Spokesman Books

‘I’m not a line that you draw,’ declaimed Shieraouf. Byron’s spirit lifted in the old George Hotel, as the young poet in exile from Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan spoke her defiance. She forms in verse the most extreme experiences, explaining that ‘19 is different’, not at all humdrum, for that is the number of Yazidi women consumed in fiery cages. This was a rare night in November Nottingham when Exiled Writers Ink came, originally, from Iran, Israel, Bangladesh and the hills of Iraqi Kurdistan, to give voice to Jewish and Muslim writers. ‘It was a good gig,’ remarked Michael Mehrdad Zand Ahanchian, born a jew in Iran, who has spent most of his life in the United Kingdom, now drilling down into civil wars and turbulence that lie buried deep in most places. Up the road from George Street, where Michael shared his astr o nomical verse, Standard Hill records an English King’s fatal mistakes. Shamim Azad clicked the rhythm in Bengali and English, explaining why she is ‘Not a Chameleon’, ...

Nottingham's Antenna Media Centre is set to host the launch of the physical manifestation of Dawn of the Unread . For those who may be hearing about this project for the first time, it began as a series of interactive webcomics fea turing Nottingham 's prominent literary figures , and which consider ed our contemporary engagement with books and learning resources . N ow the stories have been bound together as a paperback collection, edited by James Walker of local LeftLion magazine. It has been printed by Spokesman Books in association with the UNESCO-accredited Nottingham City of Literature project. The launch will take place on 11 November, beginning at 7.30pm and ending at 9.30pm. To purchase tickets, and for further information, see: https://nottsfol.co.uk/event/dawn-of-the-unread/

Spokesman Books keenly follows local Nottingham magazine LeftLion . We read with interest Robin Lewis' interview of Lisa McKenzie, whose book Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain may be seen as a spiritual successor to Ken Coates' Poverty: The Forgotten Englishman . A research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Lisa spent her early life in the St Ann's area of Nottingham, a council estate borne out the experimental 'Radburn' urban planning design. She describes reading Coates' Poverty when she was taking a course in social work, and realising that 'that was what [she] wanted to do. From the point of view of someone who's lived through it.' Read the interview in its entirety here: http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/lisa-mckenzie-on-class-and-culture-in-st.-ann-s/id/8557  Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen is available to purchase online from Spokesman Books here.  http://www.spo...

Next month, Nottingham Beyond Borders and a host of collaborating groups will stage this lively programme of events for Nottingham Refugee Week .  From 17-27th June there will be talks, film screenings, music and theatre performances, food tasting evenings and many other activities held in venues all over Nottingham, in the spirit of celebrating 'the contributions made by refugees and asylum seekers to the economic, cultural and social life of the city', and also to raise awareness of the challenges faced by refugees, and the reasons which compel them to flee and/or seek asylum. We attach images of the programme below (click to enlarge).

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum is set to host a free conference on the theme of the changing narratives around seeking asylum. The conference will take place at the Forum on Friday 8th January 2016, from 9.45am to 5pm, situated at: The Sycamore Centre 33a Hungerhill Road Nottingham  NG3 4NB Keynote speakers attending are Aidan White (Director of Ethical Journalism Network) and Dr. Helen O'Nions (Nottingham Law School, NTU). Tickets are free but limited. Those wishing to participate should register their interest at registration@nottsrefugeeforum.org.uk Further information on the event can be accessed on the Forum's website here . They can also be found on Facebook here .  

Nottingham’s Albert Hall hosts the hotly-anticipated Rally for Corbyn on Thursday, 20 th August at 7pm. Doors open 6pm.   Alongside Jeremy Corbyn MP, speakers will be Richard Murphy, Manuel Cortes, Annmarie Kilcline, Tony Kearns, Nadia Whittome and Umaar Kazmi, with chair Cheryl Butler. Due to the high level of interest in this event, an early arrival is advised. Online event pages for the rally can be found on Corbyn’s campaign website ( http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/rally_for_corbyn_nottingham ) and on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/events/1040901972596312/ ). Venue address: Albert Hall North Circus Street Nottingham NG1 5AA Spokesman Books invites readers to revisit J. A. Hobson’s Imperialism (2011 edition), for which Corbyn penned a foreword. The following thoughts are taken from his contribution: Reading Hobson’s works now, at the end of the first decade of the twenty first century, and acknowledging all that has happened in...

