A Little Light Reading.....

A quick round-up of things I've noticed recently that are worth reading:
Peter Ackroyd's review's Sarah Wise's The Blackest Slum - in The Times. A book which "invokes the dereliction and despair of a group of alleys and passages known as the 'Old Nichol', otherwise called 'Sweaters' Hell' or 'The Empire of Hunger'.
Memoirs of a Wobbly an online full-text version of the autobiography of Henry McGuckin. Recently posted on Libcom:
"a superb account by a rank'n'file Wobbly organiser; on the road, on the job, on strike, in jail, on the run, coast to coast...".

Kathryn Hughes on "The Death of Life Writing" in The Guardian.

A short report from Birdlife International on a recent decision by the Kenyan government to approve a proposal "to turn 20,000 hectares of the pristine Tana Delta into irrigated sugarcane plantations." Conservationists and villagers living in the Delta, which provides refuge for 350 species of bird, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles including the Tana writhing skink, believe the decision is illegal and are determined to block the development. The groups are considering what action they might take.

and in print only, a provocative article in this week's Freedom entitled "Crimethinc and the Corrupting Influence of Art" by Jim L. (Freedom is available from Freedom Press Bookshop
84 B Whitechapel High Street (down a dingy alley near the Whitechapel Art Gallery) or from Housman's Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, both in London.) If you can get to Housman's on 5th July the Porcupine Bookcellar is having a closing down sale with cut prices on "thousands of new books." I've no idea what's in the sale, but the poster features a range of people including Lenin, Trotsky, Che Guervara and Sylvia Pankhurst.

...and a little listening:

The Times has Details of the "Celebrating Linda Smith" tour, and a previously unreleased recording of Linda in a stand-up routine in Sheffield in 1986: I think the nurses are stealing my clothes.
Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book is the first episode of this week's classic serial on Radio 4. Sunday 29th June 3.00-4.00pm, repeated Saturday 5th July 9.00-10.00pm
or listen again.