E.P. Thompson, the pre-eminent British historian of the twentieth century, was born exactly a hundred years ago. On the centenary, I made a pilgrimage to Halifax, his home for seventeen years, the period which defined his professional, political and personal life. His old home, Holly Bank in Siddal on the outskirts of Halifax, now bears a blue plaque. It's on a steep cobbled street overlooking the town - and the cemetery opposite. I would guess that the spot has not changed much in the sixty or so years since the Thompsons moved out. It was here at Holly Bank, while Edward was working in the extra-mural department at Leeds University, that the Thompsons laboured in and for the Communist Party - here that Edward and Dorothy expressed their disillusionment in 1956 by publishing The Reasoner and then leaving the party - here that Thompson wrote his political biography of Wiliam Morris (published in 1955) and then his masterpiece, The Making of the English Working Class (1963) - here that they raised their three children - here that Dorothy Thompson embarked on her landmark research on Chartism. And West Yorkshire is evident at every turn in The Making of the English Working Class - a work of history with an acute sense of place as well as moment. The occasion of my visit was a one-day anniversary conference organised - and very successfully so - by the Calderdale Trades Union Council and the Society for the Study of Labour History. More than a hundred people attended. Tariq Ali made the keynote speech on Zoom. Among those who also spoke (in person) were Katrina Navickas, Penny Corfield, Jane Mayes, Hugo Radice, Judy Cox and Julian Harber. E.P. Thompson was a resolutely non-metropolitan figure: born in Oxford, educated at Cambridge, forged in Halifax, died in Worcestershire. As an adult, he never lived in London - rare, perhaps, for such a commanding intellectual. And it was so good and important to take the journey to West Yorkshhire to remember him: his activism, his energy, his scholarship, his inspirational force. He was a romantic, a man of 'volcanic passions', in the words of one speaker - and an exceptional historian and socialist. Many years ago, at Warwick University, I chaired a meeti9ng at which he spoke in support of the imprisoned East German intellectual Rudolf Bahro. Later I travelled to Worcestershire to interview him - here's the audio.
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Even if I say so myself, this photo is a good 'un.
I was having a coffee the other day in Primrose Hill - at the coffee shop on the bridge leading from Chalk Farm. It has an open front and as I was sipping my flat white, a robin popped in and bobbed around. It is apparently a regular. I tried to take a photo of the robin with the 'Caution: Mind Your Step' board in shot, but it bounced around very swiftly and I wasn't sure I'd quite pulled it off But I'm pleased by this photo. I hope you are too! St Leonard's Square in NW5 is a place of real charm in that no-man's-land on the margins of Kentish Town and Chalk Farm. It's n0t quite a square, and was never intended to have four sides, but much more than a cul-de-sac. The Square has three sturdy sides - the fourth side of the rectangle being Malden Road. And what's really special is that the three-storey mid-Victorian buildings survive more-or-less in tact. Not many streets in this area so close to the main rail lines survived the wartime bombing unscathed. St Leonard's also managed to slalom round a 1960s plan to flatten the place. Hallelujah! The West Kentish Town Conservation Area statement says the buildings date from 1849 to 1862 and comments that they 'are extremely pleasing in their cohesion and lack of alteration'. It's not clear how the square came to be named after St Leonard, a sixth century French saint. There's a St Leonard's in Shoreditch, but the local church is St Silas. The Camden History Society's Streets of Gospel Oak and Went Kentish Town notes that 'despite its pretentious name, the Square was largely working class fronm the outset'. In Charles Booth's 1889 poverty map, it's coloured light blue, meaning 'poor' - though a decade later it had been uplifted a shade to purple and Booth commented: 'several tidy and clean children, and some of the houses spick and span'. This 1987 photo - taken from the Flashbak site - shows a game of street hockey in the Square.
