Not sure if I am a radical booktrade historian, but happy to support this event

RED DWARF’S ROBERT LLEWELLYN JOINS NEWS FROM NOWHERE IN DISSENT

News from Nowhere, Liverpool’s unique Radical & Community Bookshop continues its 40^th Birthday celebrations with a one-off

WeBe40 Radical Bookfair & Spaces of Dissent

Sunday 1^st June at the Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool 1 from 11am to 6pm

There will be three Spaces of Dissent throughout the day:

• Poetry as Dissent at 12noon features Steph Pike & Clare Shaw, both powerful and uncompromising wordsmiths, who have audiences laughing, crying, enraged … and often all three.

• Radical Bookselling, Radical Times at 2pm features Ross Bradshaw, radical booktrade historian and Bob Dent, News from Nowhere’s founder, enlightening us on the way in which radical bookshops have interacted with and reflected the politics of the times.

• Fiction as Dissent at 4pm will feature Robert Llewellyn. Robert played Kryten in Red Dwarf and was the presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, but is now also the author of an eco-utopian trilogy, “News from Gardenia” inspired by William Morris’s “News from Nowhere” from which we took our name. In addition we have Desiree Reynolds, a Black British novelist whose stunning debut novel, “Seduce”, will amuse, challenge and delight with its Caribbean setting and wonderful patois language.

We also have Subversive Children’s Storytelling sessions in the Garden at 12.30pm and 2.30pm with Andy Johnson & Jennifer Verson.

Along with Liverpool Socialist Singers at 1.30pm, Sense of Sound Singers at 3.30pm, Stan the Harp and various theatrical interventions, a great day is guaranteed for all lovers of literature, culture and freedom.

In addition, the current Bluecoat display of News from Nowhere’s archives continues throughout the day, we will have projections from our Live Reportage artist Sam Galbraith, an interactive Memories of News from Nowhere game, and our famous Bolshie Bargain Bookstall will tempt the crowds in via the front courtyard.

Expect special offers, a cornucopia of words and plenty of dissent!

The whole day is free, but (free) tickets are required from the Bluecoat for the three Spaces of Dissent sessions.

Mandy Vere says:

“Central to Bold Street’s revival and a major tourist attraction with national and international visitors citing it as a crucial destination, News from Nowhere is proud to be a space of dissent in arguably the most dissenting city in the country. We will continue to assert that there is no glory ever in war, that the 99% should not be made to pay for the greed of the 1%, and will always stand firmly on the side of the marginalized and the oppressed, while celebrating the human and cultural riches of our proud city of immigrants.”

Further info: Mandy Vere, News from Nowhere Bookshop, 96 Bold St, Liverpool L1 4HY

