors in 1893. In this novel, Lisa Wright, a distant relative of Lucy’s, captures the life and history of a pioneering woman. It was the Home Secretary, Herbert Asquith, who … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, education, feminism, labour history, novels, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

My review of “The Miami Showband Massacre A survivor’s search for the truth” Stephen Travers and Neil Fetherstonhaugh

Posted on August 25, 2018 by

      On 31 July 1975  as the  popular group,  The Miami Showband, were travelling back home across the border in the North of Ireland, they were stopped by a fake army patrol made up of Ulster Defence Regiment … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, Catholicism, education, human rights, Ireland, North of Ireland, Uncategorized, working class history, young people | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

My review of “Ants Among Elephants An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India” Sujatha Gidla

Posted on August 17, 2018 by

  Sujatha Gidla’s new book is not about the modern India of bollywood, nuclear weapons and a thriving economy. It is her family’s story set at the end of British colonial rule,  a family of “untouchables” – part of the … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, political women, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Women in Poland; Putting them back into the story of the Solidarity Movement.

Posted on June 30, 2018 by

    In 1981 riots broke out in Moss Side where I lived. It reflected the oppression experienced by the Afro-Caribbean  people in that area; that they were discriminated against in housing, education and employment. After the riots, people like … Continue reading →

Posted in Communism, education, feminism, films, human rights, labour history, Manchester, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

My review of “Revolting Women”a new play about Sylvia Pankhurst.

Posted on June 2, 2018 by

    Mikron Theatre’s new show “Revolting Women” is a  contribution to the commemorations of the extension of the vote to all men and a small group of middle-class women in 1918.  Centre stage is the radical Pankhurst Sylvia who … Continue reading →

Posted in Communism, drama, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, political women, Socialist Feminism, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

My review of ‘Kill all the Gentlemen’ Class struggle and change in the English countryside by Martin Empson

Posted on May 24, 2018 by

  In this new book Martin Empson reminds us that class conflict did not start with the Industrial Revolution and urban struggles. In this well researched history he begins with  the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and then  take us up … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Communism, education, human rights, labour history, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments