One, two, many Phil Cohens

Phil Cohen is the editor of a book that came out in the 90s called Children of the Revolution which comprises essays  by long-since-grown-up people who were children of Communist Party parents during the Cold War. Among those writing in the book were Jackie Kaye, Michael Rosen and Alexi Sayle (all of whom have mined that period for material elsewhere, and all of whom are still on the left). I've read the book more than once over the years and, though I've never met the author, I have met his sister Norma Cohen a few times - and heard her speak about her period in Unity Theatre. Two or three years ago I was in email discussion with Phil about a book marking a particular world anniversary. We discussed the format at some length but unfortunately work commitments at his end made the book impossible in time for the anniversary. We parted amicably, perhaps with a tacit agreement that at some stage it would be nice to work together on another project. I was vaguely aware of Phil's interest in East London, and had read some copies of the former print journal Rising East which he wrote for. In due course Phil approached me with a very different book, a memoir of reading, provisionally titled "Reading Room Only". The timescale wasn't ideal as he was working on a book about the impact of the Olympics on the East End (due out next month) from Lawrence & Wishart, which happened to be the publisher of Children of the Revolution, but we coped with that and his Reading Room Only comes out later this year. It is a memoir of all sorts of things, including his time as "Dr John" the squatters' leader, being the son of a Marxist, becoming an academic and his lonely bookish childhood. Lonely? Only in the third rewrite of the book - in a meditation on the implications of his very Jewish name - did Phil mention that he had a namesake working in a similar field... Ah. Bloody hell. I thought I was publishing the other Phil Cohen. There were so many things they had in common, and so many things not in common - not least one being a sole child and the other having a sister who I'd met - but somehow their areas in common had excluded their differences in my mind. I'll have to reread their email archive, but I can only assume I never said, for example "Give my love to Norma", which the second Phil Cohen might have thought a bit odd (though I do remember once sending out a mail-merged email to all the members of the Labour Party in Nottingham East which included a sentence congratulating the recipient on their new baby - and not one person later mentioned it).
What would have been stranger still if the first Phil Cohen had been able to write the book we discussed but had to abandon. I could easily have had the two Phil Cohens on my list thinking they were one... though I imagine at some stage it would have been obvious they were different (not least in crediting their past writing on the book covers). I do like the idea that we'd only have found out at the book launches when I met them both for the first time.

At which point he clenched his jaw

What is it with jaws? I don't mean jaw-jaw is better than war-war. I mean with people trying to write fiction, and, sometimes, being published. There are always problems for new writers in trying to use dialogue - two people having a conversation, like playing tennis. After you say he said/she said a couple of times you feel nervous so in come the he stammered, he averred, he blurted, he agreed, he smiled, he hissed, she snapped, she shrugged, she nodded... and if you go back to Victorian times, he ejaculated. The latter is not recommended for modern usage in dialogue unless, of course, someone did. Most of the others should be avoided too. He said is usually enough, and if two people are in dialogue it is easy enough to work out which one is which, with the occasional "Tracey said" if you feel the reader is getting lost. And, besides, the words used should carry the sense. If I were to write "I hope you die" the sense should be clear, and you do not need to say ..."I hope you die," he shouted angrily. For an object lesson in how to write bad dialogue, try any Harry Potter book at random. OK, they sold a copy or two but I'm talking art here not dollars.
But back to jaws. Now, go to the mirror. Clench your jaw. Then try firming your jaw line. Then you will probably think, "I am unable to do this. I have no idea how to achieve a firm jaw line." (I'm assuming you don't normally stand with your jaw dropped open.) So why, why, do writers wishing to write fiction have an obsession with this otherwise unheralded part of one's anatomy. I have read it so many times, and, I confess, read it in two of my late and much loved cousin's published novels. I wish I'd seen the manuscripts before publication. I'm currently reading it, in a book not being published by Five Leaves. It is jaw-dropping.

