ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
Latest editorial
Normal life in North Korea
Given the prevalence of negative propaganda, KEITH BENNETT welcomes a rare picture book of the DPRK that seeks to present rather than sensationalise
Package tour in the Kumgang mountains, 2013
[Glyn Ford]
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
Picturing the DPRK
Glyn Ford, Spokesman Books, £15.99
VERY few British people, or Westerners generally, including from the left or the labour movement, have had the opportunity to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), to give the country more widely known as North Korea its proper name. Indeed, since 2017, the US government has maintained a blanket ban on visits by its passport holders.
One exception is Glyn Ford, who served as a Labour member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984-2009. Much of his work was focused on east Asia and he has visited the DPRK nearly 50 times since his first visit in 1997.
Since leaving the European Parliament, he has continued with his “Track 2” diplomacy and has long since been the “go-to” person for European social democracy in engaging with the country.
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