ANDREW WHITEHEAD
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Enthusiasms
    • London Fictions >
      • Alexander Baron
      • A walk round Baron's manor
      • John Sommerfield >
        • John Sommerfield Archive
        • John Sommerfield's Spanish notebook
        • John Sommerfield, 'More Room for Us'
      • Lynne Reid Banks
      • "Against the Tyranny of Kings and Princes": radicalism in George Gissing's 'Workers in the Dawn'
      • 'Beyond Boundary Passage'
      • 'London' by Dorf Bonarjee
    • A Mission in Kashmir >
      • Full text: A Mission in Kashmir
      • 'The People's Militia: Communists and Kashmiri nationalism in the 1940s'
      • The Rise and Fall of New Kashmir
      • The Making of the 'New Kashmir' manifesto
      • 'For the Conversion of Kashmir'
      • 'I shall paint my nails with the blood of those that covet me'
      • Freda Bedi looking 'From a Woman's Window' on Kashmir
      • Kashmir 1947: Testimonies of a Contested History
      • Kashmir @ 70
      • Kashmir 47 Images
      • Kashmir 47 on film
      • Kashmir 47 in fiction
      • Father Shanks's Kashmir 'Diary'
      • Krishna Misri: 1947, a year of change
      • Shanti Ambardar: Kashmir 1947
    • The O'Brienites >
      • Martin Boon
      • Dan Chatterton
      • George E. Harris
      • John Radford and the Kansas colony
      • Edward Truelove
      • 'New World'
    • Clerkenwell >
      • Popular Politics and Social Structure in Clerkenwell >
        • The Residents of Clerkenwell
        • The Occupational Structure of Clerkenwell
        • Clerkenwell and Reform
        • Fenians, Reformers and the Clerkenwell "Outrage"
        • Clerkenwell: Socialism Finds a Niche
        • Clerkenwell: Not Forgetting the Anarchists
      • Red London: radicals and socialists in late-Victorian Clerkenwell
      • Patriotic Club
    • NW5 and Around
  • Voices
    • Partition Voices >
      • Partition Voices: L.K. Advani
      • Partition Voices: Ram Advani
      • Partition Voices: Qazi Ghulam Ajmiri
      • Partition Voices: Angela Aranha
      • Partition Voices: Helen Baldwin
      • Partition Voices: Bali family
      • Partition Voices: Edward Behr
      • Partition Voices: Benazir Bhutto
      • Partition Voices: H.K. Burki
      • Partition Voices: Sailen Chatterjee
      • Partition Voices: Pran Chopra
      • Partition Voices: K.S. + Ayesha Duggal
      • Partition Voices: Alys Faiz
      • Partition Voices: Jugal Chandra Ghosh
      • Partition Voices: Ashoka Gupta
      • Partition Voices: I.K. Gujral
      • Partition Voices: Syed Najmuddin Hashim
      • Partition Voices: Khorshed Italia
      • Partition Voices: Pran Nath Jalali
      • Partition Voices: D.N. Kaul
      • Partition Voices: Jolly Mohan Kaul
      • Partition Voices: Basant Kaur
      • Partition Voices: Betty Keyes
      • Partition Voices: Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan
      • Partition Voices: Usha Khanna
      • Partition Voices: Frank Leeson
      • Partition Voices: Abdul Ghani Lone
      • Partition Voices: Gopal 'Patha' Mukherjee
      • Partition Voices: Kuldip Nayar
      • Partition Voices: Amrita Pritam
      • Partition Voices: Francis Rath
      • Partition Voices: Annada Sankar Ray
      • Partition Voices: Bhisham Sahni
      • Partition Voices: Sat Paul Sahni
      • Partition Voices: Sir Ian Scott
      • Partition Voices: Sir Paul Scott
      • Partition Voices: Sheila Sengupta
      • Partition Voices: Mahmooda Ahmad Ali Shah + Sajida Zameer Ahmad
      • Partition Voices: Bapsi Sidhwa & Urvashi Butalia
      • Partition Voices: Air Marshal Arjan Singh
      • Partition Voices: Bir Bahadur Singh
      • Partition Voices: Karan Singh
      • Partition Voices: Khushwant Singh
      • Partition Voices: Shingara Singh
      • Partition Voices: H.S. Surjeet
      • Partition Voices: Ben and Marguerite Suter
      • Partition Voices: Leela Thompson
      • Partition Voices: K.B. Vaid
    • Kashmir Voices >
      • Kashmir Voices: Asiya Andrabi
      • Kashmir Voices: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
      • Kashmir Voices: George Fernandes
      • Kashmir Voices: General J.R. Mukherjee
      • Kashmir Voices: Abdullah Muntazir
      • Kashmir Voices: Ali Mohammad Sagar
      • Kashmir Voices: Syed Salahuddin
    • Communist Voices >
      • Communist Voices: Manmohan Adhikari
      • Communist Voices: Jyoti Basu
      • Communist Voices: Brian Bunting
      • Communist Voices: Guillermo Cabrera Infante
      • Communist Voices: Benoy Choudhury
      • Communist Voices: Anima Dasgupta
      • Communist Voices: Sailen Dasgupta
      • Communist Voices: Denis Goldberg
      • Communist Voices: Grootvlie miners
      • Communist Voices: Indrajit Gupta
      • Communist Voices: Chris Hani
      • Communist Voices: Lionel Martin
      • Communist Voices: Vishwanath Mathur
      • Communist Voices: Geeta Mukherjee
      • Communist Voices: E.M.S. Namboodiripad
      • Communist Voices: John Rettie
    • Political Voices >
      • Political Voices: Sally Alexander
      • Political Voices: Lou Appleton
      • Political Voices: Murray Bookchin
      • Political Voices: Fenner Brockway
      • Political Voices: Tony Cliff
      • Political Voices: Nellie Dick
      • Political Voices: Leah Feldman
      • Political Voices: Jeffrey Hamm
      • Political Voices: Denis Healey
      • Political Voices: Eric Hobsbawm
      • Political Voices: Ian Mikardo
      • Political Voices: Mick Mindel
      • Political Voices: Adrian Mitchell
      • Political Voices: Phil Piratin
      • Political Voices: Betty Reid
      • Political Voices: Fermin Rocker
      • Political Voices: Ralph Russell
      • Political Voices: John Saville
      • Political Voices: Alfred Sherman
      • Political Voices: Screaming Lord Sutch
      • Political Voices: Dorothy Thompson
      • Political Voices: E.P. Thompson
      • Political Voices: Tom Wilson
      • Political Voices: Harry Young
      • The Land Song
      • Harry Pollitt on disc
    • The British New Left >
      • New Left: T.J. Clark
      • New Left: Chuck Taylor
      • New Left: Headopoly
    • South Asia
    • Burma
  • Collecting
    • Political Pamphlets
    • Political Journals
    • Political Badges
    • Political Tokens
    • Political Ephemera
  • Radio Gems
    • 'What's Left of Communism?'
    • 'India: a people partitioned'
    • India's Minorities
    • Documentaries and Features
    • From Our Own Correspondent >
      • FOOC: Working at Westminster 1990
      • FOOC: Ulster's Talking Shop 1991
      • FOOC: House Rules at Westminster 1992
      • FOOC: India's Red Fort State
      • FOOC: Keeping Kosher in Cuba
      • FOOC: Italy's Gourmand Communists 1992
      • FOOC: Scoundrel Politicians - 1993
      • FOOC: Kashmir's New Puritans 1993
      • FOOC: The Rajah of Bihar 1993
      • FOOC: Bringing the Gospel to Mizoram 1993
      • FOOC: Netaji, India's Lost Leader 1994
      • FOOC: A Self-Respect Wedding 1994
      • FOOC: The Miseries of Manipur 1994
      • FOOC: Village Bangladesh 1994
      • FOOC: Calcutta's Communists Discover Capitalism 1995
      • FOOC: Localism in Ladakh 1995
      • FOOC: Bhutan, not quite Paradise
      • FOOC: Crime and Indian Politics 1995
      • FOOC: Sonia Gandhi 1995
      • FOOC: Sri Lanka's Missing Leaders 1995
      • FOOC: India Votes 1996
      • FOOC: Communism Revisited 1996
      • FOOC: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 1996
      • FOOC: Kerala's Jewish Community 1996
      • FOOC: India's Corruption Scandals 1996
      • FOOC: The Maldives Crowded Capital 1996
      • FOOC: India's Polluted Capital 1996
      • FOOC: Jinnah, Pakistan's Quaid 1997
      • FOOC: Mauritius, an Indian Ocean melting pot
      • FOOC: The Hijras Blessing 1998
      • FOOC: Massacre at Baramulla 2003
      • FOOC: An Old Photo from Kashmir 2007
      • FOOC: Prosperity Driven from Detroit 2008
      • FOOC: An Atheist in MLK's Atlanta2013
      • FOOC: San Francisco's City Lights 2014
      • FOOC: Kashmir Revisited 2014
      • FOOC: By Ferry in Burma 2014
      • FOOC: Toyah's Grave 2017
      • FOOC: The Tibetan Colony in Kashmir 2017
      • FOOC: Stars of Tamil Politics 2018
      • FOOC: Koreans in Chennai 2018
      • FOOC: Epitaph to Empire 2019
      • FOOC: Armenians in India 2019
      • FOOC: Lahore's Bradlaugh Hall 2020
    • What's your favourite political song?
    • London Snapshots
  • Writing
    • Bibliography
    • Tramping Artisans
    • Working Class Housing in Jericho, Oxford
    • New Statesman
    • The Freethinker
    • Outlook
    • Asian Age
    • Indian Express
    • miscellaneous writing
  • Gallery
  • Contact




