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

Happy campers

Dennis Hardy, one of the authors of our new edition of Goodnight Campers! was interviewed for Happy Campers - the story of Britain's holiday camps, coming out on BBC Radio 2 at 10.00pm on Tuesday 31 August. If he makes the cut he'll be joining Johnny Ball, Russell Grant, Alvin Stardust and Status Quo. Our book goes back to the socialist and trade union pioneer camps, some of which directly segued into the world of Billy Butlin, Pontins and Warners. Goodnight Campers! is not officially out until later in the year, but we have copies already and they can be ordered via http://www.fiveleaves.co.uk/. Hi-de-hi's all round.

Colin Ward memorial meeting

About 200 people attended the Colin Ward memorial/celebration meeting at Conway Hall last Saturday. The audience comprised a mixture of grizzled activists (but enough about me), former New Society hacks, professional colleagues of Colin's from his assorted planning and environmental education jobs and people once press-ganged into writing articles for Anarchy. There were even some young people.
Ken Worpole - organiser in chief - ran things smoothly, subtly dropping a note on the podium when speakers began to go on a bit. Worpole himself described Colin's message as a challenge for the political right and the left, and all described his positive thinking, his humour, his knowledge across so many disciplines and his ability to be the first to write about issues before the public even realised they were issues. An example here might be his writing on the international water crisis of which we are now all aware. Not bad for someone who left school at 15 with no qualifications.
The star of the show was Harriet Ward, wittily describing how she set out to win Colin's affections some 45 years ago, including offering him lifts home since she was "going that way", while noting that she lived in the exact opposite direction. Strangely she also happened to pass his door when he was coming out in the mornings to offer a lift again (having, she confessed, parked up the road waiting on him to appear).
The other star of the show was Colin himself, an extract from a two hour interview with the late Roger Deakin being shown. Colin talked about the early days of his involvement with the Freedom group. The whole DVD is available from Housmans bookshop.
Five Leaves - opportunists that we are - brought forward the release of a new edition of Colin Ward and Dennis Hardy's Goodnight Campers! A History of the British Holiday Camp and we made good inroads into the copies on sale. Copies are available from www.inpressbooks.co.uk/goodnight_campers_the_history_of_the_british_holiday_camp_dennis_hardy_colin_ward_i022041.asp
Thanks to all who spoke, attended, or donated to cover the cost of hiring Conway Hall for the afternoon.

Colin Ward, Anarchist, 1924 - 2010

'Think of others...'
Memorial and Celebration of Colin's life and work
Saturday, 10 July 2010, 2.00pm-5.00pm
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1
All welcome
Ken Worpole: Colin Ward and the anarchism of everyday life
"Colin Ward in conversation with Roger Deakin", introduced by Mike Dibb
Harriet Ward: On meeting Colin Ward
Stuart White: Colin Ward: making anarchism respectable, but not too respectable
Peter Marshall: Colin Ward in the history of Anarchism
Tony Fyson: Colin Ward at work
Dennis Hardy: On the margins