St Leonard's Square is worth seeking out. It's still 'spick and span' and is a pleasant surpise amid the post-war regimentation of much of the local housing. What political party has its national HQ on Clapham High Street? Well, the photo has given it away. That most unwavering, unyielding, of parties, the SPGB - the 120-year-old Socialist Party of Great Britain - is based at 52 Clapham High Street. I popped in today - the first time I've called at the Clapham party's office. The SPGB is Marxist, but not Leninist. It believes in contesting elections and coming to power via the ballot box. And it's still waiting for its first MP. In the 2019 general election, it put up two candidates who got between them 157 votes - which was a modest advance on the party's performance in the 2017 polls, when three candidates secured a slightly smaller total vote. The office is spacious, with literature for sale, an interesting array of second hand books (also for sale), and - when I popped in - a friendly staffer keeping things ticking over. Not exactly a hive of activity - but not entirely dormant either. I bought a copy of the SPGB monthly, the Socialist Standard - though to be honest, the arguments advanced are much the same as the party has put forward constantly since its foundation in June 1904. The party's declaration of principles - printed in every issue - hasn't changed one iota since it was first proclaimed. It includes the "hostility" clause - arguing that all political parties are the expression of class interests and that the party seeking working class emancipation (that's the SPGB, of course) 'enters the field of political action determined to wage war against all other political parties'. But the list of branches - just one these days for the entire London membership - suggests that the party's message is not finding much resonance. Compare that with the array of London branches, and outdoor speaking pitches, listed in the Socialist Standard for October 1907, when the party was just three years old. The party was established in 1904 as a breakaway form the Social Democratic Federation. It was described as 'impossibilist' - arguing that it was impossible to establish socialism by advocating reforms within capitalism.
For many decades, the party was noted for the calibre of its orators, who turned out at the weekend to address the converted and the curious at outdoor speaking pitches. That's a close to obsolete art - and the unchanging, unflinching, attitude of the SPGB, although in a way admirable, makes it increasingly appear an anarchronism. The party has property and assets reported to be worth £2.6 million, but probably not more than 300 members, and I would guess most of them are getting their old age pension. This is a Quetzal. I came across this beautiful, and rare, bird in the rain forest of Costa Rica. It has bright plumage, mainly green, and two long tail feathers, which were once much prized to adorn high status individuals in indigenous culture. Quite a thrill to see you, Quety! We went on a small group tour to Costa Rica recently - encompassing the capital, San Jose, the high altitude (5,000 feet plus) rain forest and the Pacific coast. Wonderful! Some of the photos and video posted here were taken by me, and some by others in the group, including Osmar, our group leader and guide. He said this was only the third time in more than a decade of leading groups round Costa Rica that he had spotted a Quetzal. The highlight of many wildlife tours round Costa Rica is seeing a sloth - and we were fortunate to manage that too. Another real treat! This is a two-toed sloth, and is slightly more nifty than you might imagine - it doesn't exactly scamper, but it can move purposefully ... when it wants to. Costa Rica is a small Central American nation of five million people which stretches from the Pacific to the Caribbean. But because of its rain forest, it has more biodiversity than many much bigger countries - and encompasses between 2% and 3% of global biodiversity.
More highlights of Costa Rica's natural riches to come! For three years, from 1948 to 1950, the communist Daily Worker published an annual cricket handbook - a sort of poor man's Wisden. The Daily Worker (which later metamorphosed into the Morning Star) always prided itself on its sports coverage. Cayton, the paper's racing tipster - named after Cayton Street, which was at one time the Daily Worker's home - was particularly well regarded. But you don't really think of cricket as a sport to interest the comrades. Perhaps that's not fair. After all the veteran Marxist C.L.R. James had a profound love - and know;ledge - of cricket and wrote about it luminously. And unlikely as it might seem, there is a communist cricket website. But while there were a handful of communist footballers and speedway stars, I can't think of any Bolshevik fast bowlers or opening bats. Can you? All this has been prompted by a very kind gift - thanks Sam! - of the 1949 Daily Worker Cricket Handbook. It features an article by Harold Larwood - the 'bodyline' bowler - lamenting the decline of the fast bowler. And it includes details of Lancashire and Bradford league-level cricket