​Andrew Whitehead's
Blog

Delhi birdlife delight: ibis, hornbill, peacock

30/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Just twenty-four hours in Delhi, but I had the chance to stroll round two magical places.

Red naped ibis are not uncommon at Lodhi Gardens, but I've never got this close. By the lake, there was a patch of wet ground, and this ibis was so busy grubbing away in the mud with its spectacular curved beak that it didn't mind that I was within a few feet.
The sound you can hear, by the way, is the honking and cackling of scores of geese on the lake
At Sunder Nursery not more than a mile away, I had an enchanting encounter with an Indian grey hornbill
Picture
The hornbill had a ball of mud in its beak which - as far as I could make out - it was using to seal the tree cavity it had chosen as its nest. Wonderful!
And just a short distance away, in the nursery's wilderness area, I chanced across a family of peafowl
I didn't spot any of my favourite, the hoopoe, on this brief visit. Next time!
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: a glimpse of paradise

21/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo: Ajay Jindial
Picture
Photo: Arun
Introducing one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen - the Indian paradise flycatcher. These are not my photos, alas. But I have had the good fortune to glimpse this elusive bird while in Chennai in both colourings.

The birds pictured are both males. Alongside the college I teach at in Chennai is a piece of land which has largely reverted to jungle. It's said that there's a haunted guest house hidden behind the foliage.

There, on about a dozen occasions, I've seen the white version of this magical bird. It's sometimes perched under a dense canopy of branches, biding its time. Then it moves in staccato fashion, catching the eye with the flash of its amazing tail feathers. It rests for a moment, and then it's gone.