Left on the shelf

I am not and have never been a member of the Socialist Workers Party. The Party is currently in difficulties following a botched attempt to resolve an accusation of rape against a leading member of the Party. Grim stuff, and for those who like grim the best place to start is http://www.leninology.com/, with the posting on Friday 11 July. The blog is run by SWP member (well, for the next few minutes anyway) and author, Richard Seymour. Though there are many good people in that party it is hard to be too sympathetic to them organisationally (there is a "but" coming along if you want to wait). Here's one small example of why not... In 1994 the Nottingham bookshop I then worked in was turned over by about 50 Nazis. Their action made the news internationally. The SWP - through their front organisation the Anti-Nazi League - immediately set up street stalls "in support" of the bookshop. They collected signatures on a petition of support and donations. Nobody at the bookshop ever saw the petitions and, well, it would be interesting to know what happened to the donations. The SWP/ANL called a press conference without talking to anyone at the bookshop, though they did invite the staff to send a representative - their kind offer was declined - at which they announced a street demonstration the next Saturday and, again, the staff could send a representative to speak if we wished. Again the offer was declined and the demonstration was poorly supported. There was no discussion with the staff about the SWP plans, nor was any other organisation consulted. In the immediate aftermath of the attack we were pretty busy putting the shop back together again, but we were also busy talking to many groups about organising what turned out to be the biggest anti-fascist demonstration against fascism in Nottingham since the 1930s, involving dozens of groups, a week or two after the SWP's damp squib. This small, largely forgotten piece of SWP sectariana or self-importance is one of the reasons I find it hard to get too upset about their party problems. Anyone else who has been around the left could come up with similar tales.

But they do run a bloody good bookshop, and have done for decades. Bookshop staff, ranging from Fergus Nicol, who also ran the Radical Bookseller from 1980-1992, through to the recently departed Sarah Ensor were all great to work with. Five Leaves has had a number of events in their shop, Bookmarks, over the years and we and our audience have always been welcome. Every time I have been there I have found a very attractive range of books. And the Party has produced some excellent authors. I don't read SF but most people really reckon on China Mieville (though his remarks about the current crisis, quoted in the New Statesman might indicate he is not long for the SWP world). Going further back, there was Paul Foot. Foot's book Why You Should Be a Socialist drew many people to the left and his Red Shelley remains an important read. My own favourite SWP writer was the late David Widgery, whose 1989 set of essays, Preserving Disorder, is an essential book for anyone interested in left and alternative culture during the previous two decades but it is also a moving description of Widgery's day job as GP in one of the poorest parts of London. That book was published by Pluto, a major left publisher which originated in the SWP milieu while Red Shelley is published by the Party publisher Bookmarks, which has produced some excellent material over the years. It would be a terrible shame if these good babies were thrown out with the rather grubby bathwater currently engulfing the Party as a whole.

Alexander Baron goes electric

http://tinyurl.com/kingdido-ebook andhttp://tinyurl.com/rosiehogarth-ebookFive Leaves two Alexander Baron books are now available as ebooks, details below:

http://tinyurl.com/kingdido-ebook and http://tinyurl.com/rosiehogarth-ebook

Latest ebook from Five Leaves, The Open Door by Alan Sillitoe

The Open Door follows Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as the final volume in the Seaton series. 

Returning on a troopship from Malaya in 1949, Brian Seaton (Arthur's brother) comes back to a Nottingham world of rationing, the black market, a wife he no longer loves and a child who does not recognise him. He is full of life and lust, but he has tuberculosis, forcing a long stay in a military hospital where he falls for first one nurse, then a second, while carrying on a relationship with another TB sufferer back in Nottingham. In the background, this partially autobiographical novel reveals that Seaton is starting to write, meeting others like him as he realises there is a wider world than the back streets of his Midlands home.
The book is available as a £12.99, published by Five Leaves/Bromley House Editions or in our Kindle edition at £5.99 on http://tinyurl.com/sillitoe-opendoor. Available on other platforms soon if not already.
Dunno what Alan would have thought of ebooks, though I can imagine.

The price of fish

Douglas Houston

I was sorry to hear of the death, earlier this week, of the poet Douglas Houston. Douglas was Welsh but also spent time in Scotland and Hull. It was Hull where he researched poetry and became one of the contributors to the influential book 1982 Bloodaxe book A Rumoured City which included so many important Hull poets or poets from Hull who would later become important. Douglas's last collection was Beyond the Playing Field: Selected Poems (Shoestring). He appeared in the Five Leaves successor book of Hull poets, Old City, New Rumours (2010) and is of course included in our forthcoming 2013 book of Yorkshire poets edited by Ian Parks. His 'Sunday on the Cuillin' in Old City ends 'Better for knowing you, poised on the sense / That we'll never meet again, / Though tracks and chances might allow we will, / Some other day, some other hill.' Our condolences to his family.