STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
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Orwell got it wrong
JOHN GREEN recommends an excellent survey of the involvement of the British state, and British volunteers, in the Spanish Civil War
SKEWED VIEW: George Orwell at the BBC, 1940; and anarchists’ demonstration in Barcelona between 1936-37
[BBC/CC; Public domain]
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
JAN WOOLF relishes an extensive history of our long relationship to trees in Britain that underlines the current emergency
DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack
Perfidious Albion: Britain and the Spanish Civil War
by Paul Preston
The Clapton Press, £14.99
THIS new collection of essays by Paul Preston, the renowned historian of modern Spain, is very welcome. It is the perfect book for anyone seeking a dispassionate and scholarly introduction to the Spanish Civil War.
Today, right-wing politicians like David Cameron and his ilk again are invoking the spectre of appeasement which characterised Britain’s position on Spanish Civil War and gave Hitler the green light to invade Poland in 1939, but this time around as an argument for continuing to fuel the war in Ukraine by demonising Russia as the new Nazis. Never mind that it was precisely Cameron’s party forerunners who were the historical appeasers of fascism then, hoping to drive Hitler to invade Russia. Plus ça change!
Preston’s collection of essays here are timely in their recalling of that history. The first part focuses on the hypocrisy of British foreign policy towards Spain and which was instrumental in helping Franco defeat the Republic. And it was the Conservative Party, imbued with its hatred and fear of communism and “Russian barbarism” which took the lead then as now.
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