Al least, that's my excuse for not managing even a passable photo. I did get a couple of hurried shots on my phone. Here they are, as taken and then zooming in on this little dash of paradise.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
No, I know they won't win any prizes. Nor will my video clips, but you do get a sense of the vivid splash of colour when it flits around
And there's another touch of it here - that tail must be 40 or 50 centimetres!
And then at the Theosophical Society's headquarters here the other day, I had the great good fortune to see, albeit fleetingly, the rufus-coloured version of this same species. Spectacular!

Once again, my photography didn't quite live up to the moment - but here goes -
Picture
I did say it was just a glimpse of paradise - but what a joy!
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: putting the tea (+ coffee) in T Nagar

18/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
T Nagar is the beating commercial heart of Chennai. It's where the big silk and sari shops are, and the glitzy jewellery stores, and where Pondi Bazaar pulls in the punters.

The locality's full name - which absolutely nobody uses - is Theagaraya Nagar and it was developed from the 1920s, though even the older commercial buildings now standing don't date back beyond the 1950s.

I went for a heritage walk round T Nagar this morning with Madras Inherited, looking at - among other things - the more traditional shops and businesses and the signage they use.
Picture
Pandian Coffees are traditional coffee roasters, producing the filter coffee for which South India is (justly) famous.

The signage is in enamel - a sign of something close to antiquity in this bustling, fast evolving neighbourhood (if it doesn't look all hustle-and-bustle in this photo, that's because it was taken at half-past-six in the morning).
Picture
Picture
Almost next door is a traditional men's hairdressers, complete with old style barber's chairs and mirrors. The signage here is striking - it's wood, with each letter (in Tamil and English) made individually.
Picture
The adjoining khadi store - selling goods made from home-spun cotton - has signs in three languages. The one in the middle in purple is Telugu, principally spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, but once widely spoken here by newcomers to the city from elsewhere in the south.
Picture
This is the most elegantly signed shopfront - the original business premises of Nalli's the famous sari shop. It has a massive store just next door. The lettering is in an Art Deco style font.

​Although the business was established in 1928, this shop and frontage dates from the early 1950s.
Picture
Gama Pens, famed for their fountain pens, no longer trades in T Nagar - though it still has a branch in George Town not too far away. But the electric signage remains in place, for the moment at least.
Picture
Salam Stores was still firmly shuttered when we went past, but it retains a loyal - if ageing - clientele.
Picture
Here's Ashmitha from Madras Inherited holding forth outside a shutter which invites the passer-by to have a cuppa - a pity that when the shutter is down, there's no cuppa on offer.
Picture
And if you are wondering what sort of people get up before dawn on a rain-soaked Saturday morning to walk round a range of shuttered shop fronts, here's your answer!
Picture
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: the irrepressible Annie Besant

14/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is Annie Besant - one of the most remarkable, and complex, figures in the annals of British radicalism.

She was in, the first halfof her life, a renowned and outspoken freethinker, advocate of birth control, Fabian socialist and campaigner for women's rights. Then in about 1890, when she was in her forties, she came across theosophy, a spiritual movement which sought to syncretise the best of the principal global religions and which drew particularly on Hinduism and Buddhism.

Besant moved to Madras (now Chennai) in South India, the global centre of the theosophist movement, and it became her principal home for the rest of her life. She remained a radical, becoming prominent in the Indian nationalist and home rule movements, and she was an ardent supporter of women's suffrage. 
Picture
This excellent portrait - which I had never seen before - is in the small but well-kept and recently refurbished museum at the theosophists' international HQ at Adyar in Chennai. You can feel the sternness in that gaze!

Adyar is where Besant died and was cremated in 1933. The theosophist HQ also has a bust of Besant.
Picture
What I hadn't realised until I visited the museum was that Besant was also a very active freemason. One of the display cases exhibits dozens of engraved plasterers' trowels presented to Besant by women masons in India.

When I said to the German theosophist who presides over the museum: 'Besant was a mason?!', he replied - very reasonably: 'What wasn't she?'
Picture
The sprawling Adyar campus, and the theosophists' headquarters building, looked serene - better cared for than on my previous visit and altogether a wonderful place to spend a couple of hours.

I was a little underwhelmed by the Giant Banyan Tree, but the roosting fruit bats were something else!
Picture
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: all change at Egmore station

11/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
The rail station at Egmore is an Indo-Saracenic architectural masterpiece. It's huge, glorious and a throwback to another era. 
​

Some of the detail is simply stunning. Take a look above the portico - there's an ornate elephant, the symbol of the South Indian Railway Company (now Southern Railways which explains why the 'I' has been painted out).

The station was inaugurated on 11 June 1908, almost forty years before India gained independence. In a city which has some spectacular buildings, this station is certainly among Chennai's highlights.
Picture
Picture
Picture
My visit this morning was prompted by a newspaper article extolling the majesty of Egmore station - and disclosing that it's about to undergo a three-year redevelopment programme. While this will respect the original structure and design, the rail station will, once spruced up, 'wear the look of an airport', according to Southern Railways.

