Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
Latest editorial
Waiting for Nothing
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
A “LOST” US classic of Depression-era fiction has been republished by Scottish imprint The Common Breath.
Tom Kromer wrote Waiting for Nothing in 1935, a fictional account of life among the homeless, the soup kitchens and the “Hooverville” encampments, which Kromer knew from personal experience.
It is a bit like John Steinbeck’s Depression-era novels — which it predates — only with a hard-boiled prose that is so spare and accurate it feels close to Samuel Beckett.
Similar stories
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
With the recent release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie One Battle After Another, STEPHEN ARNELL gives the storied history of the British real-life left-wing urban guerillas
April 9 1928 – July 26 2025
DAI O’BRIEN, one of the festival’s DeafZone co-ordinators explains