0151 708 7270 07732 983477 mandy@newsfromnowhere.org.uk

London Radical Bookfair - past, present and future

A few years ago three grizzled veterans of the radical book trade, Andrew Burgin (ex-Compendium, ex-Canary Press, dealer in second hand radical books), Tony Zurbrugg (Merlin Press, ex-Africa Book Centre, ex-York Community Books) and me (Ross Bradshaw, Five Leaves Publications, ex-Mushroom Bookshop) and the not-yet-but-soon-to-be grizzled Nik Gorecki of Housmans Bookshop started discussing how to stabilise or revive the remnants of the radical book trade. The discussion was inconclusive, but some time afterwards the Housmans Board (which I was then on) decided to set up what became the Alliance of Radical Booksellers. Our discussions were joined by Mandy Vere, who has been involved with News from Nowhere for the best part of forty years and other bookshops responded enthusiastically.
The ARB was formed at a meeting in Liverpool, as a light-touch organisation co-ordinated by Nik, at a day event which included a presentation on the history of radical bookselling. We also launched the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing. By this time there had been a couple of new shops opening and existing shops were reporting increased trade. Five Leaves did not yet have a bookshop but Ross from Five Leaves, Mandy and Nik formed the Trustees of Bread and Roses and the initial three years of the Award were underwritten by this firm.
David Graeber duly won the first Bread and Roses Award, presented at a social in a trade-union owned pub in London with his book on the debt crisis (published by Melville House). By the next year we were thinking of how to move things forward. It seemed obvious that with a captive group of speakers - those on the B & R shortlist - we had the core of a day event rather than simply a reception to hand over the cheque. Maybe we could add a few stalls? Six? Ten?
We'd noticed how the annual poetry book fair was developing and were aware of the longstanding, and very successful, London Anarchist Bookfair. Suddenly we were talking about a modest London Radical Bookfair, a bit like the Anarchist Bookfair but operating on a wider canvas. Andrew Burgin organised a decent room hire rate for Conway Hall and things were getting more serious. The organising group was to be Andrew, Nik and Ross. Andrew quickly found that he had to drop out as his small Left Unity project turned into a national political party of the same name. Ross had to drop out due to family issues, leaving Nik to organise the first London Radical Book Festival almost on his own, during which he realised that he could go into a zen-like trance and NOT panic about all the things that needed done... For a period it was not looking good. We were wondering whether many people would come, and, if they did, would we reach out to a wider radical community than we were used to. We did not want a radical re-enactment society. A last minute push (particularly a mass email from New Internationalist and Occupy London) brought in the people, lots of them. There were fifty stalls. Conway Hall was packed. Every meeting based on the shortlisted Bread and Roses Award was packed.
By now the Bread and Roses Award had produced an offspring, the Little Rebels Prize for the best radical children's book, organised by ARB member Letterbox Library. The winning adult book was Scattered Sand by Hsiao-Hung Pai (Verso), a book on Chinese internal-migrant labour. The first Little Rebel prize went to Sarah Garland for her graphic novel Azzi in Between (Frances Lincoln).
Looking down from the stage it was obvious the Bookfair had attracted a younger crowd, a wide range of radical people. Stalls reported good business. But it was too small. At its peak you could not get down the aisles. It was obvious there was a demand, and it was obvious we would have to move to bigger premises. The only, small, problem was an expected disagreement between some anarchists and the Socialist Workers Party.
Those bigger premises turned out to be Bishopsgate Institute, a radical library and continuing education establishment that faces into the City and backs on to Shoreditch. From our first approach, to Bishopsgate librarian Stefan Dickers, this was obviously the best choice. They had the space, they had their own mailing list and they wanted to bookend the bookfair with some radical talks and courses of their own. Perfect.
Except why stop at simply radical booksellers and publishers? Housmans had a good relationship with the Alternative Press Fair, an annual event run by artists, DIY publishers, zine producers. And there were three floors...
So now we had a big annual bookfair, a bookfair partner, links with the (younger and trendier!) Alternative Press Fair, a successful adult radical publishing prize and a new children's award. No money, no time, no staff... and while my family commitments had ceased I had a new bookshop to run on top of a publishing programme. Andrew Burgin was still off building a party. So that left Nik again,with the support of his colleagues at Housmans. At least it put the oldest radical bookshop in the UK, now well into its buspass years, at the heart of what is starting to be a thriving radical bookshop scene.
There were 130 stalls, attendance was up. Attendance was younger again. As well as the (packed) meetings about the shortlisted B & R books and a children's panel there were other events, including some aimed at the Alternative Press world, and a big event on the history of Black and Asian radical publishing and bookselling in Britain. The only, small, problem was another expected disagreement between some anarchists and the Socialist Workers Party. But that aside, Greens and alternative types happily rubbed shoulders with Marxists, anarchists with their other Trotskyist cousins, socialist historians chatted merrily to socialists who were too young to have any history. And, despite forgetting to bring the pop-up banner announcing our existence, Five Leaves Bookshop had its first London outing. All the shops did very well. I hope the publishers did too.
Bishopsgate people seemed very pleased as we spread over three floors. Nik looked Zen-like...
The winner of the Bread and Roses Award was Joe Glenton with his Soldier Box (Verso - winning for a second year). The award was accepted on his behalf by his organisation, Veterans for Peace, who reminded us that books should lead to action. Nobody would disagree. The Little Rebel prize went to After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross (OUP) which imagined a time when British people would have to seek refugee status, a book for 9-12 year olds.
So here we are. Little money, no staff, no infrastructure and a hit on our hands.
In concluding the bookfair Mandy Vere said that whilst bookselling was in crisis, the radical publishing and bookselling section was thriving and expanding. Indeed.
What next? I hope that we can return to Bishopsgate. I hope that the Alternative Press people liked the tie-up. We will aim to be repeat the whole exercise on the first Saturday after the May bank holiday next year. I hope we can pull in some funding to underwrite the prizes and the event. I hope that Nik has a day off next week and that Housmans will continue to be at the heart of this project. Small points? I'd like to see a take away brochure, like the one at the Anarchist Bookfair, though am aware of the work involved. I'd like to see the Bread and Roses and Little Rebels shortlist promoted more. I'd like to see... oh, all those things that involve more time and more money.
But when the grizzly ones had their initial discussions a few years ago we had little idea what would be the outcome. Steady as she goes.
http://littlerebelsaward.wordpress.com/
http://www.bread-and-roses.co.uk/
http://www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk/
http://londonradicalbookfair.wordpress.com/