This doesn't strike me as hugely reassuring. I hope INTACH and other organisations which have a marevllous record in safeguarding's Chennai's architectural heritage can ensure that the spirit, elegance and charm of the original building is maintained.
Picture
The detail in and around the entrance hall is entrancing - you don't get any of this at Euston or Waterloo, more's the pity.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The station's upkeep isn'tperfect - but it is a much used, and loved, terminus. And generally, it's not in too bad a state.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Egmore has some of those institutions which are such a hallmark of an Indian railway station, though they do sometime alarm foreign visitors ...
Picture
Picture
And from the walkways you can catch a glimpse of an even more elegant and historic Egmore building, St Andrew's Scots Kirk (the rear entry to the station is just alongside the Kirk)
Picture
While at the station, I saw a sign pointing up a sturdy wooden staircase to the retiring rooms, so that's where I went ... 
Picture
Picture
These rooms which passengers can hire for a few hours or overnight open onto a light, spacious outdoor corridor - which has the feel of one of the oldest and least changed corners of this magnificent structure
Picture
And a terrace on top of the portico offers a marvellous vantage point on the station's sumptuous frontage
Picture
Let's hope that the splendour of Egmore station is enhanced rather than diluted as the redevelopment work gets underway.
Picture
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: soul station

9/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Indira Nagar station - a building so vast and ugly it gives brutalism a bad name - is now a riot of colour and hope. It features the largest panoramic mural in India, or at least it was the largest when unveiled two years ago.

The wall painting stretches over 63,000 square feet and features five huge faces - or rather, split faces because each face is a composite of two similarly sized but mis-matching half faces.
Picture
This spectacular piece of public art also has a noble purpose - to tackle the stigma so often faced by those living with HIV. It combines the portraits of those with the virus and those without.
Picture
​But of course you can't tell the difference. That's the point. We are all the same.
Picture
I suspect that most of those who drive by don't get the HIV message. But they do get the majesty of such kindly, everyday faces looking out on one of Chennai's busiest highways. 
Picture
And a shout-out for the artists - the Chennai-based street artist A-Kill and Khatra from Delhi.
Picture
I can't think of a more ambitious and effective piece of public art.
Picture
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: a not so 'strategic location'

7/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Whatever it says on the hoarding, I don't think this guy sitting above one of Chennai's busiest and fastest roads is 'experiencing the benefit' of this 'strategic location'.

He's trying to adjust the lighting on the billbord while sitting astride it forty feet or so above the road. No harness, no safety gear, no partial road closure - nothing.
A police patrol was positioned directly under the footbridge, pouncing on unsuspecting motorcyclists and fining them for something or other. But the police didn't bat an eyelid about the high rise recklessness on display above them.
Picture
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: holy cow

5/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
I seem to remember that "holy cow" was Boy Robin's catchphrase in the Batman TV programmes of my childhood. And of course in Hinduism, the cow is holy (though perhaps sacred might be a better word).

You are reminded of that forcefully at some of the bigger Hindu temples here in Chennai. Cows, or more probably bulls to judge by their splendid horns, loiter round the perimeter of the temple. Their horns are sometimes vividly painted. Street vendors sell foilage, a wispy plant with small leaves (anyone know what it is?) which the devout buy simply to feed to these cows.

And my, when there's some fresh food on offer, those cows go for it! Bystander beware!! It has something of the effect of throwing bread to the ducks in the park pond - except these beasts could flatten you in their determination to get to the grub.
Picture
These temple cows are very different from the much more placid beasts you still sometimes come across in the city's back streets. The painted horn type own the road - it's you who have to give way. A truck or bus may oblige them to give ground, but anyone else gets out of their way if they are wise.
Picture
I came across these impressive beasts this weekend in Triplicane, an inner-city locality.

​But then strolling along a back street, I glanced through an open door and saw this ...
Picture
It coudn't be a cow, could it, in someone's front parlour? Of course not! It was two cows!!
Picture
I tried to peek in, but that made the cows restless - and there was a man with them, probably milking them. So I let them all get on with it.

I asked a Chennai-ite whether cows indoors were a common sight. She commented that she'd never seen such a thing before.

​I know what Boy Robin would have said ...
0 Comments

Chennai 7-Up: a dekko at Indo-Deco

4/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Up early this morning - really early - for a marvellous heritage walk with Madras Inherited (a big shout out to Ashmitha and Muna). We gathered at half-past-six, just as it was getting light, and ended the walk two hours later with a traditional Tamil breakfast (dosa, idli, sambar, vada, coconut chutney. fantastic filter coffee) in a local mess or cafe.

We walked through Triplicane in Chennai's inner city. It has an ancient Hindu temple, a commanding mosque and the palace of the Nawab of Arcot. It also has a reputation as an area where incomers to Chennai congregate, because it's central and you can get cheap accommodation amid the congested back streets.

But this walk focussed on the houses of Triplicane, and the amazing mix of architectural styles you can find if you look around you: traditional (both religious and secular), neo-classical, Ind0-Saracenic, Art Deco (quite a lot of this, delightfully) ...

And Indo-Deco. Think a fusion cuisine sort of thing as applied to architecture. The sharp lines and perpendiculars of Art Deco with some archetypally Indian elements added. Take the image above - the sun bursts are a staple of Art Deco, but the swastika is 'desi'.
Picture
I was taken by the detail - the ironwork on doors and balconies, the lattice-style screens to shield tiny verandahs, all the care with which designers crafts people and householders have marked out their property and given it distinction.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
But we started with a dekko - an English slang loan word from Hindi, where 'dekko' is an imperative meaning: look! - at an old traditional single storey building, with clay tiles and much patched up roof. Several of these buildings survive, though most have been replaced by three- and four-storey houses. 
Picture
On the roof, you can see a rather battered terracotta head. This was placed to ward off evil spirits.

​If I was an evil spirit (I'm not!) I'm not sure this fairly genial likeness would be enough to keep me at bay - but perhaps it has helped to keep this building standing when so many others of its kind have gone.
Picture
The man whose house this is clearly takes great pride in its antiquity. But it's an open question how much longer these almost anachronistic architectural remnants of an earlier era will survive. 
Picture
0 Comments

'The Hindu Bard' - the book that took more than a century to publish

3/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's taken an awfully long time. But thanks to the Welsh women's press Honno, and to my wonderful co-editor Mohini Gupta, a collection of Dorothy Bonarjee's poetry has appeared in print for the first time. Not only that, it's included in Honno's Welsh Women's Classics series.

