Life Writing

All the old history was written for the amusement of the ruling classes. The lower classes couldn't read, and their rulers didn't care about remembering what happened to them - Frank Zappa

Saturday, 11 September 2021 08:40

The barriers to working-class writers: Review of The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Life Writing

Jenny Farrell reviews The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices, edited by Paul McVeigh Working-class writing is coming to the fore in Ireland. “The 32” follows the publications of two anthologies of working people’s writing, “The Children of the Nation” and “From the Plough to the Stars” (Culture Matters,…

Tuesday, 07 September 2021 17:55

From Lucifer to Lazarus: A Life on the Left

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Life Writing

Jenny Farrell reviews Mick O’Reilly's From Lucifer to Lazarus: A Life on the Left (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2019) At the end of From Lucifer to Lazarus, Mick O’Reilly raises a question many working-class authors ask themselves when writing about their lives: “whether it is worthwhile telling the story of my…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 16 August 2021 15:55

Kate Clanchy's Class Conflict

in Life Writing

Written by Michael Jarvie

Michael Jarvie criticises Clanchy's recent memoir, and the publishing and reviewing industry responsible for its publication and promotion Kate Clanchy’s memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, was published in 2019 by Picador. Following its appearance, apart from a few dissenting voices, the reaction to the book…

Orwell prize Picador

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 17 June 2021 09:11

Belfast in 1969 and its aftermath: a memoir

in Life Writing

Written by Francis Murphy

Francis Murphy presents a memoir of Northern Ireland in the late sixties Introduction Once again Northern Ireland is back in the headlines. Small scale rioting in Loyalist areas and the resignation of Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), reflect a growing awareness in the Unionist/ Loyalist…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 03 May 2021 13:33

Writings and Particulars: New Website from Alan O'Brien

in Life Writing

Written by Jenny Farrell

We are delighted to announce the opening of the official website for J.A. O'Brien, writer, journeyman bricklayer, journalist and socialist republican, very much of the James Connolly strand. The website has links to his personal blog and is also where his memoir, "Against the Wind: memoir of a dissident Dubliner,"…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 29 November 2020 14:08

A barricade of resistance: Review of From the Plough to the Stars

in Life Writing

Written by Paul Simon

Paul Simon reviews From the Plough to the Stars, edited by Jenny Farrell This anthology is another impressive book from the Culture Matters imprint and is funded by a range of Irish trade unions and trades councils. Inspired by James Connolly's freedom call, these 49 compact works are the product…

Monday, 16 November 2020 09:41

Other / White Other

Written by Fran Lock

in Life Writing

Other/ White Other by Fran Lock There is silence in the workshop when the young woman asks me am I sure I'm white. Silence, not embarrassed, but expectant. I do not know what to say. I do not know what to say because I don't know why she asked. On…

Wednesday, 11 November 2020 10:52

Building a new machine: A review of From the Plough to the Stars

Written by Michael Jarvie

in Life Writing

Michael Jarvie reviews From the Plough to the Stars Something remarkable happened a few years ago on social media and in those bastions of the bourgeoisie – The Guardian and BBC Radio 4. The middle-class gatekeepers suddenly realised there was a glaring deficiency in the UK publishing industry. We can…

Covid19

Friday, 06 November 2020 15:47

Climate Matters

Written by Sally Flint

in Life Writing

Sally Flint, Virginia Baily and Mike Quille have edited a new anthology of various kinds of writing on the subject of the climate crisis and capitalism. It is free and downloadable below In 2019 we challenged writers and artists to address the burning topic of the climate crisis and question…

Wednesday, 23 September 2020 07:28

Rebelling against materialism and dullness: I Don’t Want To Go To The Taj Mahal, by Charlie Hill

Written by Robert J. Gallagher

in Life Writing

Robert J. Gallagher, himself a Birmingham boy, reviews I Don’t Want To Go To The Taj Mahal: Stories of a Birmingham Boy, by Charlie Hill, available here Oh Birmingham, Birmingham, Birmingham. No river really worth the name, no cathedral to make the jaw drop as much as a millimetre, no…

Life Writing

'Between Misery and the Sun': I Don't Want to Go to the Taj Mahal, by Charlie Hill

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