Thursday 3 February 2011

Remembering Colin Ward 1924-2010

Five Leaves has published a 52 page booklet celebrating the life of our friend and writer Colin Ward. The booklet comprises transcipts of the speeches at Colin's funeral and the subsequent memorial meeting. The contributors are Eileen Adams, David Downes, Dennis Hardy, Tony Fyson, Peter Hall, Roman Krznaric, Peter Marshall, John Pilgrim, Ben Ward, Harriet Ward, George West, Stuart White and Ken Worpole. Ken insisted that Harriet, Ben and I were listed as joint editors, but he is really responsible, as he was for the memorial meeting at Conway Hall last year. Our thanks to him. The contributors range from old work colleagues to some of his many joint editors. The booklet ends with a select bibliography.
Colin has been mentioned in this blog before, but for those who do not know him, he was someone who made anarchism respectable, but not too respectable (to quote from Stuart White's contribution). His anarchism was pluralist and practical. It drew inspiration from writers of the past including Kropotkin and Gustav Landauer but was firmly rooted in the present. He was the author of about thirty books, founded and edited Anarchy and the Bulletin of Environmental Education and was a contributing editor to Freedom.
Copies are being sent to the many people who contributed to the costs of the Conway Hall meeting and will shortly be for sale at Freedom, AK, Active and Housmans. Meantime Remembering Colin Ward is available for a fiver, post free, from: http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/remembering_colin_ward_19242010_eileen_adams_peter_hall_dennis_hardy_i022222.aspx

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