Almost all these poems were written while Dorothy was a student at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth from 1912 to 1916 and shortly afterwards.

The book is very handsomely produced and sells for just £10.99 - it's available from gwales.com as well as the usual online behemoths. And this is not simply an antiquarian exercise - Dorothy's poems, many of which were published in journals in Wales, are powerful, elegiac, often troublingly sad, and eminently worth reading.
Picture
Dorothy Bonarjee, in striped blouse, while a student at Aberystwyth
Dorothy Bonarjee is renowned for winning the bardic chair at the UCW Eisteddfod in 1914 - the first woman and the first overseas student to achieve that distinction. Only a few lines of the winning poem have survived, but that triumph gave Bonarjee the confidence to  embark on a very productive few years of writing. She was published by a monthly, the Welsh Outlook, as well as by the UCW journal, The Dragon.

These poems and their author might well have been forgotten but for the detemination of Dorothy's niece, Sheela Bonarjee, who has championed her Auntie Dorf and her poetry. She also safeguarded the black exercise book in which Dorothy set down many of her poems. 

Dorothy Bonarjee was born in India to a Bengali brahmin family which had converted to Christiantity. She came to England aged about ten and never headed back to India. It's a remarkable story - told here and at more length in the book - which I also explored in a radio documentary for the BBC World Service:
Hardly any of Dorothy Bonarjee's verse touches on India or her own Indian background. But there's a strong sense of the trauma and dislocation caused by the First World War. And there's also a reflection of a very personal anguish.

This is the note she wrote much later in life about one of her poems:
Picture
The poem Dorothy Bonarjee is referring to in this note is 'Renunciation'. Here's Mohini Gupta reading it:
I do hope you are tempted to read the book. We need your support - and Honno deserves strong sales. You won't be disappointed!
Picture
Dorothy and her son Denis in 1922. Sadly, Denis died in infancy.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Andrew Whitehead's blog

    Welcome - read - comment - throw stones - pick up threads - and tell me how to do this better!

