Jewish Socialist mag

Here's a shout for the new issue of Jewish Socialist magazine (issue 62). The issue includes a couple of pages by J David Simons on the background to his two Five Leaves' historical fiction books set in Jewish Glasgow, The Credit Draper and The Liberation of Celia Kahn. The former stemmed from stories of members of his own family selling drapery on credit door to door, or more exactly croft to croft in the Highlands; the latter stemming from a meeting with me at Jewish Book Week when I talked about one of the characters in his first novel (the Celia Kahn character) "as if she was a real person" and that not enough had been written about Jews and socialism in Scotland, which "simple remark heralded the birth of a novel". I'm now worried that he was thinking I could not tell the difference between characters in novels and real people. (And that was before I mentioned my imaginary friend...). But he did write the second novel.

Elsewhere in the magazine our Jazz Jews writer Mike Gerber explores the connection between Jews and boxing, while the writer of our forthcoming Battle for the East End book on Cable Street, David Rosenberg argues with David Cameron about multi-culturalism. The other stand out pieces in a very good issue of the mag includes a long report of a speech by Afif Safieh, the PLO's Roving Ambassador for Special Missions (an old friend of the Jewish Socialists' Group) and an article by Paul Collins on Victor Gollancz, founder of War on Want, the Left Book Club and the once influential publishing house that carried his name. The current issue costs £2.50 including postage from Jewish Socialist, BM 3725, London WC1N 3XX and a four issue subscription costs £10 from the same address.