The Milburn review presents itself as a plan to help young people into work, but Dr DYLAN MURPHY argues it is laying the groundwork for a harsher benefits regime
Latest editorial
Crime against left-wing thrillers
SOLOMON HUGHES bemoans the dearth of radical whodunits
Campaigners from across the continent will gather in Brussels on June 14 to oppose Europe’s accelerating militarisation and cuts to public services, write MAGGIE SIMPSON and BOB ORAM of No Cold War Britain
National co-ordinator for General Strike 100, HENRY FOWLER, continues his nationwide tour of partner organisations by visiting the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University
GEOFF BOTTOMS recalls meeting Fidel Castro in the ’90s after joining a Pastors for Peace caravan to Cuba, and reflects on how international support is still vital to help the island withstand economic warfare
The Ivors Academy’s hike in entry fees could turn this respected peer-assessed event into an exclusive preserve for those wealthy enough to compete, warns BEN LUNN
Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR
THIS month I published my first thriller, Oliver’s Army. There are two main motives for publishing a book: “Look at me!” and “Pay me!”
I do hope that you read my book, admire the craft and pay the modest cover price. But I had another motive for publishing it. I think that there is an important space on the bookshelves for political thrillers and wanted to see if I could fit in that space. But in the process of looking for agents and publishers, I found that this feeling is not shared in the publishing industry.
My thriller runs from the battlefields of Iraq to the Houses of Parliament, with mercenaries, spin doctors and lobbyists arguing over the spoils until people start getting killed.
Similar stories
KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book
Timeloop murder, trad family MomBomb, Sicilian crime pages and Craven praise
At the very moment Britain faces poverty, housing and climate crises requiring radical solutions, the liberal press promotes ideologically narrow books while marginalising authors who offer the most accurate understanding of change, writes IAN SINCLAIR
LYNNE WALSH reports from last weekend’s moving remembrance of the International Brigades in London’s Jubilee Gardens where anti-fascists gathered to hear how even in the darkest of times we can build a vision of a better tomorrow, as the Brigaders fought to do 89 years ago