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All
    1857
    648
    A.A. Gill
    Absolute Beginners
    Adrian Mitchell
    Afghanistan
    Africa
    Agra
    Aird Uig
    Ajanta
    Akbar Khan
    Alan Dein
    Alexander Baron
    Alexandra Park
    Algarve
    Alys Faiz
    Amit Chaudhuri
    Amwell
    Anarchism
    Anc
    Andy Roth
    Anna Bhushan
    Annie Besant
    Anthony Cronin
    Anthony Kirk-Greene
    April Fool
    Archives
    Archway
    Armenian Church
    Arnold Circus
    Arnold Wesker
    Arsenal
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    Arthur Morrison
    Arthur Whitehead
    Atlanta
    Attia Hosain
    Ayahs' Home
    Baden Powell
    Badges
    Bangalore
    Bangladesh
    Barbican
    Batley
    Battersea
    Battyeford
    Ben Chisnall
    Bernard Kops
    Bessie Braddock
    Bethnal Green
    Bill Fishman
    Bjp
    Blackberries
    Blackfriars
    Blackwall
    Bloodsucker Stanley
    Bloomsbury
    Blue Carbuncle
    Blustons
    Bob Dylan
    Boer PoWs
    Bombay
    Borowitz
    Boundary Passage
    Boundary Street Estate
    Brendan Behan
    Brick Lane
    Bridget Riley
    British Library
    Britishness
    Broadway Market
    Bronterre O'Brien
    Burgh Castle
    Burma
    Burston Strike School
    Bus
    Bush House
    Buzzard
    Cable Street
    Calcutta
    Caledonian Road
    Camden
    Canvassing
    Cape Coast
    Captain Wimbush
    Carmarthen
    Cashmere
    Cecil Tyndale-Biscoe
    Charles Bradlaugh
    Charles Darwin
    Charles Dickens
    Charles Pooter
    Charlie Gillett
    Charlotte Despard
    Chartists
    Chelsea
    Chennai
    China
    China In London
    Churchill
    Clapham
    Clapton
    Clerkenwell
    Clive Branson
    C.N. Annadurai
    Cnd
    Cochin
    'Cohen The Crooner'
    Colin Macinnes
    Colin Ward
    College Lane
    Common Wealth
    Communists
    Connaught Place
    Contemporary India
    Cormorant
    Covent Garden
    Covered Reservoir
    Crete
    Cricket
    Cricks Corner
    Cromer
    Cromer Street
    Crouch End
    Curious Kentish Town
    Cyril Satorsky
    Dalston
    Dan Chatterton
    Dante
    Dartmouth Park
    David Edgar
    Delaware
    Delhi
    Denis Healey
    Denmark Street
    Derby
    D.H. Lawrence
    Dina Wadia
    Docklands
    Dorothy 'Dorf' Bonarjee
    Dorset
    Dr Quraishi
    Earl Cameron
    Earl's Court
    Easby
    Easingwold
    East End
    Edinburgh
    Education
    Edward Truelove
    Ela Sen
    Election 2010
    Emerald Court
    Emmanuel Swedenborg
    English Civil War
    Ephemera
    E.P. Thompson
    Eric Hobsbawm
    Ewan Maccoll
    Fabians
    Facebook
    Fairport Convention
    Faith
    Faiz Ahmed Faiz
    Faroes
    Fergal Keane
    Fermin Rocker
    Fiction As History
    Finsbury
    Fitzrovia
    Fleet River
    Fortis Green
    Frank Bostock
    Frank Kitz
    Freda Bedi
    Fred Bakunin
    'Freedom'
    Fresh Garbage
    Fulham
    Gallan Head
    GE2015
    George E. Harris
    George 'Jonah' Jones
    George Orwell
    Ghana
    Ghost Signs
    Gibbons
    Gildersome
    Glasgow
    Godstow
    Golders Green
    Gordon Brown
    Gospel Oak
    Graham Greene
    Grand Union Canal
    Granta
    Grateful Dead
    Greenwich
    Ground Zero
    Guardian
    Guy Aldred
    Hackney
    Hadleigh Castle
    Haggerston
    Hammersmith
    Hampstead Heath
    Hangover Square
    Harry Pollitt
    Headopoly
    Henry George
    Herbert Read
    Herons
    H.H. Asquith
    H.H. Champion
    Highgate
    Highgate Camp
    Highgate Cemetery
    Hindi
    History Workshop
    H.M. Hyndman
    Holborn
    Holloway
    Holly Village
    Holywell Street
    Hoopoe
    'HOPE'
    Hornbeam
    Hornsey
    Houndsditch
    Huddersfield
    Huddersfield Town
    Iain Sinclair
    Ian Jack
    Ibex House
    Iceland
    Igor Clark
    ILP
    India
    India In London
    Indian Students
    Indira Gandhi
    Ireland
    Ironbridge
    Islington
    Jack Kerouac
    Jago
    Jean McCrindle
    Jeff Cloves
    Jericho
    Jethro Tull
    Jill Mcgivering
    Jinnah
    John Cornford
    John Pym
    John Rety
    John Simonds
    Joseph Grimaldi
    Jyoti Basu
    Kamala Markandaya
    Karachi
    Karaganda
    Karl Marx
    Kashmir