39 years of News from Nowhere

I was pleased to be part of the Liverpool radical bookshop News from Nowhere's 39th birthday party, where we had an evening session based on the Five Leaves' book Utopia. The book featured a long history of the bookshop by Mandy Vere, who has been at NfN for 37 of those years. I worked in a radical bookshop for seventeen years, indicating some lack of commitment issues compared to Mandy. Indeed, the other four paid staff at the bookshop look like they'll eventually get a gold watch too. Gillian Darley also spoke, on the utopian Moravian community (from her chapter in the book) and other self-organised utopian communities and the local philanthropically-built Port Sunlight. We were interested to hear, from the audience, about some local housing schemes in Liverpool that are being self-organised, particularly in areas of high Irish-background occupancy, as a counter to the desperate economic situation people are in.
The event was also supposed to have Alun Parry singing utopian songs, but a family illness kept him away, with the wonderful Tayo Aluko (from Call Mr Robeson) depping at the last moment.
My own contribution - aside from talking about the contents of the book - was to draw out some strands from major utopian novels. Attitudes to decision-making and money, for example, in Thomas More's Utopia (actually, if NfN is really utopian the workers would scorn gold watches when the time arrives, as in Utopia gold was considered worthless metal and used only for cheap jewelry and chamber pots). News from Nowhere itself was written in response to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward - if socialism comes. Re-reading Bellamy I was impressed how many of his ideas came about. He predicted the credit card, that could be used internationally, and he called it "a credit card". His vision of retail was based on the model that Argos and, to some extent, Amazon use. He suggested a personal economic system which looked like the citizen's income idea popular in the Green Party, and some of the centralised services that did come about in the Soviet bloc.
News from Nowhere was, of course, more libertarian, more rural, more feminist, more child-centred... but re-reading the book I was aware it was written just a few years before William Morris died, after an exhausting political, artistic and personal life. The book opens with "William Guest" after an evening "Up at the [Socialist] League" wanting to know what would happen "on the Morrow of the Revolution". Guest remarks "If I could be see a day of it... If I could but see it". The book is Morris's attempt to envisage such a future, but re-reading it the repeated call of "If I could but see it" felt like a cry of pain from someone who knew he would not see the socialism he so worked for.
I mentioned in passing Marge Piercy's utopian novel Woman on the Edge of Time, but Mandy remembered Piercy's Body of Glass where she wrote about something very close to the internet. Utopian novels have a habit of predicting the future.
What of course few would have predicted 39 years ago was that News from Nowhere would still be around, in a building owned by the workers-cooperative, a bit chaotic but buzzing with activity from groups as diverse as the Woodcraft Folk (meeting elsewhere in the building) and those running a vegan cafe on Saturdays.
Happy birthday, News from Nowhere

Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing

Five Leaves is pleased to announce the winner of the first Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing - Debt: the first 5000 years  by David Graeber (Melville House). Appropriately, the award was given on Mayday at the trade union owned Bread and Roses pub in Battersea. The author was working abroad at the time, so Bill Godber, from Melville House's UK distributor, accepted the award on David's behalf. It must have felt like a journey into the past for Bill Godber, something of a veteran in radical publishing. The runner up was Nicholas Shaxson's Treasure Island: tax havens and the men who stole the world (Bodley Head).
The award was presented by the author Nina Power, one of the judges, who described Graeber's book as "brilliantly researched, motivated by a clear political will and utterly indispensable, not only for understanding the terms of the world we live in, where we came from, but also for what we can do about changing them."
David Graeber wins a trophy and a cheque for £1000.

The Bread and Roses Award was funded and initiated by Five Leaves with the Alliance of Radical Bookseller and the support of Red Pepper, Peace News and the Morning Star.
The trustees of the award are Nik Gorecki (Housmans Bookshop), Mandy Vere (News from Nowhere Bookshop) and Ross Bradshaw (Five Leaves).
Five Leaves provided the prize money to establish the award and will continue to support Bread and Roses for two further years. We would welcome others as sponsors for this year's award, for books published in 2012.
I would like to thank Nik at Housmans for carrying through most of the work on the award when I had to drop out in the last few weeks.
Debt will be published in paperback on 12 June at £14.99 and carries the ISBN 9781612191812.
http://www.bread-and-roses.co.uk/

Radical bookshops' history

Some parts of one's past keep creeping back... After seventeen years hard labour in a radical bookshop, together with a couple of years on the board of another shop, and thousands of pounds spent on the written works of utopian dreamers and other such reprobates, it is hard to get away. Dave Cope, of Left on the Shelf - the second hand specialists - and I have put together an incomplete listing of radical bookshops in history, together with a bibliography of books, and even passing mentions in fiction, of radical bookshops. You can find the current listings on http://www.leftontheshelfbooks.co.uk/. We are now trying to make that list as complete as we can, so any information would be welcome.

To accompany the site, I've started work on a more narrative history of radical bookshops, which will appear as a printed booklet sometime next year. With the Five Leaves Ship of State to run this will not be the last word on radical bookselling history, but it might encourage others to write something more substantial. I'd appreciate contact with anyone who has worked in radical bookselling in the past, any sources of records, any customer tales, photographs. Anything. Please send direct to me on info@fiveleaves.co.uk.

The new 2011 edition of North West Labour History Journal includes an article on the history of News from Nowhere in Liverpool, written by Mandy Vere, the matriarch of the shop. Copies are available from News from Nowhere. The bookshop pictured here is Radish, in Leeds, one of the new generation of radical shops. Both News from Nowhere and Radish, by the way, have excellent sections devoted to world music, as well as books.

The return of radical bookselling?

Radical bookselling has been in the doldrums for years, patiently waiting for the return of a Tory Government (as one friend said). But now the existing bookshops appear to be doing quite well, and there is a new People's Bookshop in Durham, a new radical bookshop opening in London in the autumn and a mixed radical/general shop opening in deepest Suffolk sometime soon. To mark this revival there is a modest seminar in Liverpool on Thursday 13 October, at the Bluecoat, as part of the Chapter and Verse Festival. Mandy Vere from News from Nowhere will look at the current state of radical bookselling, and one Ross Bradshaw will be delving into radical bookselling history over the last century or so. More importantly, the seminar will be promoting the (you read it here first) new annual radical book prize, Bread and Roses, with £1000 going to the best radical book published in 2011. More details to follow.