Featuring: Owen Jones on the Establishment  | I ain Sinclair in conversation  | Natalie Bennett (Leader of the Green Party)  | Sheila Cohen, Alan Tuckman and Tom Unterrainer on unions  | Tansy Hoskins on the garment industry  | A Modern Don Juan book launch   | Music and magic from Frankie Armstrong, Grace Petrie, Sandra Kerr, Leon Rosselson, Ian Saville, Boff Whalley  | Will Simpson and Jim Keoghan on punk football  | Phil Cohen on the 1960s  | Marie Thompson on protest music  | Marcus O'Dair on Robert Wyatt  | Isabel Cartwright on peace education  | Ruth Kinna on anarchism for beginners

A PUBLIC DEBATE "Britain's participation in World War One was just and should be defended" Speaker for the Motion : Patrick Mercer , former Member of Parliament for Newark and former colonel in the Sherwood Foresters. He writes and publishes on military affairs. Speaker against the Motion : Neil Faulkner , Research Fellow at Bristol University and editor of Military Times. He is the author of No Glory: The Real History of the First World War . 19.00, Thursday 29th. May at The Nottingham Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ The issues around World War One are still of significance in the world today. Come along to hear different views on this important matter and, if you wish, join in the debate. ALL WELCOME

Cinema-goers in Nottingham will have the chance to see Dirty Wars next month at Broadway Cinema, Hockley. The film will be screened on Tuesday 17 December at 6.30pm, with an introduction by Roger Bromley, Emeritus professor of Cultural Studies at Nottingham University. (For Spokesman Books' original post on the release of Dirty Wars, see http://spokesmanbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/dirty-wars-film.html )

Spokesman Books and Russell Press will be at the Lowdham Book Festival on Saturday. Details of the final day can be found below. All Day Book Fair and Café Saturday 29th June, 10am–5pm Village Hall, Main Street, Lowdham Throughout the day the Village Hall hosts a café run by mmm…deli ,serving hot and cold drinks, salads and panini, cakes and ice-cream. The book fair is spread over the Village Hall, a marquee behind the hall and assorted gazebos. It features publishers, charities, book trade organisations,booksellers with new and second-hand books and cards. There are displays of old-fashioned letterpress printing equipment and bookbinding. Free author talks and talks about books will go on throughout the day. There will be books for children and adults, bargain books and books signed by all the authors appearing during the festival. Entry is free to the book fair and all events on Saturday 29th June. No tickets required. Join us for an hour or the wholeday! For...

Try to make some time to watch this video of our by Lucy Reynolds a hero of our time! see - tinyurl.com/cdx3pb7 We are hoping to invite Lucy to a future public meeting in Nottingham - in the steps of Colin Leys and Wendy Savage. Don't forget the 'Spirit of 45' on Sunday afternoon - KONP is a partner as the respected NHS campaign organisation. *** A review from Alex Scott-Samuel, member of KONP's steering group and Liverpool activist 'Having now watched this video interview in full, I cannot overpraise Lucy Reynolds' forensically detailed dissectioin of every aspect of the current privatisation of the NHS and in addition, the historical developments which led up to it. It must rank with Pollock's NHS plc and Leys and Player's Plot Against the NHS as the best accounts ever given of NHS privatisation. I urge you to put the time aside to watch it and to e-mail, tweet, FB and to tell everyone who cares about our NHS to do the same'.

David Laws MP, who falsified his expenses claims and had to repay Parliament some £56,000, has now been appointed Schools Minister by David Cameron, as we discuss in Spokesman 118 . Together with Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, Laws is pushing the Government’s programme of state-funded companies (academies including so-called “free schools”) to run schools, which are then no longer part of the local authority or public sector. This policy of further fragmentation of school education in England is becoming increasingly chaotic, as recent developments in Nottinghamshire indicate. West Bridgford is one of the leafier parts of Nottingham, south of the River Trent. Ken Clarke lives here, in his Rushcliffe Constituency, five or six miles from where he grew up, in Bulwell, a tougher part of town. County Hall is in West Bridgford. In 2009, the Tories won control of Nottinghamshire for the first time in 30 years. Back in the early 1990s, the Conservative Government split Nottingham C...