    Kensal Green
    Kensal Rise
    Kentish Town
    Khorshed Italia
    Kilburn
    King Dido
    King's Cross
    Knossos
    Kohima
    Kovalam
    Labour Party
    Lahore
    Land And Labour League
    Land Song
    Las Vegas
    Latin
    Laura Del-Rivo
    Laurence Hope
    Lavenham
    Lawrence Ferlinghetti
    Leeds
    Leeds Postcards
    Leicester
    Leonard Motler
    Leyton Orient
    Lgs
    Lib Dems
    Libya
    Limehouse
    Lincoln's Inn
    Liverpool
    Liz Rorison
    Lodhi Gardens
    Loft
    London Fields
    London Occasionals
    London View
    London Views
    Lost And Starving Dogs
    Louisiana Bayou
    Lowdham
    Lower Marsh
    Lucknow
    Madurai
    Mahatma Gandhi
    Major Cartwright
    Malden Road
    Malta
    Margaret Harkness
    Margaret Thatcher
    Margaret Whitehead
    Marie Stopes
    Marques & Co.
    Marrakesh
    Martand
    Martin Boon
    Martin Carthy
    Marylebone
    Mary Wollstonecraft
    Maurice Margarot
    Max Bacon
    May Morris
    Michael Foot
    Mildmay Club
    Mile End
    Mirza Waheed
    Monopoly
    Monteath Mausoleum
    Moravians
    Morley
    Mortimer Terrace
    Mosque
    Mumbai
    Muridke
    Muriel Walker
    Museum In Docklands
    Muswell Hill
    Myanmar
    Nairobi
    Narendra Modi
    National Secular Society
    Nedou
    Nehru
    New Left
    New River
    New York
    NHS
    Noida
    Novotel
    Old Delhi
    Olympics
    Oral History
    Orange Street
    Orkney
    Oxford
    Oz
    Paintballing
    Parakeets
    Parkland Walk
    Parsees
    Partition
    Pat Dooley
    Patrick Hamilton
    Peeli Wali
    Peggy Seeger
    Pendragon Castle
    Penny Black
    Peter Kropotkin
    Peterloo
    Philip Spratt
    Poetry
    Political Badges
    Political Pamphlets
    Political Song
    Pondicherry
    Primrose Hill
    Pubs
    Queen
    Queen's Crescent
    Queen's Park
    Quiz
    Radio
    Raj
    Rajiv Gandhi
    Ram Advani
    Ram Nahum
    Ramsay Macdonald
    Rangoon
    Raph Samuel
    Reading
    Red Beryl
    Red Herring
    Red Kite
    Reform League
    Regents Park
    Rena Stewart
    Rent Strike
    Rethymnon
    Reynold Eunson
    Rhubarb
    Richard Carlile
    Richard Thompson
    Richmond
    Riff Raff Poets
    Rinkoffs
    Ripping Yarns
    Robert Blatchford
    Robert Bradnock
    Robert Owen
    Robert Peel
    Roger Casement
    Rolling Stones
    Rosa Branson
    Rosie Hogarth
    Roy Amlot
    Rude Britannia
    Rudolf Rocker
    Sachin Pilot
    Saffron
    Saklatvala
    Sam Lesser
    Samye Ling
    Sanchita Islam
    San Francisco
    'Sapphire'
    Sarah Wise
    Sarmila Bose
    Sausages
    Scottish Borders
    Sekondi
    Sheikh Abdullah
    Shetland
    Shoreditch
    Shrew
    Sidis
    Sidney Street
    Simla
    Sir Francis Burdett
    Sir Frederick Sykes
    Slavery
    Smiley Sun
    Sobha Singh
    Socialist Worker
    South Africa
    Southall
    Spanish Civil War
    SPGB
    Spinalonga
    Spitalfields
    Srinagar
    Stairway To Heaven
    Stalin
    Stanley Hall
    Stanley Menezes
    St Barnabas
    Stepney
    Steptoe And Son
    Steve Winwood
    St Giles
    St Martin's
    Stoke Newington
    Stork
    St Pancras
    Stroud Green
    Strumpet
    Stuart Hall
    Subhas Bose
    Susie Crockett
    Tariq Ali
    Tate Britain
    Tazi Shahnawaz
    Thames
    Theosophy
    The Pamphleteer
    Thomas Bolas
    Thomas Paine
    Thomas Spence
    Tibetan Muslims
    Tichborne
    Tom Mann
    Tommy Jackson
    Tom Paine
    Torriano
    Tottenham
    Toyah Sofaer
    Trump Protest
    Tube Disaster
    Tufnell Park
    Turtles
    Twitter
    Tyburn
    Uher
    Ukraine
    Underground
    Unitarians
    Unity Theatre
    Upper Street
    Usw
    Vale Of Health
    Victoria Cross
    Vikings
    Vinyl
    Vizag
    Walter Batty
    Walter Crane
    Walthamstow
    Wankers
    Warren Street
    Wartime Propaganda
    War Writing
    Waterlow Park
    West Bengal
    Whidborne Street
    White Heat
    Whittington
    Whittington Park
    Willesden
    William John Pinks
    William Morris
    Woodberry Wetlands
    World Cup
    World Music
    World Service
    Wren
    York Rise
    Zadie Smith
    Zainul Abedin
    Zina Rohan
    Zombies