I've been able to find out very little about A.A, Thomas, the paper's cricket correspondent - except that he seems to have had a role (with the grander title of 'Sports Editor') in the creation of the Daily Worker Football Handbook in 1946. That kept going for at least seven seasons. All the other papers were doing sports handbooks, so why not the good old DW! And is politics evident in the handbook? Not a lot, But there are just glimpses of a class analysis as when, in the editorial, the decline of the 'amateur' in first-class cricket is explained as follows: 'Monopoly, the concentration of wealth, has pushed the medium-scale industrialist out of existence and his sons out of unpaid cricket.' Howzat?!! I'd say well wide of the off stump! What was the longest student sit-in of that turbulent summer of revolt: 1968? Well, you've probably guessed that it was at the Guildford School of Art. The students - supported by many of the faculty - stayed in for eight weeks. The Guildford occupation began a few days after the better-known sit-in at Hornsey College of Art. As at Hornsey, it was sparked mainly by local grievances: concerns about a proposed amalgamation; the rigidity of divisions between different departments; an old-fashioned and over-bearing college management which didn't see any need to consult with or involve its students (or its teaching staff). There was also a fevered debate about the structure, and purpose, of art education. And of course, there was also - to quote Thunderclap Newman - 'something in the air'. Students in Berlin and Paris had shown the way; they were impatient for change and demanded to be heard. The story of the Guildford sit-in is well told in this new book by two students involved in the protest. Claire Grey kept a diary through the sit-in and also has many of the leaflets which are reproduced along with wonderful photos by John Walmsley. The book is wonderfully well produced on high quality paper. It's the sort of publishing venture that deserves support. Here's where you can order a copy: https://www.johnwalmsleyphotos.co.uk/-/galleries/store/dont-tell-me-how-to-run-my-art-school I came across the Guildford story while researching the British New Left. For the students, the sit-in was exciting and empowering. But it ended on a sour notes, with the victimisation of those lecturers who had backed the students and supported their demands. The photos of the sit-in have been posted here with the permission of John Walmsley. There's many more in the book!
To the Tate Britain in the past week for the launch event of their spectacular Women in Revolt! exhibition - it's on until April. Not my normal habitat. But hey! I was invited by Chandan Fraser - that's her above with some photos she took of the Women's Liberation Movement in the early Seventies that feature in the exhibition. It was the first time we had met - though we've exchanged a lot of emails. I was able to help organise an exhibition in Oxford a couple of years ago of Chandan's photos of the first Women's Liberation conference. Indeed, the exhibition was staged in the venue of that landmark conference - what was once Ruskin College - thanks to the marvellous Four Corners. Great to meet; and wonderful that Chandan's work is now so widely recognised. Some of her photos have been bought by the National Portrait Gallery, no less. This is Chandan with her old friend Mica Nava. She lived with Mica and Pepe Nava when she was a photography student (and then known as Sally Fraser) at the London College of Printing. It was through Mica that she first got involved with the feminist movement. The Tufnell Park women's group was one of the earliest to be established in London. It was quite a bun fight at the Tate - but I was delighted to see another pioneering feminist, Jo Robinson (one of the Misbehaving gang who took part in the spectacular disruption of the 1970 Miss World televised final) was there with her partner Joel. Such a fun - and glamorous - evening. And do be sure to get down to the Tate Britain and see the exhibition.
Lewes is a Sussex town with real charm - and a brilliant second-hand bookshop and wonderful flea markets. It was a revelation when I visited for the first time in the past week. What I hadn't expected is that Lewes would have taken the radical and freethinker Tom Paine to its heart. The portrait of the man above is on the wall of a bijou fruit, veg and food market. And there's lots of Paine around, even though he only lived here for six years. If truth be told, Paine was from Thetford in Norfolk where his father was a stay maker - stays being a particularly restrictive type of corset. So Paine was sometimes caricatured, as here, tying up stays. He was more famous of course for writing The Rights of Man, and championing both American independence and French republicanism. Good for Tom! Lewes does not strike me as a bastion of leftism, or even liberalism. But you can't walk through the town centre without being assaulted by reminders of Lewes's most famous (if fleeting) onetime resident revolutionary. I suppose it helps that he lived in one of the sweetest buildings in this distinctly pretty small town ... ... and of course, as Paine is lionised in the US (where he went to live after tiring of Sussex), it can only help in bringing in high-rolling tourists. And even better that you can toast Tom Paine in the excellent local brew, Harvey's. Wonderfully, the local tourist information office has details of a Tom Paine trail. Try it out! And remember those words:
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