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Enthusiasms
    • London Fictions >
      • Alexander Baron
      • A walk round Baron's manor
      • John Sommerfield >
        • John Sommerfield Archive
        • John Sommerfield's Spanish notebook
        • John Sommerfield, 'More Room for Us'
      • Lynne Reid Banks
      • "Against the Tyranny of Kings and Princes": radicalism in George Gissing's 'Workers in the Dawn'
      • 'Beyond Boundary Passage'
      • 'London' by Dorf Bonarjee
    • A Mission in Kashmir >
      • Full text: A Mission in Kashmir
      • 'The People's Militia: Communists and Kashmiri nationalism in the 1940s'
      • The Rise and Fall of New Kashmir
      • The Making of the 'New Kashmir' manifesto
      • 'For the Conversion of Kashmir'
      • 'I shall paint my nails with the blood of those that covet me'
      • Freda Bedi looking 'From a Woman's Window' on Kashmir
      • Kashmir 1947: Testimonies of a Contested History
      • Kashmir @ 70
      • Kashmir 47 Images
      • Kashmir 47 on film
      • Kashmir 47 in fiction
      • Father Shanks's Kashmir 'Diary'
      • Krishna Misri: 1947, a year of change
      • Shanti Ambardar: Kashmir 1947
    • The O'Brienites >
      • Martin Boon
      • Dan Chatterton
      • George E. Harris
      • John Radford and the Kansas colony
      • Edward Truelove
      • 'New World'
    • Clerkenwell >
      • Popular Politics and Social Structure in Clerkenwell >
        • The Residents of Clerkenwell
        • The Occupational Structure of Clerkenwell
        • Clerkenwell and Reform
        • Fenians, Reformers and the Clerkenwell "Outrage"
        • Clerkenwell: Socialism Finds a Niche
        • Clerkenwell: Not Forgetting the Anarchists
      • Red London: radicals and socialists in late-Victorian Clerkenwell
      • Patriotic Club
    • NW5 and Around
  • Voices
    • Partition Voices >
      • Partition Voices: L.K. Advani
      • Partition Voices: Ram Advani
      • Partition Voices: Qazi Ghulam Ajmiri
      • Partition Voices: Angela Aranha
      • Partition Voices: Helen Baldwin
      • Partition Voices: Bali family
      • Partition Voices: Edward Behr
      • Partition Voices: Benazir Bhutto
      • Partition Voices: H.K. Burki
      • Partition Voices: Sailen Chatterjee
      • Partition Voices: Pran Chopra
      • Partition Voices: K.S. + Ayesha Duggal
      • Partition Voices: Alys Faiz
      • Partition Voices: Jugal Chandra Ghosh
      • Partition Voices: Ashoka Gupta
      • Partition Voices: I.K. Gujral
      • Partition Voices: Syed Najmuddin Hashim
      • Partition Voices: Khorshed Italia
      • Partition Voices: Pran Nath Jalali
      • Partition Voices: D.N. Kaul
      • Partition Voices: Jolly Mohan Kaul
      • Partition Voices: Basant Kaur
      • Partition Voices: Betty Keyes
      • Partition Voices: Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan
      • Partition Voices: Usha Khanna
      • Partition Voices: Frank Leeson
      • Partition Voices: Abdul Ghani Lone
      • Partition Voices: Gopal 'Patha' Mukherjee
      • Partition Voices: Kuldip Nayar
      • Partition Voices: Amrita Pritam
      • Partition Voices: Francis Rath
      • Partition Voices: Annada Sankar Ray
      • Partition Voices: Bhisham Sahni
      • Partition Voices: Sat Paul Sahni
      • Partition Voices: Sir Ian Scott
      • Partition Voices: Sir Paul Scott
      • Partition Voices: Sheila Sengupta
      • Partition Voices: Mahmooda Ahmad Ali Shah + Sajida Zameer Ahmad
      • Partition Voices: Bapsi Sidhwa & Urvashi Butalia
      • Partition Voices: Air Marshal Arjan Singh
      • Partition Voices: Bir Bahadur Singh
      • Partition Voices: Karan Singh
      • Partition Voices: Khushwant Singh
      • Partition Voices: Shingara Singh
      • Partition Voices: H.S. Surjeet
      • Partition Voices: Ben and Marguerite Suter
      • Partition Voices: Leela Thompson
      • Partition Voices: K.B. Vaid
    • Kashmir Voices >
      • Kashmir Voices: Asiya Andrabi
      • Kashmir Voices: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
      • Kashmir Voices: George Fernandes
      • Kashmir Voices: General J.R. Mukherjee
      • Kashmir Voices: Abdullah Muntazir
      • Kashmir Voices: Ali Mohammad Sagar
      • Kashmir Voices: Syed Salahuddin
    • Communist Voices >
      • Communist Voices: Manmohan Adhikari
      • Communist Voices: Jyoti Basu
      • Communist Voices: Brian Bunting
      • Communist Voices: Guillermo Cabrera Infante
      • Communist Voices: Benoy Choudhury
      • Communist Voices: Anima Dasgupta
      • Communist Voices: Sailen Dasgupta
      • Communist Voices: Denis Goldberg
      • Communist Voices: Grootvlie miners
      • Communist Voices: Indrajit Gupta
      • Communist Voices: Chris Hani
      • Communist Voices: Lionel Martin
      • Communist Voices: Vishwanath Mathur
      • Communist Voices: Geeta Mukherjee
      • Communist Voices: E.M.S. Namboodiripad
      • Communist Voices: John Rettie
    • Political Voices >
      • Political Voices: Sally Alexander
      • Political Voices: Lou Appleton
      • Political Voices: Murray Bookchin
      • Political Voices: Fenner Brockway
      • Political Voices: Tony Cliff
      • Political Voices: Nellie Dick
      • Political Voices: Leah Feldman
      • Political Voices: Jeffrey Hamm
      • Political Voices: Denis Healey
      • Political Voices: Eric Hobsbawm
      • Political Voices: Ian Mikardo
      • Political Voices: Mick Mindel
      • Political Voices: Adrian Mitchell
      • Political Voices: Phil Piratin
      • Political Voices: Betty Reid
      • Political Voices: Fermin Rocker
      • Political Voices: Ralph Russell
      • Political Voices: John Saville
      • Political Voices: Alfred Sherman
      • Political Voices: Screaming Lord Sutch
      • Political Voices: Dorothy Thompson
      • Political Voices: E.P. Thompson
      • Political Voices: Tom Wilson
      • Political Voices: Harry Young
      • The Land Song
      • Harry Pollitt on disc
    • The British New Left >
      • New Left: T.J. Clark
      • New Left: Chuck Taylor
      • New Left: Headopoly
    • South Asia
    • Burma
  • Collecting
    • Political Pamphlets
    • Political Journals
    • Political Badges
    • Political Tokens
    • Political Ephemera
  • Radio Gems
    • 'What's Left of Communism?'
    • 'India: a people partitioned'
    • India's Minorities
    • Documentaries and Features
    • From Our Own Correspondent >
      • FOOC: Working at Westminster 1990
      • FOOC: Ulster's Talking Shop 1991
      • FOOC: House Rules at Westminster 1992
      • FOOC: India's Red Fort State
      • FOOC: Keeping Kosher in Cuba
      • FOOC: Italy's Gourmand Communists 1992
      • FOOC: Scoundrel Politicians - 1993
      • FOOC: Kashmir's New Puritans 1993
      • FOOC: The Rajah of Bihar 1993
      • FOOC: Bringing the Gospel to Mizoram 1993
      • FOOC: Netaji, India's Lost Leader 1994
      • FOOC: A Self-Respect Wedding 1994
      • FOOC: The Miseries of Manipur 1994
      • FOOC: Village Bangladesh 1994
      • FOOC: Calcutta's Communists Discover Capitalism 1995
      • FOOC: Localism in Ladakh 1995
      • FOOC: Bhutan, not quite Paradise
      • FOOC: Crime and Indian Politics 1995
      • FOOC: Sonia Gandhi 1995
      • FOOC: Sri Lanka's Missing Leaders 1995
      • FOOC: India Votes 1996
      • FOOC: Communism Revisited 1996
      • FOOC: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 1996
      • FOOC: Kerala's Jewish Community 1996
      • FOOC: India's Corruption Scandals 1996
      • FOOC: The Maldives Crowded Capital 1996
      • FOOC: India's Polluted Capital 1996
      • FOOC: Jinnah, Pakistan's Quaid 1997
      • FOOC: Mauritius, an Indian Ocean melting pot
      • FOOC: The Hijras Blessing 1998
      • FOOC: Massacre at Baramulla 2003
      • FOOC: An Old Photo from Kashmir 2007
      • FOOC: Prosperity Driven from Detroit 2008
      • FOOC: An Atheist in MLK's Atlanta2013
      • FOOC: San Francisco's City Lights 2014
      • FOOC: Kashmir Revisited 2014
      • FOOC: By Ferry in Burma 2014
      • FOOC: Toyah's Grave 2017
      • FOOC: The Tibetan Colony in Kashmir 2017
      • FOOC: Stars of Tamil Politics 2018
      • FOOC: Koreans in Chennai 2018
      • FOOC: Epitaph to Empire 2019
      • FOOC: Armenians in India 2019
      • FOOC: Lahore's Bradlaugh Hall 2020
    • What's your favourite political song?
    • London Snapshots
  • Writing
    • Bibliography
    • Tramping Artisans
    • Working Class Housing in Jericho, Oxford
    • New Statesman
    • The Freethinker
    • Outlook
    • Asian Age
    • Indian Express
    • miscellaneous writing
  • Gallery
  • Contact